Peush Jain, MD-Commercial Leasing and Advisory, Anarock Group
The office sector growth is expected to stay buoyant with supply to touch a billion sq.ft. by the end of the 2025 with record leasing activity led by GCCs and flex space operators. The Budget must focus on not just maintaining India’s growth momentum but also initiating reforms that will aid India’s attractiveness as an investment destination for both domestic and foreign companies. Input tax credit on fit-outs, review of depreciation and amortisation rates for assets on the backdrop of larger adoption or AI and incentivising new technology sectors would fuel the office demand evenly across the country.
Ankur Jalan, CEO, Golden Growth Fund (GGF)
AIFs as a tool for wealth diversification have become a preferred choice for affluent individuals as is evident from the fact that real estate contributed the highest share of investment from AIFs at over Rs 75,400 crore in the first half of FY25 with participation from both domestic and foreign investors. Real estate focused AIFs have huge opportunity to tap the untapped potential of the vast real estate landscape in the country by opening up not only funding avenues for development but also wealth creation for investors. The Budget must endeavour to achieve parity in capital gains on listed and unlisted instruments so as to make it more attractive for both domestic and foreign investors. Also ‘gains from investment’ must be classified on similar lines across instruments so that AIFs too enjoy the benefit.
Garvit Tiwari, director and co-founder of InfraMantra
The weak urban demand seen in the year gone by, a lot of hope is being pinned on the Budget to help revive urban consumption so that India maintains its growth trajectory. Income tax cut must be the Budget’s top priority. Reduction in GST on both construction material and under-construction properties will help developers to reduce the price of homes. Additionally, land and labour reforms will nudge the private sector to invest in India and help create jobs. Raising the affordable housing limit to Rs 1 crore will help bring fence-sitters into the real estate market and drive demand in the sector.
Mr. Sandeep Ahuja Global CEO of Atmosphere Living
“The luxury real estate sector in India continues to be on an upward trend and is likely to remain so. Therefore it is of utmost importance to lead on the policies that incentivize buyer involvement. Sustainability incentives will help to increase the resonance of green projects, which correspond to the viability of the projects all over the world, and therefore, they are likely to be sought after. Those steps will contribute not only to the attraction of capital but India will also strengthen its position as the leader in the real estate sector. Apart from that, there is also a necessity for policies that enhance the ease of doing business including a relaxation in the FDI norms. These changes will help boost both local and foreign investments, and thus, the real estate market will become more vibrant. With the right blend of changes, the budget can thus be an engine for prosperity in the long run, and the right investors will be heading to India’s enlarging luxury real estate market.”
Siddarth Pai, Founding Partner and CFO, 3one4 Capital & Co-Chair, Regulatory Affairs Committee, IVCA
“2024 witnessed quarter on quarter capital formation via AIFs dip to single digits, compared to double digit growth in 2023. AIFs play a crucial role in terms of capital formation in India and investments in the Indian economy. The last budget saw the rationalization of tax rates between listed and unlisted entities, a longstanding ask of Indian AIFs and startups. The need of the hour is clarity and parity: tax clarity on numerous operations of AIFs, such as the characterization of their gains, tax treatment at the end of a fund’s life, how demataterizaliton of Units will play out with the atx code; Parity between foreign and domestic funds in terms of taxation is also required. Both of these will be crucial to attract foreign investors to AIFs; if they see Foreign Funds enjoying better tax treatment in India, they would prefer these foreign vehicles instead of Indian AIFs. This parity will also attract investors and fund managers to GIFT IFSC as it seeks to establish itself firmly amongsgt international financial centres. As the uncertainty around the elections of 2024 has abated, Budget 2025 must deliver on the twin asks of clarity and aprity to allow AIFs to garner capital and kick start a new investment cycle.”