Pre-budget expectation survey - Real Estate and Infrastructure sector

The Union Budget 2022-23 is fast approaching and the real estate industry is expecting several announcements that will give the sector a much-needed fillip and boost investor confidence and demand. To gauge the market sentiments and better understand the expectations from Union Budget 2022, Grant Thornton Bharat conducted a pre-budget real estate and infrastructure sector survey.

Commenting on the survey results, Sumeet Abrol, Partner and REI Leader, Grant Thornton Bharat said, “The real estate sector has seen volatility in demand in the past few years. With the government now dealing with dynamic challenges like the rise in co-working spaces and rental infrastructure, it is expected that changes will be made to the existing norms.”

The survey results convey that a large portion of the respondents are expecting government intervention via concessions and incentives in several key areas of the real estate industry. 50%
of the respondents expect incentives aimed at rental housing and co-working spaces and 77% expect concessions to achieve housing-for-all. A whooping 78% are expecting an increase in the limit for tax exemption on housing loan interests to boost the consumption, considering the average ticket size of the loans in urban and corresponding areas have higher annual interest.

For attracting tax benefits and for more efficient capital-raising platforms, 55% expect the Union Government to bring real estate sector under the ambit of infrastructure status. Talking about the asset monetisation pipeline initiative, Abrol adds, “To progress in the right direction, it is imperative that the government makes available a strong pipeline of attractively structured, brownfield projects. Further, sustained flow of transactions and visibility on same, across asset classes, is a key pre-requisite of long-term investors.”