Comments by Real Estate Experts on RBI Policy announcement

 

 

Kaushal Agarwal, Chairman, The Guardians Real Estate Advisory

"The RBI and especially the MPC needs to be commended for maintaining its accommodative stance for more than a year now. It’s approach, towards tackling the situation created by the pandemic and steps taken to help revive the economy, will go down in History as being one of the finest. Keeping in mind the resurgence of COVID infections across the country, a slight reduction in the key rates would have been widely celebrated. With the temporary reduction in transaction costs being withdrawn, in states like Maharashtra, the expectation amongst stakeholders of the industry is that the banks should now further sweeten the lending rates, at least till such time that the economy gets back to the pre-COVID levels."

 

Bhushan Nemlekar, Director, Sumit Woods

"The RBI's decision to maintain its accommodative stance was on the expected lines in light of the recent resurgence of Covid-19 infections and its potential to cause the on-going economic recovery to stumble. The prevailing low home loan rates are already enticing for homebuyers. It's a high time bank needs to pass on the benefits to the homebuyers. With auspicious occasions like Gudi Padwa and Akshaya Tritiya already round the corner, the real estate sales are expected to be further driven by developer discounts and flexible payment plans."

 

Shraddha Kedia-Agarwal, Head - Marketing & Sales, Transcon Developers

"RBI maintaining status quo on key policy rates was expected given the inflationary concerns in recent months. The low interest rates for the last few months has already given a boost to the real estate sector upticking the demand in the last few quarters and enhancing the confidence of the homebuyers. The decision will help to sustain liquidity for some period as we are already witnessing the derailment of economic momentum due to the current wave of Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns in different parts of the country. It will also help in sustaining economic stability as well as keep the real estate sector stay afloat during these unprecedented times."

 

Anuj Khetan, Director, Vijay Khetan Group  

"Keeping in mind the recent surge in the COVID-19 cases and the restrictions imposed, the monetary policy committee’s decision to keep key rates unchanged at 4% was on expected lines. This move is a much-appreciated step recognizing the role of the real estate sector in generating employment and economic activity. The Union Budget 2021-22 also has provided a strong impetus in favour of the real estate sector. With the interest rates at a record low, the Government will continue taking affirmative measures as long as it is necessary to revive the economy and mitigate Covid-19 impact. With stamp duty reversed back to 5% and real estate sales on the upside, it would boost the banks to further transmit interest rate reduction to end-users to provide further more incentive to renters to eventually turn into homeowners." 

 

Himanshu Jain, VP - Sales, Marketing and CRM, Satellite Developers (SDPL)

"We anticipated the monetary policy committee (MPC) to keep the repo rate unchanged at 4% and retained the accommodative stance that will still continue to serve the markets well. Some strong liquidity measures were announced in the past quarters and are expected to continue. The earlier announcements by the state government of stamp duty reduction along with reduction on premiums for developers surely gave a boost to the ailing sector and created demand among the homebuyers and we hope such announcements are made in the future as well as the pandemic situation continues."

 

Pritam Chivukula, Co-Founder & Director, Tridhaatu Realty, Secretary, CREDAI MCHI

"Given the surge in COVID19 cases and intermittent lockdowns across major cities, we thank the RBI for continuing with their accommodative stance. We further urge the RBI to take immediate action to arrest the deteriorating health of MSMEs caused due to the regular stop-start nature of business activities and increasing input costs which are having a catastrophic impact on the survival of these businesses."