Budget 2019 For Indian Real Estate Sector: Infrastructure Gets Major Boost
The budget provisions announced on February 1 by Finance Minister Piyush Goyal is expected to give a major boost to the real estate, particularly the housing sector. For example, now 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,” said Anuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants. 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, Puri said.
The standard deduction for the salaried class has been raised from Rs. 40,000 to Rs. 50,000, which definitely implies some increase in disposable income. This is also expected to boost the housing sector experts feel. There was a decisive push to the second home market via exemption of notional rent on second self-occupied homes in the interim-budget. This could boost the second home market to some extent, says Puri of ANAROCK.
Unsold Inventory Benefits
The period for taxing unsold inventory has been extended up to two years. This is a welcome move and will benefit the housing sector, as currently there are more than 6.73 lakh unsold units across the top 7 cities, experts said.
There will now be no tax on house rents up to Rs. 2.4 lakh from the previous limit of Rs. 1.8 lakh. This can attract more investors to buy second homes for earning rental income, experts said. The rollover of capital gains tax on the sale of houses has been increased from 1 to 2 houses. This is a good move to incentivize genuine homebuyers and investors to buy new properties.
Infra push
Infrastructure was given a major push by increasing spending in airports, railways etc. This indirectly benefits the real estate sector, but much depends on actual implementation. There has been a huge gap between allocations and actual disbursements towards projects so far. On a direct positive, it will increase the demand for logistics and warehousing.
There was a significant boost to rural development by the sanctioning of Rs. 19000 crore for this fiscal. As per the Government, construction of rural roads tripled in 5 years, and if the momentum is maintained, then the increased connectivity will definitely help the real estate sector.
Downside
There was no major tax relief to the ‘real’ middle-class. No announcements were made with regards to clearing the NBFC deadlock which continues to hold the real estate sector to ransom. Industry status for the real estate sector, while not really expected, has been ignored once again. There were promises of reduction on GST burden on homebuyers, but no announcement of actual relief.
To bail itself out from the issue of job creation deficit in the country, this budget could have given a far more decisive impetus to real estate sector - one of the largest creators of jobs. Alternately, it could have created a stress-asset fund to bail out distressed homebuyers.
