Most of the homebuyers as well as the other stakeholders of India’s housing market share the sentiments of this homebuyers. The Reserve Bank of India has indeed surprised many while keeping the repo rate unchanged at 6.25 per cent at the beginning of the new fiscal year. Even a symbolic rate cut would have helped the market change its outlook towards the economy.
Call it influence peddling of the real estate stakeholders, or a thought-process that is culturally ingrained in the minds of the Indians, but the collective consciousness is made to believe that real estate investments are insulated against losses. Track2Realty questions the rationale. Real estate as an asset class has been oversold with the promise that you can never suffer losses with a physical asset, unlike stocks and mutual funds where an investor can suffer huge losses. To top it all, there is a general belief that real estate offers the best Return on Investment (ROI).
Whether one should have real estate in the portfolio of investments or not is an age-old debate. World over, it is as much a topic of discussion within the built environment of real estate as with personal finance. Arguments on both sides of the divide have their own merit, but the fact remains that there is no one size fits all answer. The personal finance pros believe that stock market & mutual funds reward are far greater in the range of 14-18% per annum. The real estate proponents, on the other hand, assert that real estate rewards are no less over a longer period of time, and it also saves the investors from the cyclic high market volatility. A Track2Realty report.
The Union Budget 2025, ahead of a few significant Assembly Elections, quite obviously aimed at headline management & garnering likes. And to a large extent the Finance Minister & Modi Government succeeded in this, since the most vocal middle class of India finally got something to cheer about. However, the larger issue is whether the Personal Income Tax exemption level up to an income of INR 12 lakh going to change the household realities of the shrinking middle class of India. More importantly, will it lead to consumption and asset creation, and that too of a high value asset like real estate.
Can Union Budget 2025 fix the larger problems afflicting the business of Indian real estate? This question is more relevant than asking to what extent the Union Finance Minister will fulfill the wishes of the sector. This is because the real estate has largely been ignored, heavily taxed, and least considered in the budget of last few years. Irony is that for some strange reasons the stakeholders who have a large wish list on the eve of Union Budget every year, justify the sector being ignored in the post budget analysis.
On a scale of 0-100, the Housing Sentiment Index has been noted to be just 18; with 82% Indians categorically believing that housing is just not affordable to them. A vast majority of them, as many as 80%, believe it would take no less than 10 years of their gross income to afford a house in any of the leading Indian cities. The global benchmark is 5 years of gross income with not more than 40% of take-home salary. But 78% Indians believe it would take no less than 60% take home salary to buy a house in India.
How was the festive season for property market this year? The answer depends upon whom are you addressing the question. For the large universe of the developers, it was worse festive season in the last 5-7 years. But for a few select listed developers, the fortunes are different. The ground reality of the market is that Diwali fireworks was definitely missing for Indian real in 2024, despite over optimism and influence peddling ahead of the festive season. Track2Realty analysis.
To say that the Union Budget 2024-25 has left the vast majority of home buyers in India pretty dissatisfied would be stating the obvious. Even though the built environment of the Indian real estate might find its own silver lining with the given budget, the vast majority of Indians feel this budget is going to hit their finances hard. What comes as a shocker to the perception at large is the fact that their primary dissatisfaction is not limited to the removal of indexation benefits, as perceived by the analysts.
If the removal of indexation benefits with Long Term Capital…
Immediately after the Union Budget 023-24, when Track2Realty had taken a principled position that it is going to hurt the Indian home buyers, many critics & self-proclaimed financial experts had questioned us. They were celebrating LTCG without Indexation and now very same set of people are again glorifying the dual option- with or without Indexation for deals before the Union Budget. How could one argue for both and against the motion? It is like batting for both teams in a game of cricket. Isn’t it?