After a tough year with several challenges, the real estate sector is showing signs of growth, especially in affordable and mid-housing segments, says Aditya Kushwaha, CEO and Director of Goa’s major real estate developer Axis Ecorp.

In a conversation with Outlook Money, he said that a lot of credit for these green shoots of revival goes to the policy support from the Central government, especially the “additional outlay of around Rs 18,000 crore for PM Awas Yojana”. He said such relief measures are expected to further lift the demand with sales numbers increasing across cities.

“COVID-19 did throw some unprecedented challenges for the industry throughout this year. However, there has been recently a good spike in the recovery of the real estate sector and demand for home loans has gone up evidently,” Kushwaha said.

He added that to further boost the government vision of “Housing for All” and to give an impetus to the struggling real estate sector, the industry is hoping that the government would revisit the present deduction limit of Rs 2 lakh for Interest on housing loans under section 24(b) of the Income Tax Act.

“It will be instrumental in allowing some tax relief to buyers and providing a much-needed push to the industry,” Kushwaha said. “Keeping a positive outlook for the upcoming budget, we are hopeful to see relaxation in income tax norms, offer single-window clearance and GST reforms. Additionally, helpful measures like easing out of the liquidity issues that are being currently faced by the sector will boost investment in real estate.”

He added that he was hopeful that the government would give ‘industry status’ to the real estate sector as a whole including secondary housing and holiday homes. “Currently the same has been conferred only to affordable housing. This is a long-pending demand that is expected to help developers raise funds at lower costs,” he explained.