Realty players demand Industry status and affordable housing as a priority from the Budget 2012-13.

The Union Budget 2012 to be presented by the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is being looked at to provide relief in terms of policy reforms with the real estate sector of the economy coming under repeated credit pressures owing to high interest rates for borrowing.

Experts say that the real estate sector needs government support as well as further stimulus to get out of the current slump. With the first step, experts have sought industry status for real estate, since the sector is a major driver for economic growth and generates countless jobs across its various verticals and associated industries. Experts this feel will also help the sector raise debt from FIs at a much lower rate.

Common demand across all real estate companies is that of an industry status being assigned to the sector in the Budget 2012-13 with ways to make affordable housing available to a larger section of the society.

Samir Jasuja, founder and chief executive officer at Prop Equity said, “In this budget, we expect the central government to grant the real estate sector the industry status as that would help the reeling sector raise debt from financial institutions at a much lower rate, which may partly improve the liquidity crunch crisis.”