Backed by strong economic growth and impressive fiscal consolidation, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) believes that the finance minister has done a commendable job by continuing the focus on infrastructure development, which has been a key contributor to the inclusive growth in the country.
At least four firms, Ansal Properties and Infrastructure Ltd (Ansal API), Emaar MGF Land Ltd, Kumar Urban Development Ltd and Paranjape Schemes Constructions Ltd, have received fresh sanctions from banks, although overall lending to the sector remains subdued.
The Finance Minister seems to be getting more appreciation than brickbats for renewing focus on the housing needs of Aam Aadmi. Even the real estate sector is divided and while the long awaited demands have not been fulfilled, a section of the realtors with affordable housing projects have appreciated the efforts.
Real Estate developers across the country have termed the Union Budget 2011-12 as a tie cricket match which can’t be termed as won or lost. However, they are all unanimous that it is not a game changer budget for the sector.
Maharashtra Chambers of Housing Industry (MCHI), most prominent body of the real estate developers today described the Union Budget presented by the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee as “Budget with few positive steps focused on the common man who is interested in buying a house in rural and urban areas”.
The Budget is relying heavily on maintaining the trajectory of growth in the economy to provide solutions for inclusive growth that touch the ‘Aam Aadmi’ and parallelly stressing on governance aspects, which hopefully will be covered separately through concrete action plans to deal with the menace of unaccounted wealth. The trend for consolidation is expected to continue.
With the reasonable expectation of a roof over the head not very long ago, the real estate boom in the last decade has scaled up the liberty of choice for the average home buyers. While the aspirations of even the middle and lower middle income with moderate budgets have gone up, there are very many residential projects launched in recent times that seem to fill the gap with the promise of faster deliveries, hi-tech amenities, luxurious lifestyle, lush green surroundings within the affordable range of 20-40 lakhs.
Urbanization rate is on the increase – and while there had been a few setbacks over the past few years, the Indian luxury retail market is firmly back now. The economy once again supports the rationale for spending on luxury goods, and it will continue to do so.
The time of the year has come when everyone is dreaming about the Finance Minister’s briefcase. Though real estate is ready with its list of expectations, experts believe that this year it would be good to expect much from the government owing to the kind of fiscal deficit government is going through. Expectations are high because of the increase in home loan interest rates, which have hampered the affordability of the buyer.
National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO), the apex body of real estate industry in the country, expects Finance Minister to grant infrastructure status to housing under section 801A of IT Act, 1961, thereby, treating housing at par to other infrastructure projects.