Housing for all by 2022: Outlook positive for affordable housing in the next 3 years

Housing for all by 2022 can become a reality if the budgetary proposals for affordable housing is implemented to its maximum extent.

Income tax deduction of Rs 1.5 lakh on home loans interest rates and loans availed by March 2020 will further benefit the sector to earn more profits in the coming years. Photo: Reuters

The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her maiden budget speech announced many reforms to provide impetus to the Indian Real estate sector. The budget proposals come as welcome news for the sector. Because of demonetization, investment stopped coming in as the sector got hit by the severe liquidity crunch. However, the ambitious goal of “Housing for All” or “Affordable Housing” has once again provided stimulus and revolutionized the sector with higher profits as well as increased demand and supply.

Launched in 2015, affordable housing paced up home buying process in the cash-striven sector. Home-buyers who earlier just dreamt of their own home, became proud owners of homes today. The move by the government has not just boosted the buyer’s confidence but also pushed the realty developers to opt this attractive segment of housing to increase their sales and profits.

Honey Katiyal, CEO & Founder at Investors Clinic said, "In the last five years, more than 60 per cent of new launches have been in this category only, which clearly shows increased support from realty market. With the latest announcements by the FM on affordable housing, the number of these launches will further improve to 75 per cent by the second half of the year. The pace of these launches will increase in the next three years as there is more percentage of buyers inclining towards this category."

Katiyal went on to add that the proposal for an additional income tax deduction of Rs 1.5 lakh on home loans interest rates; for houses priced within Rs 45 lakh and loans availed by March 2020 will further benefit the sector to earn more profits in coming years. The government’s continuous focus on this segment will also stimulate demand for affordable housing and attract first-time homebuyers across the country. The proposal for additional deduction will further benefit most of the buyers of tier-2 and tier-3 cities as the real estate prices are on the higher side in most of the Tier-1 cities like Gurgaon, Mumbai, and Delhi.

Talking about the numbers, this year’s budget has also given a clear picture of homeowners in both rural and urban India. At the same time, it also focused on developer’s struggle on non-availability of lands at concessional rates to develop affordable housing.

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The budget has also proposed a measure to end up this problem by announcing the use of land parcels held by various Central Ministries to develop more such projects. This is another step to provide a commendable boost to the cash-starved realty sector and affordable housing too.

"Continuous focus of the government in this segment along with stricter norms like RERA and GST will surely increase demand for such homes among buyers in the years to come. From the announcement of affordable housing scheme to the dedication of a separate fund to tax sops, the ambitious scheme of the government has transformed the face of realty market like never before," Honey Katiyal of Investors Clinic said.

Hence, we can say that the budgetary proposals in the affordable housing segment have lots of potential to kick-start sales in the real estate sector. At the same time, a sustained push towards this segment will positively bring back more buyers to the market thereby adding a blooming number of affordable homes in the country in the coming years.

Tags: Housing for All, Affordable Housing, Real Estate

Keywords: Housing for all, housing for all by 2022, affordable housing scheme, affordable housing norms, budget benefits for affordable housing, budget housing, real estate news

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