A White Paper on black money tabled in Parliament on Monday, May 21, has named real estate among others as most vulnerable to menace of black money. Given that land is part of the top black money generators, the white paper suggested that states could consider taxing farm income to curb black money.
There is a clear disconnect between what home buyers want and what they get. And it is here that the home buyers are ready to pay more to get what they see to believe. While the frequency of launching new residential projects have declined in the last year or so, there is also sizeable inventory building up that is available for buyers who are willing to make that investment.
While buying a house majority of the Indians have now matured to pay for ready-to-move property than a castle in the air. No wonder, despite the high appreciation potential, the new launched projects have few takers and there is hardly any market for a pre-launch offer. Thanks to the poor delivery of the real estate developers, unmet commitments and execution risk involved, at least the end users are not interested in new launches anymore.
The government has said “no specific instance” of flow of terror funds into the real estate sector has come to its notice. “As per the current assessment of revenue intelligence agencies…no specific instance of flow of terror funds into the real estate sector has been found,” Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha. However, he said, “investigations by the Income Tax Department reveal unaccounted or undisclosed income or assets in various sectors of the economy, including real estate.”
Many developers believe that slum redevelopment adds asset value appreciation to the existing properties in the vicinity. This is a primary concern when it comes to town planning and infrastructure development. They say when a slum is redeveloped; the infrastructural development of the area in and around it is bound to happen.
If you look the FDI side of the story over the years, initially there was an influx of a lot of foreign funds and in 2007, it was driven by the US. But the 3-4 years that investors have been here, we have seen a lot of selling. So a lot of investors withdrew or reduced their portfolio and even though being a fund, we found ourselves putting our hands into the acquisitions, marketing etc. It was not our comfort zone and we have been playing the role of a developer instead.
Chennai real estate has suffered a major jolt as three of its leading builders, DLF, Hirco and Hiranandani, have been removed from the builders’ body, the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI ). Yet another major builder, Vijay Shanthi, has opted out of CREDAI membership on its own. Trouble is brewing in CREDAI’s Karnataka unit too, where four builders have been expelled.
First influencers, then catalysts and now storming into what can be conveniently called last male bastion—Real Estate. Indian Mothers have indeed come a long way to prove that a challenging job of realty business can be managed along with the family responsibilities and upbringing of the children. Track2Realty salutes a few of such Case Studies on the eve of Mother’s Day.
When the Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee proposed home buyers to withhold 1% of the sale consideration as Tax Deducted at Source (TDS), it became a free-for-all kind of football match with developers and property consultants alleging that it could encourage black money component in real estate, while tax consultants believed otherwise and pointed out that the reach of the banking sector in rural area makes it easier to detect unsavoury deals.
By: Sameer Gholve, Manager – Capital Markets, Jones Lang LaSalle…