Budget 2017: Jaitley brings affordable housing under 'infrastructure' umbrella

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday brought affordable housing under infrastructure sector, thereby extending benefits to those investing in building low-cost homes.

The announcement made by the Finance Minister in his Union Budget speech for 2017-18 is expected to extend sops to the segment not already covered under the Prime Minister's housing scheme as the new measures will reduce costs for developers and attract investors.

"The government has been pushing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet project of providing about 20 million houses across India by 2020," said Jaitley.

The new status will augment resource allocation for the sector, which in turn will rev up housing supply and reduce huge demand backlog, Jaitley said while highlighting that bank lending rates including those for housing loans are already coming down due to surplus liquidity created due to demonetization.

He further said the government will define affordable housing or low-cost housing clearly to ensure that funds from various projects can't be taken out before completion of the project.

He also announced that the 'National housing bank' will provide 200 billion rupees for housing loans, which will enable allocation for the infrastructure sector.