Budget doesn’t enthuse sector
Stakeholders the real estate sector were lukewarm in their response to the Union Budget. Mr C. Shekar Reddy, chairman, Indian Green Building Council, Hyderabad chapter, said the Budget was an “uneventful” one for the sector.
“It is a budget that maintains the status quo. That’s all,” said Mr Shekar Reddy, who is a former president of Credai, the Real Estate Developers' Associations of India.
Mr P. Rama Krishna Rao, president, Credai, Hyderabad, said the
Budget offered no major sops for developers and home buyers. However, the allocation of `3,000 crore for skill development would benefit skilling requirements of the sector.
The Budget provides some liquidity to NBFCs, which will ease funding to developers. He said. The Budget proposes listing of LIC, which will provide more liquidity in the system. The Budget offers a boost to affordable housing by extending the sunset clause for all tax sops for one more year till March 2021, Mr Rao noted.
Developers can look at alternate asset class of data centres and logistics parks for which government is coming out for a policy, Mr Rao said.
Mr Shekar Reddy said the real estate sector was expecting measures that would relieve the ailing sector. However, the Budget hasn’t addressed most of the problems.
“There is also a lack of clarity on many issues. For instance, previous tax exemptions on builders working on affordable housing and PM Awaas Yojana have only been extended for a year. We don’t know if new projects will be exempt,” he said.Mr Shekar Reddy said the government had not removed or reduced taxation on housing units held by builders due to their inability to sell them. “The economy needs a push from the demand side. This Budget provides no stimulus that could achieve this,” he said.
Mr Anuj Puri, chairman of the real estate research firm Anarock said the Budget missed out on many “quick fixes”. “The Budget missed major announcements for easing liquidity in the real estate sector, a major worry for most developers. Project delays, the biggest fallout of the cash cruch, have severely dampened buyer sentiments. It needs to be addressed,” he said.