T Chitty Babu, Chairman and CEO, Akshaya Pvt Ltd speaks on upcoming budget

The upcoming budget should play a major role in the recovery of the economy in general and particularly the real estate sector. The real estate sector is the second-highest employment generator in India.

The Budget 2021 benefited the first-time home buyers in the affordable segment due to the additional interest deduction on home loans, stamp duty cuts, low-interest rates on home loans among others.  We expect that the Union Budget will have customer friendly announcements, such as tax reliefs to home buyers that will benefit the affordable housing segment and a single-window system to fast track approvals. This will accelerate the pace of investment in this space.

In the last two years, a slew of measures has been introduced in the real estate sector to boost consumer sentiment and provide relief to the developers. However special focus should be given to certain other aspects to facilitate the overall growth of the sector. Measures like uniformity in GST for different housing segments, ease of cash flow for better project executions, strengthening the banking infrastructure to aid the developers as well as the home buyers – can pave for a sustained growth. Revision in income tax slabs can spur buyer sentiment which was marred by COVID-19. The government should also help address the issue of labour shortage as it will go a long way in providing the right impetus and boost private investments in the sector.