BANGALORE: Responding to the budget, Sushil Mantri, president CREDAI, Bangalore, said, “There is nothing much to cheer about for real estate sector in the Union Budget 2012-13. Raise of personal income tax exemption limit to `2 lakh from present `1.8 lakh will hardly help customers, who want to buy houses. There is a minor relief for buyers of houses costing upto `25 lakh, as the Budget offers 1 per cent rebate on home loans upto `15 lakh. For the real estate sector, cost of housing will increase as service tax rate has been increased to 12 per cent from 10 per cent. Cost of production for housing developers will also go up. Already, the real estate sector is suffering from high input costs. This Budget disappoints the housing and real estate sector.”
Neville Vaswani, Managing Director, Vaswani Group, said, “The real estate sector had a lot of expectations from this year’s Union Budget. But, there are no proposals to promote this sector. We were hoping that the government would accord ‘industry’ status to real estate sector. But that has not happened. The sector is already suffering from high interest rates on loans. The hike in service tax will also be a burden on customers.”
Girish H R, CEO, Vakil Housing Development Corporation Pvt Ltd, said, “Though from holistic view point, the Budget can be termed uneventful, with specific reference to real estate and housing sector, it can termed disappointing.”
Dhaval Ajmera, Director, Ajmera Realty and Infra India, said, “ The Budget is a mixed bag. Adequate steps have not been taken to improve the significance of the sector. Even today, Indian real estate sector is facing problems like slowing economy, delay in decision making process and hike in interest rates. Moreover, the government has also hiked service tax rate from 10 per cent to 12 per cent.”