Demand for bathroom products to rise due to Housing for All initiative

Real estate sector plays a key role in economic revival and growth in India. With market size as big as of $ 130 billion in size, real estate sector is poised to grow at 12 percent annually over next 3-4 years. The FDI in this sector has slowed down over last 2 years due to lack of builder & investor friendly incentives and policies. The recent de-monetisation has also contributed significantly towards further drop in real estate market with housing sales falling by 30 percent in Q3 of 2016-17. 

Now, the Government needs to work on reviving the demand for housing to drive the real estate & construction sectors by providing higher levels of income tax benefits for first time home buyers along with lower interest rates on housing loans for them. Roadblocks in obtaining approvals of slow projects need to be tackled by fast tracking all government infrastructure projects. 

India has a growing market for bathroom products and this growth is expected to shoot further with more and more domestic and overseas players pouring in and setting up manufacturing facilities across the country. 

As per the announcement made by Prime Minister on ‘Housing for All by 2022’, we expect the demand for bathroom products to rise and with the customer becoming more brand and quality conscious, the overall market share of the organised market is expected to increase.

The Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act 2016 needs to be implemented and exercised more rigorously to help build faith of the customer towards builders. The introduction of REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) to drive investment in this sector and finally speeding up the approval processes to help builder’s complete projects on time are some of the required measures for the revamp of the sector. In this budget, we expect government to continue with positive policy announcements in favour of improving the business environment and to give a strong push for growth.
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KE Ranganathan is the president (sales & marketing) of Roca Bathroom Products Pvt Ltd