Real estate stocks plunged on February 1 after the 2024 Interim Budget did not include any big bang announcements for the sector.
Prestige Estates' stock price fell 2.24%. Other top losers on BSE included Sobha Limited (1.88 per cent), Oberoi Realty (1.59 per cent) and Godrej Properties also fell 0.80 per cent on Thursday.
Meanwhile, shares of Signature Global, a real estate company focused on affordable housing, rose 2.08%.
Housing and Urban Development Corporation, which builds houses for government projects, rose 19.62 per cent on the BSE on Thursday. NBCC also rose 9.78%.
Budget announcement for middle class housing
In her 2024 Budget speech on February 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government will launch a housing scheme where the middle class will be able to buy or build their own homes.
Also read: Real estate budget 2024: Government launches housing scheme for middle class
On Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Rural), she said the government is close to achieving construction of 300 crore houses in rural India and the government will build 200 crore more houses in the next five years under PMAY (Rural). He said he would support the construction of housing.
“As expected, there were no big bang announcements in the Interim Budget 2024, but continued focus on upgrading infrastructure and building connectivity across the country. It will also benefit real estate growth in cities and tier 3 cities,” said Anuj Puri, Chairman, ANAROCK Group.
Samantak Das, chief economist and head of India REIS research at JLL, also said that while the interim budget did not result in a big bang announcement, it focused on fiscal health to maintain the fiscal deficit target at 5.1%. But it continued to push its growth agenda.
