Real estate firm Akruti City Ltd plans to make its first international foray in the Middle East later this year, with projects in both residential and commercial segments. Mr.Vyomesh Shah Managing Director of Akruti said, “We had sent our team to study the Middle East market and they came back with very encouraging growth prospects”. Read More
Monthly Archives: March 2008
Triangle RE fund to raise $500 m for Indian realty
March 31, 2008 – 5:45 am
To cash in on the growth of organised retail in India, UK and South Africa-based real estate investment groups have launched retail property focused Triangle Real Estate Fund (TREF) for India. The $500 million fund will be routed through Mauritius and will be managed by Property Zone – a joint venture between Old Mutual Investment Group Property investment Ltd., South Africa and ICS Realty Private Limited, India.
Strutt & Parker Real Estate Financial Service Limited (SPREFS) has been appointed as UK and European placing agent. “Unlike most other real estate investors, the fund will dedicatedly concentrate on tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India.
Four projects in cities of Aurangabad, Jaipur, Indore and Nagpur have been selected for the first phase of investment. Surat is also being considered,” Nick Harvey Jones of SPREF told DNA Money.
“It is a high net worth investor fund which requires minimum investment of $5,00,000 form an individual and $5 million form institutional investors,” he added.
Two deals, consisting of 11 projects and having cumulative worth over $200 million, are in the pipeline.
Rani Mukherjee caught in Land Scam
March 29, 2008 – 8:34 am
Actress Rani Mukherjee will have to pay Rs 66 lakh to the Maharashtra state government to get back ownership of a plot that she had ‘purchased’ from a real estate agent in Shirdi. Read More
Amrapali Group Invests In Hotel Projects
March 29, 2008 – 2:28 am
Amrapali Group, a UP-based real estate developer, will be investing about Rs 600 crore in different hotel projects in 2008. These hotel projects are under different levels of construction in different parts of India, primarily the north Indian cities, like Bareilly, Vrindavan, Greater Noida, Udaipur, Indore and Jaipur. The upcoming properties will comprise all categories, from budget hotels to 5-star properties. Read More
Deutsche Bank Picks Up 40 Percent Stake In Ramprastha
March 29, 2008 – 2:27 am
Deutsche Bank has raise up close to 40 percent stake in Ramprastha Promoters and Developers. Ramprastha Promotors and Developers is a group company owned by Delhi-based Ramprastha Group for $80 million. Ramprastha Promoters and Developers have been primarily engaged in developing housing projects in the national capital region (NCR).
Wait and watch before investing
March 28, 2008 – 3:13 am
An international real estate agent Knight Frank predicts that the Indian property boom which lasted for the majority of 2007 is likely to continue into 2008, but it could be tempered by the credit crunch. For the same reason he advising buyers to “wait and watch for a month” before deciding to invest. Read More
Rahejas challenge Goa Govt’s order to scrap SEZ
March 28, 2008 – 3:11 am
Rahejas, the real estate major, has challenged the Goa government’s decision to scrap the approved SEZ before the Bombay High Court. A senior company official said, “We have already made it clear that our SEZ was non-polluting and as such has no reason for the government to stop it. We have invested a lot of money on the project”. Further he asked, “We need to know on what ground it was scrapped”. Read More
Bangalore’s growth is filling profit in its pocket
March 26, 2008 – 6:21 am
On analysis of the growth pattern of Bangalore, we witness a push for developments in the North of Bangalore comprising of Banaswadi, Peenya Industrial estate, Yashwantpur and Yelahanka. The growth shift has been attributed to the development of International airport in Devanahalli. The road from Bellary road to Yelahanka is witnessing rapid residential development. Prices have raised sharply ranging between Rs.3,000-10,000 per square feet for residential and Rs.2,000-7,000 per square feet for commercial purpose. The trend is expected to remain positive in the area with the international airport acting as a catalyst for growth.
The south of Bangalore has been growing due to Electronic City- a hub of IT/ITES offices in the city. Electronic city is located in the outskirts of Bangalore in an area of 332 acres and is home for the IT behemoths including Hewlett Packard, Infosys, Siemens and Wipro. Sarjapur road is another promising area in the south of the city. Jaynagar, J.P Nagar, BTM layout are the areas adjoining to Electronic city which are developed primarily as residential areas. Prices in the South have witnessed an increase in 2007 by approximately 5.6% with prices ranging between Rs.2,800-7,000 per square feet for residential and Rs.3,500-7,000 per square feet for commercial.
East of Bangalore has grown till Whitefield, which is rapidly developing as a commercial area. Though the connectivity to this part is not up to the mark (au courant), initiatives of government are underway in the form of metro rail and improved road connectivity. Kormangala, Indiranagar and Hosur road are the prime areas. Prices in the East have remained stable with price ranging between Rs.2,500-7,700 per square feet for residential and Rs.3,000-8,000 for commercial.
West of Bangalore has predominantly been in the focus of residential development with prime areas being Malleshwaram, Rajaji nagar and Chord Road. Being a residential area, the prices have comparatively been stable hovering between Rs.2,000-6,500 per square feet for residential and Rs.3,000-6,000 per square feet for commercial.
Asian and European market are about to fall like US
March 25, 2008 – 6:51 am
As per the experts, real estate market in india, china, and european countries are going to be attractive because of th edownfall in US and this is creating Asian market more attractive to do business. But is this really going to be the exact picture as per the experts or the aftermaths are goin to be different as the real estate markets in india. china and europe are not even that immune to face the real estate forces around the world. Its really hard to differentiate between reasonable hype and falsehood created by the present-age media.
India, china are offereing huge opportunities in real estate sector to attract the global market towards themselves as their main lender gone bankrupt, yes i am talking about US here which has been facing economic crisis and US downturn is already spilling over European countries. As a result of this sooner or later this downturn wil also spill over to Asia as well.
The prices are going high and when this down fall hits the Asia, it will spill the Asian economy as well. Its easy to say that the Asia have attractive opportunity but they have a sword as well which is being hanging on their necks for a uncertain time.
Weak market to take toll on Real Estate
March 25, 2008 – 4:19 am
MUMBAI:Monday the stock exchange goes down by 950 points made the real estate industry jittery and on edge.Its really a bad news for the property investors to know the way market is reacting these days and really they would be facing some more problems till it become stable atleast.
Pujit Aggrawal Developer from Orbit explains that sales has came to the grinding halt of commercial and residential sector, over the past three moths. He added “Property prices are about to fall by 30% in an year or next 18 month.”
Mr Aggrawal Added, The demand for commercial space has gone down because it was driven 50% by the financial institutions. If the markets contuniues to fall like this a huge corrections can be seen in the places like Thane, Jogeshwari and beyond will see huge corrections.In the past couple of months teh stock market has fallen down by 35% approx, said HDFC Chief Deepak Parekh. The rationale is that when the stock market is bullish, people are more comfortable buying property. Now that there is a hit, the real estate market is bound to slow down.
He further added, “Investors have withdrawn from the real estate market. There may not be an impact on prices in south Mumbai, but certainly in other cities like Gurgaon, Noida, Bangalore and Hyderabad.”
Real estate values are correcting accross india and hope fully it will stop the illogical land evaluation, said Chanakya Chakravarty, MD of Actis Advisors.But the stock market fall will hit the sentiments badly and investors will take the time to invest more in this market situation .
Indiabulls arm gets power project in Chhattisgarh
March 19, 2008 – 2:57 am
Indiabulls Power is learnt to have won the bid to set up the 1,600-mw Bhaiyathan power project in Chhattisgarh, a pit-head power project that also includes a 350-million-tonne coal block.
According to sources close to the development, the Chhattisgarh government is likely to soon announce the deal. Sterlite Industries and the GMR group were the other two major bidders for the project.
Read More
Real Estate Companies planning for Low-Cost Residential Projects
March 19, 2008 – 1:45 am
NEW DELHI: Playing on the basic economics of small margins-high volume, realty majors are now adding low-cost residential projects to their portfolio. Omaxe, DLF, Ansal API, Parsvnath, BPTP, et al are setting their eyes on the small and mid-income home buyer segment and lining up projects which will meet the aam aadmi’s need. Read More
MMRDA Auction Bids
March 18, 2008 – 11:44 pm
MUMBAI: The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) on Tuesday auctioned three plots in city’s Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) for Rs 1,322 crore.
It’s a far cry from the Rs 2,790 crore the authority earned just three months ago for a similar transaction, confirming what every real estate player has dreaded so far, the slowdown in Mumbai’s property market is finally real.
The slump in the real estate market is also being attributed to the turbulence in the equities market and a slowdown in Indian industrial production figures on concerns that the recession in the US and financial liquidity problems may adversely impact India. It could be for the first time since 1995 that the MMRDA is getting a poor response to its land auction.
The MMRDA had put 5 plots on auction in the G-Block of Bandra-Kurla Complex, 2 commercial, 2 residential and a club house. However, it did not open the bids for one of the commercial plots, while there were no bidders for the club house property.
MMRDA officials said the authority sold the 3 plots, 2 residential and 1 commercial, to pharma tycoon Ajay Piramal-promoted Starlight Systems and Jet Airways, respectively. Starlight quoted Rs 248 crore each for the two residential plots measuring 7,050 sq m.
Slow Down Of Real Estate Business In Delhi
March 18, 2008 – 6:41 am
NEW DELHI: While the bears are ruling the stock market, there is a different asset class where the bulls are keeping away. Speculative investors in real estate market are retreating, at least in the Delhi-NCR region.
Some foremost developers based in the region say it is becoming more and more complicated for them to sell flats at launch stage due to lack of interest from speculators. This reflects on the inherent demand structure in the real estate market.
Developers attribute this to stability in prices as against the past where prices were shooting up on a monthly basis. They add that the difficulty in booking flats may delay projects and reduce their pricing power, “A year ago, if we were selling over 100 flats in a month at launch stage, we now sell only 30-40 per month. Speculators, who would earlier frenetically book flats at the pre-launch stage only, have now disappeared,” said a senior executive of a real estate firm.
Till mid-2007, speculators made quick money by booking multiple flats at the launch of a project and exiting within a few weeks or months. But now, Omaxe executive director Vipin Aggarwal says, “The property prices have stabilised with little scope for speculators to make such big gains in the short term, leading to their retreat.”
Holding Company ‘Dubai Properties Group’ Launched to Further Consolidate Operations
March 17, 2008 – 2:15 am
Leading master real estate developer Dubai Properties, a member of Dubai Holding, on 16th march revamped its corporate structure and pronounced the establishment of a fresh holding company – Dubai Properties Group – combining all its existing businesses into separate business unit, and fetching them under one roof organization.
The new group structure consist 6 business components whose focal point will be real estate verticals like hospitality, property services, international investments and real estate development. Every entity will operate as a separate business subsidiary within the Dubai Properties Group, individually responsible for the unit’s management systems, strategic planning and business results.
Reflecting its parent company Dubai Holding’s mission, Dubai Properties Group will also look for investment opportunities on a worldwide level, launching an aggressive expansion and diversification drive to double its investment portfolio up to seven hundred billion over the next three years.
More over to Dubai Properties, which has notched quite a few milestones in the real estate market, the new group structure comprises Dubai Asset Management, Dubai Retail and Dubai Hospitality.
REITs For Booming Real Estate
March 17, 2008 – 12:33 am
SINGAPORE, March 17 – The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said on Monday that it was looking at the introduction of real estate investment trusts (REITs), but this will come only after other financial market liberalisation moves.
“We have got remarks from market players. I would say that in the timetable, that will be later than the stock lending scheme and currency futures,” the stock market regulator’s chairman C. B. Bhave told an investment conference in Singapore via teleconference.
SEBI in December released draft guidelines on setting up REITs in India, which would pave the way for wider participation by retail investors in the country’s booming real estate sector.
Regulators are also mulling over the introduction of currency futures to help investors hedge foreign exchange risks, and a new system for the borrowing and lending of securities.
Unitech, Indiabulls defer REITs listing
March 14, 2008 – 1:14 am
Unitech and Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd (IBREL) have deferred the listing of their respective real estate investment trusts (REITs) on the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) owing to the liquidity crunch in the global markets.
Both Unitech and IBREL have received approval from the SGX for the initial public offers (IPOs) of their trusts.
The move closely follows a similar decision by DLF, India’s largest real estate company, on its property trust.
The companies are now exploring private placements with global finance majors for their expansion plans.
DLF, which had plans to raise nearly Rs 8,000 crore from the listing of its property trust, will now raise nearly Rs 2,000 crore from domestic financial institutions. Read More
Citi And Merrill Likely To Invest Rs 2000 Crore In DLF Realty
March 13, 2008 – 4:49 am
NEW DELHI: Global financial firms Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and DE Shaw are likely to invest Rs 2,000 crore or $500 million in the DLF Assets’ (DAL) real estate investment trust(REIT), according to sources. The transaction is likely to be completed by early next week. Part of DLF Group, the largest real estate developer in the country, DAL is focused on buying and managing office space. Read More
HBS Offers Seminar in India
March 12, 2008 – 6:40 am
Real estate executives seeking a Harvard Business School education can take a seminar in a prime new location this June.
The South Asia Real Estate Seminar, a collaborative effort between the HBS Executive Education Program and the HBS Indian Research Center, will offer a four-day workshop in Hyderabad, India that aims to connect experienced executives in real estate with HBS faculty familiar with current industry research.
Read More
Top property Investing Countries in the World
March 11, 2008 – 7:31 am
LONDON:- Survey of 485 real estate investors sees UK capital slump to 15th spot on fears over exposure to financial sector.
Moscow and Istanbul have displaced London and Paris as the top-ranked cities for real estate investment prospects, according to a Price water house Coopers survey published today.
This is the first time in the survey’s five year history that London has not featured in the top two. Paris still makes the top five behind Hamburg and Munich, but London has tumbled to 15th in the rankings from second in 2007.
Moscow and Istanbul also topped the development prospects league table, as survey respondents cited the need to investigate new markets. However, Moscow was ranked the riskiest city in the survey, followed by Athens and Budapest.
Goa Real Estate, Developments With Full Amenities, Appeals International Community
March 11, 2008 – 5:59 am
Goa is the smallest state in the Indian Union is located on its western coast. This erstwhile Portuguese colony is a prime vacation destination for international and Indian tourists alike. Goa borders the Arabian Sea and the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka, and two of its greatest attractions are its laid-back pace of life and its 105 km long coastline, which is made up of several white sand beaches.
Read More
Real Estate International Mortgage Marketing in Brief
March 10, 2008 – 11:43 pm
Mortgage lending rose 160 % previous year, bringing the total to 611 billion rubles ($25 billion), Vedomosti reported last week, citing the Central Bank. Sberbank and VTB Group, the country’s first- and second-biggest lenders, respectively, saw their share of the total rise to 70 % from 55 %, said Vasily Belov, general director of mortgage brokers Fosborn Home, the newspaper reported.
Rs Two Thousand Crore Budget Booster For SIDBI To Lend More
March 10, 2008 – 10:52 am
With the support of a fund of two thousand crore, announced in the Union Budget of this financial year, for improving credit flow to small and medium firms, the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) will build up its strong presence in industrial sector. Read More
The local builder will not participate the mega goa show
March 10, 2008 – 10:49 am
March 8, 2008, Panaji. Although Times Business Solutions Limited has invited a lot of local real estate developers and builders to take part in its grand Exclusive Goa Property Show to be held in New Delhi, on March 15th and 16th, most of them have decided not to attend the event, hence leaving the field wide open for the builders based in Delhi, Mumbai and other cities.
Goa property show in Delhi
March 8, 2008 – 3:35 am
Panaji; The extensively promoted ‘Exclusive Goa Property Show’ scheduled at New Delhi, organised by Times Business Solutions Ltd, an enterprise of The Times of India Group, looked headed for some controversy with Goa’s internationally reputed fashion designer Mr Wendell Rodricks turning down their invitation to open the show.The show is at the famous Tivoli Garden-chatterpur temple near mehrauli, on 15-16 March 2008 .
The property show, explained by the company as a “Premium real estate event” is billed as one of the biggest shows for developers interested in selling and buying prime properties in Goa.
Addressing a press conference, at the historic Azad Maidan, in the city, on 07th march, Mr Rodricks said, “I am alarmed and concerned, and implore and beg to Goan developers not to sell the land for money but to undertake development which would support progress of the tourism sector.”
Mr Rodricks further said that the government needs to take steps and position as to what the unique selling point (USP) of Goa, is?. “The government has to take a stand as regards the people who are coming here and trying to kill the main ingredient (read as identity),” he said, adding “which would result in properties coming up on green hills.”
Aaround 60 developers have been invited to participate in the “Sell Goa” fair, Mr Rodricks said, “This is our land and someone else is selling it.
