Niranjan Hiranandani, national president of NAREDCO said, "While the real estate industry appreciates the initiative of establishing the SWAMIH fund for ₹25,000 crore to help real estate sector, allowing more such stress funds will help facilitate last-mile funding for stressed and stalled projects." To enhance the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio by up to 90 per cent across the board of home loans for affordable houses of ₹30 lakh or less and the same facility should be extended to MIG and HIG, is another demand that industry has put forward. "Allowing interest on home loans for income tax deductions without any ceiling, current interest deduction under section 24 of IT Act 1961 on housing loans of ₹2 lakhs should be removed to extend the incentive to home buyers. Bringing long-term capital gains at 10 per cent (on par with provision of section 112 for equity shares), and reducing the period of holding house property by up to 12 months from existing 24/36 months to qualify as a long-term Capital asset is need of the hour," said Rajeev Talwar, Chairman of NAREDCO. Parveen Jain, VC of NAREDCO added, "the loss from house property should be fully allowed to be adjusted against other heads of income. In case of unadjusted loss, it should be fully allowed to be carried forward to subsequent years.”
For rental housing, NAREDCO seeks enhancement in HRA Tax Exemption; an increased depreciation rate for the rental projects like in commercial buildings and allowing carry on of loss from rental income will make a difference. To promote rental housing, Hiranandani said, "The deduction of 30% from the annual rental income (for purpose of maintenance) should be increased to 50%. This will not only improve ROI but will also encourage citizens from investing in residential properties for giving on rent." Affordable housing will benefit from increasing completion period to six years; while enabling concessional lending rate for Affordable Housing Projects. Extending the Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS) for all segments will support homebuyers.
Jain added, “RBI and the National Housing Bank (NHB) should review the ban on subsidy schemes. The ban does not favour homebuyers, as a large proportion of them do not have the ability to pay monthly payments for their home loans and home rentals." One-time loan restructuring, external commercial lending (ECB) for real estate, and SEZ reforms, including notification date extension for IT / ITeS economic zones and MAT withdrawal, are other lawsuits filed by NAREDCO which believes this could help to ensure green shoots in real estate.
