The real estate sector is obviously not without its own hopes from the first GST Council meeting of Modi 2.0. Reducing the GST rate for cement from the current 28 percent slab to 18 percent had been a long-standing demand of industry stakeholders. That said, while the announcement of such a reduction would certainly help developers, the 'real' question is whether homebuyers would benefit.

This depends on whether the benefits of the reduced cost of raw materials is actually passed on to the consumers. It brings to mind a similar question related to home loan rates vis-a-vis RBI's announcement of repo rate reductions. The actual transmission of such reductions to home loan borrowers has been minimal, even though the RBI lowered its repo rates three consecutive times.