Real Estate Gurgaon

This is a moderate budget as far as its positive implications on the real estate sector are concerned. The fact that Section 80-IB of the Income Tax Act (sub-section 4) which pertains to tax incentives for specified industrial undertakings comes as a relief, as developers would otherwise have incurred an additional tax burden that would have been passed on to end users.

The five-year tax holiday afforded to Delhi, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and Gautam in context with the upcoming Commonwealth Games will benefit those areas. This move will pump in demand for property in these areas and therefore push prices up.

The fact that service tax will be levied on commercial properties is definitely a step backwards. It will cause the cost of lease rentals to rise proportionately - another added burden that will be transferred directly to the end users.

The drop of excise duty on cement, though beneficial to the construction industry, will not translate into an overall boost of more than 1-2%.

The higher initiative to continue in public-private partnerships is definitely encouraging. It will help maintain growth in the real estate sector.

The $6 billion infrastructure fund formulated by the Deepak Parekh Committee last year is being put into effect and this is nothing but good news for the infrastructure industry. Investment in infrastructure will become easier, helping to escalate infrastructure development. This will obviously have positive repercussions on the real estate sector as well.

The prospect of completion of all major undertakings associated with the Golden Quadrilateral project by 2009 is extremely positive, since this will enhance connectivity between metros and bring in a considerable supply of land. New corridors will open up, and these will be typified by affordable rates that will benefit end users. In fact, the budget's thrust on rural infrastructure will escalate real estate opportunities in areas that were hitherto neglected. Moreover, it will lessen the movement or rural dwellers to urban areas, thus decreasing the load on our already saturated cities.

The finance minister's willingness to seriously implement the plans of turning Mumbai into a world-class financial hub has put this intention into the public domain and we can certainly look forward to some major positive changes in Mumbai's real estate market.

Resource://financialexpress.com