By Aditya Kushwaha
To speed up the government vision of ’Housing for All’ and to give a flip-up to struggling real estate sectors across the country, the industry looks forward that the government should re-visit the present limit of Rs. 2 Lakhs for Interest on Housing Loan U/s 24(b) of IT Act, and cap of this Rs 2 Lakhs in Interest should be done away. It will be instrumental in allowing some tax relief to buyers and providing a much-needed push to the Industry.
We’re hopeful that the upcoming budget will relax income tax norms, offer single-window clearance, and GST reforms. Additionally, helpful measures like easing out of the liquidity issues that are being currently faced by the sector will boost investment in real estate.
Additionally, we hope that the government accords ‘Industry Status’ to the Real Estate sector as a whole including Secondary Housing and Holiday Homes. Currently the same has been conferred only to affordable housing. This is a long-pending demand that is expected to help developers raise funds at lower costs.
Housing loan interest rates also need to be reduced to foster demand and sales. We also expect the upcoming budget will factor-in restoration of income tax benefit on a second home which will definitely benefit home buyers in a big way and boost the real estate sector.
More so, the government needs to push the active NBFCs to extend liquidity to the realty sector and should declare that the rental income received from any holiday home-based / tourism centric zones would be free from GST, to give further impetus to the holiday homes segment.
(Aditya Kushwaha is CEO and Director at Axis E Corp. Views are personal)
