Tag: Interim Budget 2019

Only 9% of Current Unsold Housing Stock to Benefit from Tax Relaxation

by Santhosh Kumar

Santhosh Kumar, Vice Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants

  • Just 63,000 ready units currently benefit out of total 6.73 lakh units across top 7 cities
  • Nearly 22,000 ready unsold units completed before 2017 don’t benefit from new rule
  • 33% of 5.88 lakh unsold under-construction units in the luxury segment – 49% in MMR – will not benefit immediately 

Just when the real estate industry was preparing to give the budget a complete thumbs down, the finance minister sprung a surprise ‘bonanza’ for the sector in the last 10 minutes of his speech. Or so it seemed.

Without a doubt, affordable housing gained amidst what was essentially a mass-appeal budget. However, it was the extension of tax relaxation on notional rent for unsold inventory for another year that cheered developers.

However, under closer scrutiny, it is unlikely to benefit a majority of them as on date.

Anti-climax for developers

Basically,

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Interim Budget 2019: Affordable Housing Gains Amidst High Electoral Pitch

by Anuj Puri

Anuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants

The interim budget was more or less a vote bank-facing exercise – an electoral pitch that drew attention to past achievements.

Vote-bank directed announcements included benefits to 12-crore small farmers via credit of INR 6k/year directly into their bank accounts, and also to 10 crore labourers by way of direct pension bonanza.

Direct and indirect positives for the real estate sector

Boost to Affordable Homes:

People earning up to 5 lakhs will get a full tax rebate. However, if one invests in specified Government saving schemes then the tax exemption extends to Rs. 6.5 lakhs. This can have good implications for affordable housing, but not really on the mid-income housing.

The Government also extended the benefit of tax exemption for developers by 1 more year, up to 2020 now. This, too, will give a push to the affordable housing segment.

Electricity for all by 2019 could have positive implications by making more far-flung areas liveable and therefore more viable for affordable housing.

The standard deduction for the salaried class was raised from Rs.

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