We can now look at funding through insurance companies, which opens up a new avenue for real estate funding

- Tushad Dubash, Director, Duville Estates Tushad Dubash, Director, Duville Estates, on the Union Budget 2017-18: The Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is a people’s budget, where affordable housing has been the focus and will be given infra status. This bodes well for home seekers living in Tier-II and Tier-III cities, which is also in line with the government’s vision of ‘Housing for All 2022’.  Also, since affordable housing will now be given infra status, we can look at funding through insurance companies, which is a huge alternate sector and opens up a new avenue for real estate funding. Demonetisation has impacted the real estate in the short term. But on the flip side, we see banks flushed with funds and given the surplus liquidity that they presently have, we look forward to banks further lowering their home loan interest rates to customers. The reduction of the period for long term capital gains tax, coupled with reintroduction of capital gains tax saving investments, will attract more landowners to capitalise on their land holdings, thereby bringing more land into development. The Prime Minister recently announced a subvention scheme, which is tailor-made in attracting a wider audience base of home buyers. Huge allocations proposed for the housing and infrastructure sectors will set the pace of housing our populace at a much quicker pace and developing our infrastructure to align with our vision of ‘Housing For All 2022’.