The Union Budget 2017-18 has brought in a series of policy directives that are a positive move to the affordable housing sector, especially, the Government’s move to impart infrastructure status to this sector. Finance minister Arun Jaitley also abolished the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) which will provide the necessary impetus for FDI inflows across industries. In a major relief to housing developers, the Finance Minister has changed the time period for calculation of notional rental on unsold stock held by developers for tax purposes, which will now kick in only 1 year after completion.
All these moves have been hailed by the real estate industry, here is how the industry player reacted to the announcement made in Union Budget 2017-18:
Anil Bansal, Director – Urban Development and Infrastructure Engineering, IPE Global
Additional refinance of Rs 20,000 crore from National Housing Bank will boost the current housing supply and stock, in addition to its promotion into Infrastructure sector, this in turn will lower housing interest rates resulting from increased liquidity in the banking sector, developers getting preferential and lower borrowing rates from banks, long term financing reducing the cost of construction for developers allowing them to pass the benefits to end consumers. This in turn would allow better access to institutional financing, higher limit on external borrowings, attracting investments assuring sustained growth in affordable housing arena, making it the core driving factor for our Country’s growth. As an icing to the cake, is the new credit-linked subsidy scheme for middle income group with allocation of Rs 1,000 crore in the Union Budget for 2017-18, would make a large section happy and have a “Apna Ghar”.
