Budget 2019 expectations: Affordable housing segment likely to grow, realty wants GST cut on residential units

The real estate sector is hopeful that the return of Modi government for the next five years will help the housing segment grow and the upcoming Union Budget could be the first major step towards that. Prasoon Chauhan, CEO, ATS HomeKraft believes that a refreshed approach can be seen to drive the affordable and mid-income housing segment. "Modi’s Housing for All policy by 2022 is largely dependent on providing affordable housing pan-India by incentivising developers and homebuyers with several schemes and benefits. Now with an approval from the public on his various policies which led to NDA getting a second term, we will witness a refreshed approach to provide the right ecosystem for the affordable and mid-income housing segment to grow," he said. 

Joshi added that sector hopes the new government will bring in more liquidity in the realty sector and provide conducive environment for other developers to finish stuck and stressed housing projects. He added that in the recent times, many top developers have taken over the stuck projects from developers who were able to deliver it even after several years of delay. 

He said that even though RERA was a great step by the government, there is still scope for improvement on the same. "The biggest impact on the real estate, which happened in Modi 1.0, was RERA. But even the all mighty RERA has not been implemented in spirit and word in several states in India. We expect central govt. to have further dialogues with the state government who are reluctant to follow RERA in its current avatar.  This would further improve buyers confidence in those cities," Joshi added. 

Meanwhile, KE Ranganathan, MD, RBPPL believes that the government should cut GST rates to increase the demand for residential unit. 
 
"There are expectations on lowering of GST for residential units to drive demand. Government statistics show a clear shortfall of around 50 million houses for the growing population. Being the 2nd largest employer the construction sector needs a big push in the form of incentives and tax breaks for companies to invest more," he said.

"RERA has brought in good governance and discipline. This needs to be sustained. Overall, the BJP Government is in the Driver's seat with the backing of large vote bank to take confident measures to sustain and grow our economy bigger and better," Ranganathan added.