Real estate sector is broadly classified into residential, retail & commercial. The real estate sector is second only to agriculture in terms of employment generation and contributes heavily towards the gross domestic product (GDP). Almost five per cent of the country's GDP is contributed to by the housing sector. Almost 80 per cent of real estate developed ...more

Real estate sector is broadly classified into residential, retail & commercial. The real estate sector is second only to agriculture in terms of employment generation and contributes heavily towards the gross domestic product (GDP). Almost five per cent of the country's GDP is contributed to by the housing sector. Almost 80 per cent of real estate developed in India is residential space, the rest comprising of offices, shopping malls, hotels and hospitals. A Real Estate Investment Trust or REIT is a tax designation for a corporation investing in real estate that reduces or eliminates corporate income taxes. In return, REITs are required to distribute 90% of their income, which may be taxable, into the hands of the investors. REITs can be classified as equity, mortgage or hybrid. The key rate cuts or hike by Reserve Bank of India does impact the real estate companies as housing loans are directly correlated to the changes in rate made by RBI. The Floor Area Ratio (FAR) or Floor Space Index (FSI) is the ratio of the total floor area of buildings on a certain location to the size of the land of that location, or the limit imposed on such a ratio. A land bank is a bank that issues long-term loans on real estate in return for mortgages. The term also refers to Land banking the buying and holding (rather than developing) of land for future development or use.  hide