Real estate developers have called for focussed support in the Budget for the first-time home buyer and measures to augment supply of housing for affordable and low income groups. Industry representatives have also called for a simplification of systems and tax reliefs as a step to bringing down costs and catalyse developments.
I would say I am relatively dissatisfied with the focus of budget on realty sector in the last ten years. Our expectations have never been fulfilled and I now demand investments in infrastructure sector should be set as a priority, as good infrastructure is very necessary for the economic growth of the country.
The 2009 Mr. Salim committee report (parliamentary standing committee on housing) lays great emphasis on accelerating housing supply through increasing housing stock and promoting rental housing. It also refers to 24 million home shortage which will soon be 27 Million and ever increasing.
India is today facing a unique challenge of dealing with high inflation, while continuing on its high growth trajectory. Boosting of supply in all industries, including through incentivizing of infrastructure development, streamlining of regulatory process to reduce time and costs for business and tax incentives for low cost housing are all important areas which will help reduce inflation and also enable growth rates to be maintained.
Value and Affordable housing remains a segment where government should definitely continue to provide developers with tax free status which was available earlier. Rather than restricting it to unit sizes as in the past of 1,000 / 1,500 sft per housing unit, the government could instead have a maximum per unit value of say Rs. 15 lakhs for units near Tier I Cities, Rs. 10 lakhs for Tier II Cities.
Through a hailstorm of bouquets, brickbats, controversies and triumphs, the Indian real estate sector has always been one of the mainstays of the country’s economy. At some level, every Indian is connected with it; in some way or the other, it affects every citizen of this country.
There is a lot of housing supply coming in, but the affordable variety is not happening where it is needed the most – in the central regions of cities like Mumbai, where properties are extremely overpriced now. Nevertheless, this is causing newer locations to be developed in the further suburbs, so the residential market is expanding.
How many affordable homebuyers who leave to work early morning and come back late night actually need amenities like free Wi-Fi, amphitheatre, club, tennis court, swimming pool etc? Are many buyers in the average salaried class in a position to avail these facilities even though the developer has created e everything within the project? How long such fancy amenities are maintained once the project is over and the monthly maintenance charges are a huge issue?
An airport has been catalyst to the development and urbanisation of any given city. More often than not, it proves to be the catalyst to the growth of the real estate market of the given city. After all, the housing market is heavily dependent on the commercial activity in the city and for the big ticket commercial activities to take place what the multinational companies and the big corporate houses need the most is an international airport.
Track2Realty: The year 2014 has been quite fruitful for the real estate sector in terms of business sentiment, although the real effect of many of the policies and amendments announced in 2014 will take effect only in 2015. Starting from Union Budget FY2014-15, where affordable housing was considered on par with infrastructure, to relaxation of rigidities in the Land Acquisition and Real Estate Regulatory Bill, India’s new Prime Minister has been offering the India real estate sector consistent doses of energy.