“Under section 54 of the Income Tax Act, long-term capital gains from sales of existing house can be utilized in buying or constructing a new property. If the investment for exemption is done through an under-construction property, it can be claimed only if the construction of the property is completed within three years of sale of the earlier house. Residential projects are continuously increasing in scale in terms of number of units, height and amenities which causes them to have completion timelines in excess of three years. Also, while the implementation of RERA has caused an improvement, the completion timelines of under-construction projects frequently exceed deadlines. This causes significant hindrances to homebuyers in setting-off capital gains in under-construction properties. To mitigate this, we recommend that the completion timeline of under-construction properties be extended to five years instead of the existing three,” Baijal said.