Access, MTD Walkers to gain with budget’s housing and construction proposals
View(s):Proposals aimed at housing and construction in the recent budget will see listed firms such as Access Engineering and MTD Walkers reap gains, analysts say.
Housing aimed at resettlement, affordable housing, and accommodation for plantations sector housing conversion, housing for rural areas, and additional housing on presidential initiative, rural drip irrigation and rainwater harvesting were proposed at the budget.
This was in response to a call for state support for cheaper housing catering to middle and lower income segments by certain builders. According to analysts, Sri Lanka has the most extensive of duty structures. “Due to this, the cost for builders has increased,” an analyst told the Business Times.
He said that particularly as a result of revisions to Government policy over the past year, including the removal of tax concessions for real-estate development, newer entrants into the apartment development industry will find it difficult to compete with established players who were able to open properties in the recent past. “In that regard, we anticipate an impending contraction in supply and an increase in demand, meaning that the market’s best window for investment into the real-estate sector would be within the over the next three year horizon.”
The budget has said that with the fast growing middle income group in the country, the demand for affordable housing needs Government’s intervention, especially in the emerging urban hubs.
Building 20,000 housing units under the Urban Regeneration Project for the low income segment, a programme to construct houses in the North and the East, 25,000 houses to be provided for plantation sector employees, the township and strategic city development programme covering Kandy, Anuradhapura, Galle and the Jaffna Districts, will all benefit construction firms at large, another analyst said. “”It is encouraging to see that the Government remains committed to infrastructure development,” he added.