Tag Archives: Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI)

Union Budget 2012-13: Buying or building of a house will cost more.

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Realty players said that purchase or construction of a house would now cost more due to expected rise in prices of key raw materials cement and steel and a hike in service tax by 2 per cent.Barring low-cost housing, property prices are expected to rise in the coming days after the proposed hike in service tax from 10 per cent to 12 per cent.

TDS at the rate of 1 per cent on transfer of immovable property (other than agricultural land) above a specified threshold will also add to the cost of buying a house. The threshold would be over Rs 50 lakh an urban areas and Rs 20 lakh elsewhere, according to the budget proposals.

Cement and steel manufacturers have already hinted at a price hike after the Budget proposed raising the excise duty to 12 per cent.

Commenting on the budget proposals, Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI) Chairman Pradeep Jain said, “Application of TDS on the purchase and sale of property and increasing Service Tax by 2 per cent will further add on to the overall cost of property and are bound to make property more costly in coming days.”

Realty consultant DTZ said that increase in the service tax is going to further increase marginally the overall burden on the home buyers of mid and high segment (dwellings costing more than 25 lakh). The impact of service tax would be about Rs 40,000 on a Rs 75 lakh home.

However, DTZ said that affordable housing, being part of negative list, is exempted from service tax and the move would give a boost to the affordable housing segment.

Jones Lang LaSalle India Chairman and Country Head Anuj Puri said that “the increase in the service tax rate from 10 per cent to 12 per cent will increase the cost of production for developers, who are already reeling under high input costs. It follows that this increased burden will be passed on to end users”.

Builders say that Pranab Mukherjee has ignored ground realty in the Union Budget 2012-13.

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With predicting an escalation in property prices, top players in the realty sector said they had been ignored by the finance minister.

Chief of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI), Lalit Kumar Jain, said the announcement on external commercial borrowings (ECB) for affordable housing was a minor respite but still meaningless. Jain, who is also chairman and managing director of Kumar Urban Development Ltd, added, “We contribute 6.5% to the GDP and expected a big boost from the budget for affordable housing through special schemes, an interest subvention of 5-7 % for LIG (low income group) and EWS (economically weaker section) housing and promotion of rental housing through tax exemption.”

Jain also pointed out that the interest subsidy on home loans was too low. The Budget has extended the scheme of interest subvention of 1% on housing loan up to Rs 15 lakh where the cost of the house does not exceed Rs 25 lakh for another year.

In addition, Gaurav Gupta, director, Omkar Realtors & Developers, lamented that the realty sector had got nothing to boost market and customer sentiments. “There are no indications of this sector being granted the status of an industry, which it much deserves. On the contrary, the increase in service tax will push up realty prices as the additional cost will be passed on to the buyers.”

Tata Housing MD and CEO Brotin Banerjee added, “Initiatives to make affordable housing available to a larger section of the society have only been met partially.”

There were some who welcomed the proposals. Sachin Sandhir, MD, RICS South Asia felt it “exceeded expectations” given the pressures on the fiscal situation.