Kolhapur district is no longer considered as just rural and agrarian. Today, the demand for good quality residences has increased with improvements in jobs and other economic activities. This has also led to the increasing demand for commercial real estate. Some of the companies are increasingly evaluating the city for business establishments, as the cost of doing business per square feet in Kolhapur is much cheaper than Mumbai or Pune.
What would hurt both the buyers as well as the builders is the fact that the property buying and selling would continue to be at standstill. The job market is not picking in any given industry and it would hurt the overall business.
The new regulatory regime is largely about steps, which include streamlining approval processes, simplifying taxation (GST), building institutional capacity, as also introducing urban planning and real estate-related reforms (RERA and REITs).
A year back at the end of 2016, the doom mongers were out in force. In our office sector there were those who were predicting a slump in demand, uncertainty around the new Government in the US, the scare stories around automation and AI, the performance of the top 5 Indian ITeS companies, exaggerations around layoffs and even the dramas of corporate Boards of great Indian technology companies.
The more liberalized FDI regime now further attracting global capital flow to Indian real estate sector. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) system will also have a major impact especially in sell to build model in Real Estate. And the Benami Property Act will surely curb the parking of black money in real estate.
The year 2017 turned out to be a landmark year for the economy at large and the real estate sector in particular. Several historic reforms and policies were rolled out. Beginning with the Union Budget, the affordable housing received a huge impetus in the form of infrastructure status.
The government seems to be determined to link the property transactions with Aadhar Number with the pretext that the linking of Aadhaar to property will ensure that all parties to the deal are present in their individual capacity. The possibility of using fake identities is virtually ruled out.
One of the most significant trends the Indian real estate sector saw in 2017, was the infrastructure status given to affordable housing. The government’s vision of achieving Housing for All by 2022 appears a lot more achievable, with steps taken like effectively revising the qualifying criteria.
The first quarter of the year 2017 started with demonetization, a bold move undertaken by the government which was directed towards enhancing the liability of all the transactions and to make everyone and everything in the realty market accountable.
It is true that the GST burden is today a huge deterrent in the housing market and a large share of homebuyers are now waiting for the project to be ready as the ready to move apartment won’t attract GST burden. The problem, however, is with millions of buyers who are in the mid cycle of construction and the GST has suddenly added to their already over stretched budget in the housing market.