Budget 2017 wishlist: Expectations from the real estate sector

Real estate is largest employer after agriculture and is slated to grow at 30% over next decade

Industry size: India’s real estate market is expected to touch $180 billion by 2020 
Source: India Brand Equity Foundation

Employment figure: The Indian real estate sector has backward and forward linkages to approximately 265 ancillary industries. It employs over 50 million people. Budget 2017In India, real estate is the largest employer after agriculture and is slated to grow at 30 per cent over the next decade
Source: National Skill Development Corp

Contribution to gross domestic product (GDP): Real estate contributes over six per cent to the country’s GDP
Source: India Brand Equity Foundation

Key issues or areas of concern for the sector

• Slow pace of sales leading to large unsold inventory (large demand-supply gap)
• Lack of investment support and insufficient funds, especially for project construction

Industry demands

• Infrastructure status for real estate, special economic zones and industrial parks
• Increase limit of priority sector lending in home loans
• Streamlining approval process

PwC point of view
Abhishek Goenka, Partner (real estate), PwC
Real estate investment trusts are likely to be a game changer for the commercial real estate sector
The Real Estate Regulatory Act will increase regulatory and legal compliance

R K Arora, Chairman, Supertech
“GST is expected to lessen the tax burden on developers on input items such as cement and steel, by removing multiple layers of taxation and instituting the tax credit system. That said, the actual merit or demerit of GST will only be known when the final rates are set”