Upcoming Budget: Real estate Industry seeks Stamp duty cuts and revised home loan limits
The Indian Real Estate Industry is seeking stamp duty cuts, revised home loan limits and improved affordable housing norms in the upcoming Union Budget 2025-2026. The realtors are seeking these changes through Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), eco-friendly policies, single-window clearance, and more.
Some of the industry leaders and consultancy firms in India such as Raheja, Gaurs, Kanodia, Anarock, Justo, Reach, Urban Space and Eros have put forth their expectations for changes to real estate sector norms in the upcoming budget.
Affordable housing
President of CREDAI-NCR and Chairman and Managing Director of Gaurs Group, Manoj Gaur stated that one of the crucial demands of the real estate sector is adjustment of stamp duty. The reason for this is that the stamp duty rate has increased significantly in recent years. It is adversely affecting home buyers giving them financial pressures. He also emphasised on considering changing the current tax deduction limit of Rs. 1.5 lakh under Sector 80(c) to Rs. 5 lakh as it will help in easing home ownership.
He recommends changing the affordable housing criteria of price limit of Rs. 45 lakh to carpet area-wise criteria. In this, the focus should be on the carpet area of 60 square metres in metro areas and 90 square metres in non-metro areas. He also advocates reintroduction of the 100 percent tax holiday for affordable housing projects before 31st March 2022. This will promote both affordable housing and also India’s mission of ‘Housing for all’.
Commercial Real-estate Sector
The vice-president (Sales) of Raheja, Mohit Kalia stated that the needs for reforms in the commercial real-estate sector. The government’s actions to encourage entrepreneurship promotes the start and growth of business. It not only helps in boosting economic growth and creation of job opportunities but also aids in thriving the business of commerical real-estate sector. Along with this, the sector requires policies that will support in sustaining the growth and success of the sector. He also states that the adjustment in interest rates in a way that makes advances affordable will help in increasing demand in the sector. Also, the implementation of the single-window clearance system can make approval processes faster and easier. These steps will help in strengthening the overall real estate ecosystem.
Tax Relief on Construction Materials
The Kanodia of Delhi-NCR advocates tax relief and GST reduction on construction materials in order to achieve lower project costs and also encourage developers to initiate new ventures with better efficiency.
The Kanodia Group’s founder Gautam Kanodia stated that the upcoming Budget 2026 has a strong prospect to strengthen the real estate industry and also to play a more crucial role in the development of the country’s economic framework.
Revision of Home Loan Limits
The founder and Chairman of Reach, Harinder Singh Hora advocated raising the deduction limit in home loans to Rs 5 lakh from the current Rs. 2 lakh in order to encourage investment opportunities and to attract more investors.
Changes in PMAY
The chairman of Anarock Group, Anuj Puri recommends reintroduction of Credit-linked subsidy Scheme (CLSS) under the PMAY scheme for economically-weaker section (EWS) households, which has ended in the year 2022. This would give financial incentives to first-time homebuyers to purchase affordable homes by providing subsidies on loans for construction of new houses or essential addition to existing properties.
As per the eligibility criterias of PMAY for rural regions provide subsidies to convert ‘kaccha’ into ‘pucca’ homes. The real estate industry players believe that there is a need to update the definition of affordable housing needs, particularly in high-cost cities such as Mumbai. They also advocate raising of current price caps reflecting the higher cost of living and property prices prevailing in these areas.
Given data from Anarock, the sales share of affordable housing decreased to 18 percent in 2024 compared to 38 percent in 2019. This significant decline indicates the pressing need for government intervention. He further stated that there is a need to be more focused on affordable housing and targeted benefits, which was not given much attention for the past two years.
The reason for slowdown in the Indian real estate sector in the year 2024 is the general elections and state elections conducted in the year. The top seven cities in India observed a fall in housing sales by 4 percent which accounts to around 446,000. While, the new launches of properties declined by 7 percent which accounts to around 413,000 units. Despite this, implementation of appropriate steps taken for affordable housing in the year 2025 could lead to revival of growth and also promote the residential segment to regain the high sales and launches achieved in the year 2023.
Rental housing and infrastructure growth
In the year 2024, institutional funding in real estate registered a record of 6.5 billion dollars. It indicates strong investor confidence. The introduction of increasing liquidity measures will help to ensure that real estate projects are completed on time. This is crucial to maintain the growth momentum in the sector. The Director of Eros states that while entering in the year 2025, the policies pertaining to expansion of rental housing and infrastructural growth should be taken for driving urbanisation.
The founder and director of real estate fintech firm Justo, Pushpamitra Das advocates the adjustments in GST on under-construction residential and commercial properties, tax benefits for REITs, extension of SEZ benefits. He also stated that India’s real estate sector plays a significant role in driving economic growth by boosting GDP and employment levels.
Home decor Industry
The co-founder of Urban space, Radhika Koolwal stated that the home decor industry is positive about the measures undertaken to boost growth and innovation. The industry expects the policies undertaken will focus on encouraging domestic manufacturing such as subsidies on raw materials and machinery, tax benefits for MSMEs and startups, reduction in GST rates on home furnishings and decor items in order to achieve more accessibility to quality products to the middle class.
The image added is for representation purposes only