GST a sentiment Booster for the Real Estate Buyers

GST is expected to be a sentiment booster for the industry and will seek to revive buyer and investor interest by bringing more transparency in taxation. As the perception of the sector is said to have improved, the prices are likely to drop around one to three per cent if it all they do, according to a report by Edelweiss Securities.

The taxation earlier was too complicated for buyers. For instance, buyers were earlier liable to pay taxes depending on the construction status of the property and the state where it is located. Buyers also had to pay VAT, service tax, stamp duty and registration charges on purchase of an under-construction property. However, if the purchase was for a completed property, the tax applicable were stamp duty and registration charge. Furthermore, since VAT, stamp duty and registration charges were state levies, each state specified its own figures. Service tax was a central levy and was charged on construction. So the calculation of taxes was very tedious in the earlier regime. GST charges all under-construction properties at 12 per cent of the property value. This excludes stamp duty and registration charges. No indirect tax is applicable on sale of ready-to-move-in properties hence the tax will not apply to those. The biggest takeaway is that GST is a simple tax that applies to the overall purchase price.

A developer could take input credits on sale of under construction property against the taxes that are paid by the buyer. Earlier, VAT and service tax used to account for nearly nine per cent of the ticket price of the property. Since that will be lower than the GST applied to the sector, the builder will have to pass on the benefit of the price reduction to the buyer. The price reduction is on account of the input tax credits that the builder enjoys.

Inputs from Indian express

flying Shark

UP RERA Rules Re Modiied in favour of the Buyers

Yogi government is doing away with pro-developer clauses that diluted the country’s first-ever law to clean up a sector beseiged with problems of delayed projects.

The new rules bring all ongoing projects where completion certificate was not issued on May 1, 2016  under its ambit.

The Samajwadi Party government had earlier changed the definition of ‘ongoing project’ to keep a majority of projects in cities such as Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad out of the purview of the real estate regulator

Mahendra Bahadur Singh is heading a panel formed by the Yogi Adityanath government to rewrite the real estate regulation rules after consumers’ group met the Uttar Pradesh chief minister and told him that instead of homebuyers the rules were framed to favour the builders.

As per the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, an ongoing project is basically a project “for which the completion certificate has not been issued as on May 1, 2016” on the date of commencement of the act. This basically ensures that many home projects which are work-in-process come under the act. However, four ‘exclusion’ clauses were added in the UP real estate rules 2016 during the Samajwadi Party’s regime to keep a majority of projects out of RERA. These ‘exclusion’ clauses have now been dropped.

Similarly, recommendations on fines and penalties on developers that were earlier watered down, now have been restored as provided in the Centre’s Act.

Other relaxations relating to 70% cap on funds to be utilised by the builder from the money taken from the home buyers have also been reincorporated as provided in the original.

It has also been  suggested that a committee, which should also have a representative of RERA, monitor all such expenses by the developer, said an official.

Home Loan rates Slashed.

Lot is going on in the Real Estate market. The latest is the rate cut by 25 Basis Point (bps) by India largest lender that is the State bank of India. This bring the affordable home loans to 8.35 pc per annum, the lowest in the market.

While the woman borower get a home loan at 8.35 pc for male salaried the rate will be 8.40 pc for loan upto 30 lacs. Over and above an eligible home loan cutomer can avail of an interest subsidy of Rs. 2.67 Lakhs under the Pradhanmantri Awas Yojna Scheme.

To supplement the affordable housing push, SBI has also come up with special offerings for the construction finance to the builders for affordable housing projects. This will give dual push both for the construction finance and also for home finance for affordable homes.


Flying Shark.

Want Your Home ? This is the Best time. Know Why?

Having his own Home is everyone dream. But the sector was so badly overtaken by the corrupt builders due to lack any governing authority that millions of people lost their money and didnt get their home. Some who got dint get the property to be registered under their name as the unscrupulous developer just gave them a self written NOC to shift in a society which was still under construction. Lack of facilities, Dust, Leakages, Seepage became the end users daily chaos. but he was complelled just to prevent the over burden of rent and the EMIs.

But now this would change after coming of the RERA and now the developer cannot escape with their responsibility towards their customers.

Secondly, on the point of affordability this time is the best time since 2005.
Mortgage rates have come down by 150 basis points which is 12 Years low and this is gradually improving affordability. as per latest data average prices across cities have felled by 1.67% sequentially over the december quarter. as the developer is eager to liquidate inventory in a market badly hit by demonetization.

Affordability has improved much more for the lower ticket priced home. For instance for a 20 lakhs house credit linked subsidy scheme (CLSS) is around 10-12 per cent of cost, which has led to improvement in affordability levels to best ever.

Further, the government is incentivizing affordable unit construction through changes like affordable house having a carpet area of 60 SqM with affordable project seeing tax rates at effective 20 per cent versus 34 per cent. Also giving infrastructure for such projects has further improved the sectors ability to get cheaper loans.

Flying Shark
Inputs from ENS Economic Bureau

RERA: What Should You Know?

RERA or The Real Estate Regulation and development Act 2016 was passed by the Indian parliament in March 2016 with an aim to bring in transparency in the Real Estate sector and protect the consumer who are the main victim of the Builder - Neta - Authority Nexus.

The Details of the Act you can easily find online, but here the objective is to let you know what is the status of the act Vis-a vis State and the UTs and where the Act stand as of now.

As of today only 13 states have notified RERA and it migh take another few months before it becomes a reality across the country.

Some of the important points of the bill are as follows:-
1. RERA covers all projects with minimum plot size of 500 sq M or Eight Apartments.
2.In order to prevent diversions of funds 70% of the money collected by the Builder would be deposited in a separate Account.
3.Now no Builder can avoid refund for Years but he will have to refund within 45 days in case of cancellation and also have to pay equal penalty in case of delay of projects.
4.All ongoing projects and new projects shall be registered by Builder with RERA within 3 months i.e by the end of July.

Though there has been states which have diluted some provisions like related to ongoing projects but still in the long run this regualtor would be very beneficial for the sector. It will segregate the serious players in the buisness with the Black Sheeps. This will help in building confidence of the investor and the end user to the sector which will result in greater capital inflow in the business.

Flying Shark.