Amid cheers, home buyers facing delayed projects left in the lurch

NOIDA/GREATER NOIDA: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget 2017-18 proposed several positive measures for the real estate sector that were much needed. The minister announced ‘Affordable Housing scheme’ in order to make ‘Housing for all’ which is likely to result in increased participation from private players.

“We must appreciate the fact that the government is very serious on the mission of housing for all and in the same light we have seen some extremely positive announcements in the Budget. The real estate industry thanks the government for understanding the need to enable efficient supply of housing stock in the country. ‘Affordable Housing’ has been declared ‘Infrastructure’ with all its associated benefits,” said Getamber Anand, president of CREDAI and CMD, ATS Infrastructure Private Limited.

The reduction in capital gains tax period has been reduced to two from three years. “Real estate sector as an asset class would gain as a store of value. This is extremely good news for the investors as they can book profits by paying a bare minimum income tax at the end of two years only on profits earned from sale of property. All in all, a very good Budget for the real estate sector. Many more jobs will be created which will accelerate the manufacturing industry and contribute to the Make in India effort of the government in turn,” added Anand.

However, the interests of those home buyers who are facing delays over possession of their flats remained unattended. “We expected some announcements in the favour of those home buyers who have not been given possession of their houses by the developers for more than five years. As the buyers are paying huge amounts of tax to the government, we were demanding rebate in the interest rates or EMIS if there is delayed possession. Also, we demanded a type of insurance policy for those who are being cheated by the builders. There is no mention of that,” said Indrish Gupta, Cofounder, Noida Extension Flat Owners’ Welfare Association.