Brexit effect: Indian ultra-rich rush for London property

Pursuing aggressive expansion plans, IndiGo is actively considering operating wide-body planes with business class seats for long haul routes like London and Tokyo. CEO Ronojoy Dutta said the airline might also look at Boeing planes for long haul flights, those that are more than nine hours duration. "We are studying about wide body...It is not imminent but it is on the drawing table,” he said.

Indian ultra-high networth individuals are making most of the discount available in the London property market due to Brexit uncertainties and weakening pound. London continued to be the most preferred overseas market for Indian UHNWIs and witnessed 11 per cent rise in the number of homebuyers.

London property was available at an effective discount of about 20 per cent, taking into account the currency and price movements in prime central London between the EU referendum and October 2019.

Knight Frank’s London Super-Prime Sales Market Insight-Winter 2019 has shown 11 per cent year-onyear increase in the number of Indian homebuyers in prime London markets in the 12 months to June 2019.

“When compared to investments in Indian markets, the yields for both capital and rental are higher. As the domestic economy hits a slow block, we can expect Indians to continue the momentum of investments in mature markets such as London that offer higher returns and relatively shorter hold period,” said Shishir Baijal, Chairman & Managing Director of

Knight Frank India. According to Anuj Puri, chairman of Anarock Property Consultants, Brexit is seen as an opportunity for hawk-eyed Indian property buyers who have been waiting to take the plunge into the exorbitantly highpriced UK real estate market.

The main areas of interest for Indian homebuyers are Mayfair, Belgravia, Hyde Park, Marylebone and St John’s Wood.

London property market has remained one of the most preferred destinations for wealthy Indians. Knight Frank found that 21 per cent of Indian UHNWIs showed affinity towards purchasing homes outside of their domicile country and out of these UHNWIs, 79 per cent are looking to make property investment in the United Kingdom. This was much higher than the global average and Asian average of 32 per cent.

At 52 per cent, the United States is the next preferred property market and 14 per cent of Indian UHNWIs want to invest in Australia and Singapore. Canada is another preferred market.

The profile of wealthy Indian buyers is becoming younger. Around 73 per cent of super-prime buyers were below 50 in the year up to September 2019, up from less than 50 per cent at the start of 2015.

New Delhi, Nov 14: In a relief to taxpayers, the government on Thursday extended the due dates for filing GST annual returns for 201718 to December 31 and for the financial year 201819, to March 31 next year. The dates for filing the reconciliation statement has also been extended accordingly.

In another relief, it has also decided to simplify the two GST forms by making various fields of these forms as optional, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) said in a statement.

“The government has decided today (Thursday) to extend the due dates of filing of Form GSTR-9 (Annual Return) and Form GSTR9C (Reconciliation Statement) for 2017-18 to December 31, 2019 and for 2018-19 to March

2020,” it said.

The earlier deadline for filing of GSTR-9 and

GSTR-9C for 2017-18 was November 30, 2019, while that for 2018-19 was December 31, 2019.

Notifications regarding the extension of the dates have been issued.

The CBIC in the revenue department has also notified the amendments regarding the simplification of the annual return and reconciliation statement forms.

A reconciliation statement allow taxpayers to not provide split of input tax credit availed on inputs, input services and capital goods for

2017-18 and 2018-19. CBIC further said it is expected that with the simplifications in the two forms and the extension of deadlines, “all the GST taxpayers would be able to file their annual returns along with reconciliation statement in time”. Various representations regarding challenges faced by taxpayers in filing of GSTR-9 and

GSTR-9C were received on which by the Government has “acted in a very responsive manner”, the CBIC statement added.