Budget 2019: What Indian Real Estate may expect

The last 12 to 24 months have been a mixed bag for the Indian real estate sector as a whole. While there has been an upsurge in activities in asset classes such as commercial, warehousing and retail, the residential market has largely seen a flat trend with a few bumps coming from the affordable housing space. 

Startups are lining up in the real estate sector with co-living business models and we also had our maiden REIT listing.  

There are some key industry demands that we hope will be addressed in Budget 2019:

1) The re-introduction of the SEZ tax holiday for developers and the extension of tax holiday for units. 

2) Distressed projects – A one-time incentive to developers taking over existing projects which are under financial / operational distress. 

3) Affordable housing – An extension of the tax holiday. 

4) Credit for GST incurred on construction cost for Built to Lease assets.  

5) The introduction of tax incentives for co-living ventures.

6) A roadmap to developing the rental housing segment under partnership with the Government. 

7) Exemption from paying Dividend Distribution tax in case of a Holding Company structure under REITs.