Mr. Abheek Barua, Chief Economist, HDFC Ban
“The RBI policy announcement was on expected lines as the central bank continued to support growth and sounded caution on the omicron risk. The central bank kept its stance, policy rate and corridor unchanged and did little to provide any forward guidance on the path of future policy rate increases. The RBI kept its inflation forecast unchanged at 5.3% for FY22, signalling that it believes inflation to be more transient than permanent in nature. We expect inflation prints to surprise on the upside and average at 5.6% for FY22, driven by elevated input and fuel costs and as the base effect wanes off. On liquidity normalisation, the RBI continued its auction based rate management policy, moving away from the reverse repo – so far the effective overnight rate – towards the repo rate through liquidity rebalancing from the overnight to the VRRR (variable rate reverse repo) window. We expect this to put further upward pressure on the short-end of the curve”.
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Mr Ramesh Nair, CEO| India, and Managing Director, Market Development| Asia, Colliers.
On expected lines, RBI has kept repo rates unchanged at 4% for the 9th consecutive time. This accommodative stance will aid demand dynamics and propel economic growth to mitigate the impact of Covid-19. This will support RBI’s vision of GDP growth of 9.5% for the year. At the same time, the growth will also hinge upon the new variant of covid-19 and its impact. The unchanged repo rate will continue to improve sentiments in the real estate sector. The housing sector is already seeing a revival in sales, led by low home loan rates, pent-up demand, and stable prices”.
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Unchanged Rep Rate Positive for Home Loan Borrowers
Anuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Group:
With Omicron throwing a shadow of doubt across the world and in India, the RBI has decided to keep the repo rates unchanged at 4% and reverse repo rate at 3.35%. This was expected, and is the ninth consecutive time that the RBI maintained status quo amid current uncertainties.
The unchanged repo rates will help maintain status quo on the prevailing low interest rate regime for some more time. This works well for all home loan borrowers as the environment of affordability will continue.
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Mr. Amit Goyal, CEO, India Sotheby’s International Realty
We welcome RBI’s status quo on policy rates. This means that the home loan interest rate will remain at the current level of sub 7% per annum. Besides that, the Governor rightly said in his statement that recent reduction in excise duty and state VAT on petrol and diesel will support consumption demand by increasing purchasing power. We expect demand in the housing market to improve further.
All eyes are now on the upcoming budget. It will boost the real estate sector if the government enhances deductions against home loans in Budget 2022.
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Suren Goel, Partner, RPS Group
RBI decision to maintain status quo on the interest rate means home loan rates will continue to remain at a record low level. This augurs well for the housing sector and the real estate sector as a whole. With reasonable prices, lower interest rates and sufficient option to choose from, this is perhaps the best time to buy a dream home and we are hopeful of witnessing an uptick in demand.
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Mr Pradeep Misra, MD, New Modern Buildwell Private Ltd, a real estate company having projects in Varanasi and Allahabad
The lower home loan interest rates would help the real estate sector, particularly in tier 2 & 3 cities. As interest rate along with house pricing is one of the biggest influencers of individuals’ buying decisions, we expect reasonable demand for housing over the next few months.
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Mr. Sandeep Runwal – President, NAREDCO Maharashtra and Managing Director, Runwal Group
“The RBI has always taken a proactive stance to ensure liquidity in the past few months, and has continued it’s accommodative policy stance amid the renewed Covid threat from the Omicron variant. It is imperative that low mortgage rates would continue, at least till the end of the year. This will provide required fuel for the growth of the economy along with the real estate industry to which several other allied sectors are linked with. We at NAREDCO have already urged the State Government to reconsider their decision and reinstate the stamp duty reduction for another year so as to encourage home buyers and invest in their dream homes.”
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Unchanged Repo Rate Positive for Home Loan Borrowers
Anuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Group
With Omicron throwing a shadow of doubt across the world and in India, the RBI has decided to keep the repo rates unchanged at 4% and reverse repo rate at 3.35%. This was expected, and is the ninth consecutive time that the RBI maintained status quo amid current uncertainties.
The unchanged repo rates will help maintain status quo on the prevailing low interest rate regime for some more time. This works well for all home loan borrowers as the environment of affordability will continue.
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Mr. Pritam Chivukula, Co-Founder & Director, Tridhaatu Realty and Hon. Secretary, CREDAI MCHI
“We welcome the RBI’s decision to continue with their accommodative stance keeping in mind the economic uncertainty due to the new COVID-19 variant Omicron. The low interest rates have been a crucial factor in the revival of the demand in the real estate sector. The sector saw a good festive season on the back of rock-bottom interest rates on home loans along with festive offers from good developers. The buyers are already coming back to the market and we feel that this might be the last opportunity for the homebuyers to purchase property with low interest rates before RBI decides to hike it in their next policy announcement. Also, to keep the prices down on the account of rise in raw materials prices will be a huge challenge in front of the developers.”
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Ms. Shraddha Kedia-Agarwal, Director, Transcon Developers
“RBI maintaining status quo on key policy rates was expected given the inflationary concerns in recent months. The decision will help to sustain liquidity for some period amid the rising fear due to the new Omicron variant of Covid-19. 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 also help in sustaining economic stability as well as keep the real estate sector stay afloat during these unprecedented times.”
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Mr. Kaushal Agarwal – Chairman, The Guardians Real Estate Advisory
“The RBI and the MPC’s decision to maintain an accommodative stance amid global scare due to new coronavirus variant Omicron was very much expected. Their 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. The various policy reforms along with the all-time low housing loan rates have given the much-required fillip to sales activity in the last few quarters. The all-time low rates regime has boosted the housing demand and helped the economy to get back to the pre-COVID levels.”
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Mr. Bhushan Nemlekar, Director, Sumit Woods Limited
“The RBI’s decision to maintain its accommodative stance was on the expected lines in light of the rising cases due to the Covid-19 new variant Omicron and its potential to cause the on-going economic recovery to stumble. The prevailing low home loan rates are already enticing for homebuyers which has immensely benefited the real estate sector. The Government will continue taking affirmative measures as long as it is necessary to revive the economy and alleviate the Covid-19 impact.”
