the growth in the residential real estate sales has been healthy at 49 in the top seven cities in the first half of fy2023 on the back of improved affordability and robust enduser demand following increasing proportion of population aspiring for home ownershipupgrading homesthe top seven cities include mumbai metropolitan region mmr national capital region ncr bengaluru hyderabad pune kolkata chennaifurther increase in the income tax benefit available on interest paid on the housing loans availed by buyers from rs 2 lakh to rs 4 lakh can support the growth of the sector and have spillover benefits for other sectors additionally increase in the deduction limit under section 80c could provide higher income tax benefits on the principal payment on the home loans enhanced tax concessions on income from renting of housing properties and removing taxation on notional rental income on the second house completed nonselfoccupied can boost demand for new propertiesthe pradhan mantri awas yojana pmay played a pivotal role in improving home ownership for the low to middle income population continued support to such schemes through budgetary and extra budgetary allocations is expected the pending expenditure on pmay is over rs 1 lakh crore while the allocation was rs 48000 crore in fy2023 budget estimate this allocation needs to be ramped up to rs 76000 crore in the forthcoming budget to meet the target of constructing 50 million dwelling units under the pmayto address the challenge of large stuck units the special window for affordable midincome housing swamih fund was announced in november 2019 with a target fund raise of rs 25000 crore out of which it raised rs 10000 crore from the government and remaining from large institutional investors including lic hdfc and sbi there are 46 lakh unfinished residential units in the countryaugmentation of the budgetary allocation for the swamih fund will support the completion of a wider gamut of incomplete real estate projects in the country and in the processbring relief to buyers icra estimates that an additional allocation of rs 52000 crore is needed in the union budget for fy2024 to support the completion of the 46 lakh stuck units in the countrythe government and the psus continue to hold significant welllocated and noncore land banks across the country following the announcement made in the budget for fy2022 the national land monetisation corporation nlmc was set up to pursue the monetisation of this land bank however additional thrust is needed to expedite the process of divestmentmonetisation of the surplus land bank of the governmentcentral agencies which will improve the availability of land for real estate development and also unlock value for the governmentanupama reddy vicepresident and cogroup head icra limited