With the Union budget to be presented on Saturday, prospective home-buyers and builders in the city are ready with their wish list.

Reduction in interest rates, increase in tax exemptions for home loans, single-window clearances, incentives for affordable houses and reduction in service tax are just a few of the demands from the realty sector.

According to Atul Kanade, a Navi Mumbai resident who wants to purchase a house, lowering of interest rates and increase in tax exemption on loans is the need of the hour. “It will reduce the burden on homebuyers significantly and encourage purchase of properties,” he said,

Ganesh Vasudevan, CEO, IndiaProperty.com, a leading realty online portal, said the budget must give a boost to affordable housing in the city. “An increase in tax savings under 80C from the current Rs1.5 lakh and home loan exemption rate from Rs2 lakh will increase the purchasing capacity of many prospective buyers,” said Vasudevan.

Builders are also hoping that the budget will focus on giving faster approvals to projects. Kamal Khetan, chairman and managing director, Sunteck Realty Ltd, said a single-window system could work wonders for the realty sector. “Many projects get stuck because of the complexities of government channels. Faster approvals will help us complete several stalled projects,” said Khetan.

The realty sector has been witnessing a slowdown in the past few years, as both new launches and sales have fallen drastically resulting in prices hitting the sky.

Sanjay Dutt, executive managing director, South Asia, Cushman & Wakefield, said the thrust of the budget should be on rental and affordable housing projects. “The necessary funding could either be provided through budgetary allocations or from the credit guarantee trust fund set up by the government last year,” he said.

Dutt also advocated enactment of provisions for special residential zones (SRZs) as an incentive, especially in peripheral city limits and other targeted locations.

Source : Hindustan Times