Budget 2015-16

Good, but not much for us, say realty players

Going by the initial response, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s “balanced” and “controlled” Budget for 2015-16 has got thumbs up from the real estate sector. The fact that there are no big-ticket announcements directly impacting the sector has disappointed many but the overall, long-term vision in Jaitley’s exercise has come in for applause from the industry.

The following are the reactions received by Realty & More from some prominent players in the industry.

Manoj Gaur, MD, Gaursons India Ltd & President, Credai Western UP, has said, “A very controlled Budget which appeared to be cautious step by the Government to not make big announcements. As of now real estate sector will not benefit at all from it and the demands of the sector are still unmet. What we fear is the probable increase in raw material cost which would not be good for the costing of housing.”

Manish Agarwal, MD, Satya Group and Secretary, Credai NCR, said, “It is a progressive Budget with nuanced, comprehensive and stabilised long-term vision. The measures, such as reduction in corporate tax to 25 per cent over four years, abolishing of wealth tax and Government’s commitment to ‘Housing for All’ and ‘Make in India’ will aid realty sector substantially.”

According to Anuj Goel, Executive Director, KDP Infrastructure, “This Budget scores both on short-term respite as well as long-term vision. On the one hand, it has created space through exemptions for more individual savings, on the other hand measures like a roof for each family by 2022, push for rural development, universal pension and security system will create secure and strong society.
Goel said, “For the housing sector, this Budget has a lot of both direct and indirect provisions which will have positive impact and bring it back in green zone.”

Aman Nagar, Director, Paras Buildtech, said, “”It is essentially a balanced Budget with more of long-term undertone. The Budget has sought to build a strong foundation for the growth of housing sector across the length and breadth of country. We are going to see a lot of action in rural areas and semi-urban areas post-Budget which is good for the country.”

According to Anil Kumar Tulsiani, CMD, Tulsiani Constructions & Developers, “We were expecting some big announcements from the Government as this was the first Budget presentations by the BJP-led Government. However, Budget did not have much for real estate sector. In fact, increase in service tax from 12.36 per cent to 14 per cent might affect the cost of raw material which in turn will increase the prices of homes. In a way this is detrimental to the vision of housing for all”.

In a strong reaction, Sanjeev Varshney, MD, Prop Leverage, said, “For real estate sector there is no hope in the Budget. We expected steps from the Government that would act as a boost for the sector. However, the cautious Budget left everything in open and now the hopes are still alive from the next year’s Budget. As on the ground, we are facing a lot of queries for price reduction in real estate but this Budget left us speechless when it comes to reduction of prices in real estate.”

David Walker, Managing Direction of SARE Homes, said, “We are enthused by the reduction of the corporate tax and MAT as it will help operations of corporations. The Government’s move to rationalise the capital gains regime for REITs and InvITs, however, will be beneficial for the commercial realty space. Budget once more falls short of meeting the expectations of the real estate sector, mainly the residential housing segment.”

MR Jai shankar, CMD of Brigade Group, said, “It is a good growth-oriented Budget, with special emphasis on infrastructure, Swacch Bharat, introduction of pension schemes, curbing black money and improving ease of doing business. But as far as Housing industry is concerned, there is no special encouragement inspite of ‘Housing for All’ vision. To that extent for our industry, the Budget is disappointing.