BENGALURU: AMID confusion over the Goods and Services Tax (GST)and the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act(RERA), which are to be implemented soon, both real estate developers and prospective home buyers have their fingers crossed.
The buyers expect GST to bring down the prices. RERA will help them by bringing the real estate market under a monitoring system. Meanwhile, builders and developers are waiting to launch new strategies to attract customers.
The dilemma over property prices, however, still prevails in the market. Experts say home loan interest is expected to be a deciding factor.
“New regulations will help consumers in the long run. RERA and GST will bring in transparency in the market,” said Farook Mahmood, CMD,Silverline groups.
Suresh Hari, secretary, The Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI) opines that the prices of flats would rise by 15-20 per cent after GST and RERA come into play.
“Many projects will take off once the new rules and regulations are in place,” he adds.
Fight for RERA convenor, M S Shankar, however, feels that the flat prices would not increase after GST and RERA come into play. “They will only add to transparency and accountability in the real estate sector”.
Narasimha Jayakumar, Chief Business Officer, 99acres.com says: The trust and confidence that RERA is expected to infuse will result into a radical transformation with real estate companies gaining scale, larger brands entering the market, and international players parking funds in projects across India. In my view, the Act could be a huge success if it is able to live through the initial hiccups, which essentially begin at the State level where several rules have been diluted.”
According to the ‘Real Estate Sentiment Index’ developed recently, the current sentiment of the market was substantially better than the ‘drastic fall’ witnessed in the last quarter of 2016.