Monthly Archives: May 2012

Aliens Group Recently has Won 2 International Property Awards Asia Pacific 2012

May 4, 2012 – 6:24 pm

Aliens Group, a pioneering construction and infrastructure company, headquartered at Hyderabad has won two prestigious international property awards – ‘Highly Commended Apartment’ and ‘Highly Commended Mixed-Use Development’ for its project Space Station at Gachibowli, Hyderabad.

The best developments, architecture and interior design from across the length and breadth of the Asia Pacific region were celebrated at the J W Marriott Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Leading property professionals behind these outstanding projects were invited to attend the Asia Pacific Property Awards in association with HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad and the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors Asia to receive their accolades.

With over 200 participating companies from India and over 600 companies from the Asia Pacific Region, Aliens Group emerged as one of the promising companies to win International Property Awards ( Asia Pacific ) 2012. The Asia Pacific Property Awards are part of the long established International Property Awards and its award winners’ logo is recognized as a symbol of excellence throughout the global industry. Winning two of these coveted awards is an indisputable evidence of Aliens Group’s ability to stand out amongst exceedingly strong contenders within the highly competitive Asia Pacific property arena, which included major Indian companies.

Judging was carried out through a meticulous process involving a panel of over 60 experts covering every aspect of the property business. The next stage of the awards’ programme was for top scoring five-star winners of each category to be re-judged against those from the other regions to determine the ultimate winners.

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Power Of Attorney For All the Property Deals got Banned

May 4, 2012 – 3:35 pm

In an order that puts thousands of property transactions in Delhi under a cloud, the revenue department has made all realty sales through transfer of general power of attorney null and void with retrospective effect from October last year.

The order, dated April 27, directs all 13 sub-registrar offices, DDA and NDMC to follow the Supreme Court’s order last October that no sale deed will be registered if it is through a GPA transfer. This means transactions carried out since October on GPA transfers will have to be registered afresh with complete documents.

On average, around 20% of registries are done through GPA transfers, a common way of selling leasehold properties and those that don’t have a clear title. In Delhi’s northwest district, for instance, of 5,300 documents registered across three sub-registrar offices in March, 1,157 were GPA transfer registries. Bankers said the proportion of GPA transfers were even higher in sales involving bank loans.

Top revenue department officials steered clear of taking responsibility for the delay in implementing the Supreme Court order. They said that as this was a Supreme Court order, it should have been implemented at the sub-registrar offices since October. They admitted, however, that registrars have only stopped registering such sale deeds after the April 27 directive from the revenue secretary and divisional commissioner Vijay Dev.

Realty watchers said the order will reduce the number of saleable properties in the capital and lead to a hike in the value of properties on freehold land.

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Mumbai Builders Strike Plan Dropped

May 3, 2012 – 12:54 pm

Mumbai builders have called off their strike scheduled for May 3.

The Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry and the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India had called for a one-day token strike protesting the delay in project approvals and against the State Government’s move to establish a housing regulator.

The Builders Association of India too decided to participate in the strike. Addressing media persons here on Wednesday, Mr Paras Gundecha, President, said the Chief Minister, Mr Prithviraj Chavan, met the association on Tuesday and assured the members that all issues concerning builders would be addressed.

Mr Gundecha said MCHI also made a presentation to Mr Chavan on the issue faced by developers and sought a single window clearance for housing projects. The Chief Minister had also made it clear that the government’s priority was to build affordable housing stock, he said.

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Delhi is Faster in Selling Homes Than Mumbai

May 3, 2012 – 12:53 pm

Mumbai may be second to Delhi in unsold homes, but it will take longer to sell them. Real estate developers in the financial capital must wait over three years to clear 1.13 lakh units or 120 million sq ft as high prices deter potential buyers, shows a study released by Liases Foras, a real estate rating and research consultant.

The study covers units in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) — including Mumbai city, Thane, Kalyan and Navi Mumbai — National Capital Region in Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai. NCR, with 232.57 million square feet or 1.60 lakh units of unsold homes — roughly double Mumbai’s —will likely sell homes much faster, in 23 months.

“The NCR market is primarily an investor market and has very little comparison with Mumbai,” says Om Ahuja, chief executive officer (residential services) at Jones Lang LaSalle India. “The real estate market in areas like Gurgaon or Noida attracts a lot of money from neighbouring states like Punjab, UP and Delhi as people invest in residential properties.” Among the six metros, Pune homes will be sold the fastest, taking just 14 months to sell its 43.06 m sq ft at the current pace of buying. A steep rise in interest rates in the last 18 months was seen as the key reason for low sales as buyers try to avoid high home loan instalments.

The Reserve Bank of India cut key rates by 50 basis points last month, forcing lenders to lower their retail lending rates which could push sales.

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Course on Real Estate Industry Attracts Youths

May 2, 2012 – 6:19 pm

With the boom of real estate industry across the country, it seems the youths are not just concentrating on good communication skills and sound knowledge of geographical area to become a good realtor, but are now looking at courses on real estate industry to get the professional touch. An industry report filed by leading real estate intelligence firm, Jones Lang Lasalle, India, has debated if a career in real estate in the country is apt right now.

Debating whether the Indian real estate industry is the right place to start a career, Sameer Khanna, Head, Human Resources, Jones Lang Lasalle India, noted that compared to developed countries, the Indian real estate sector still lacks sophistication and transparency. Further Sameer Khanna explained, “However, it is popular for domestic and international investments. This has resulted in the need for better and capable human resources. Though real estate is not nuclear science, there are complexities involved.”

What courses to pick?

While the real estate industry is changing fast, a lot of professionalism is coming in, as many major international players; developers are introducing best practices and higher transparency. “People equipped with the know-how, training and professionalism are in high demand, and are paid correspondingly,” experts revealed.

Why are city students interested?

While many students are choosing the course out of interest, many others enter the trade to see if the industry is challenging. Further, there are the third kind, who has families and forefathers who have been an integral part of the industry and are looking at entering the trade, with a professional course. “I do not know much about this industry but I have enrolled myself for this course because it seems interesting. So far the only role that interests me is one related to analysing the market,” said Shreeti Dey, a student.

 

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Tata Housing Development will represent APAC in London at the International Property Awards

May 1, 2012 – 5:01 pm

Tata Housing Development Company (Tata Housing), India’s fastest growing real estate development company, with over 46 million sq ft under various stages of development, has once again triumphed at the most prestigious Asia Pacific Property Awards 2012 (part of the International Property Awards), for the fourth year in a row, bagging five coveted awards under various categories.

Tata Housing is the country’s only residential developer to receive the prestigious five-star award in the Leisure Architecture category for La Montana; highly commended awards in the Show Home category for Prive and Primanti; highly commended award in the Development Marketing category for La Montana; highly commended developer website for www.lamontana.co.in.

Additionally, La Montana, a Mediterranean-themed township located at Talegaon, designed by international architect firm F + A, was adjudged as an Asian contender in the Leisure Architecture category, to compete against the highest-scoring contenders from Europe, Africa, the Americas and Arabia, to find the ultimate ‘world’s best’.

Speaking on the achievement Brotin Banerjee, managing director and chief executive officer, Tata Housing, said, “At Tata Housing, it’s our constant endeavour to create benchmark projects based on the consumer’s needs and requirement. We are proud of our continued success at the Asia Pacific Property Awards. This year is special for us as our project La Montana achieved the distinction of winning the five-star rating for Best Leisure Architecture India, and it leads from the Asia Pacific region to be honoured with Best Leisure Architect Residential Asia Pacific. It is indeed a very proud moment for us as this is the only residential project to be nominated from India to represent the Asia Pacific region for the International Property Awards. This will strengthen our commitment to create landmark projects in the country.”

Held in association with Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Asia, the Asia Pacific Property Awards recognises 40 categories of distinction within the fields of development, interior design, architecture and real estate. Each project was judged by a team of 65 professionals from the property discipline. They are ascertained based on quality of design, construction and presentation of individual properties as well as interior, architecture and marketing.

The Asia Pacific Property Awards are part of the long-established International Property Awards and its winners’ logo is recognised as a symbol of excellence throughout the global industry. Founded 18 years ago, these accolades distinguish excellence in the property industry worldwide, and promote international standards. For the last four years consecutively, Tata Housing has been acknowledged with multiple accolades at this prestigious annual symposium, demonstrating that it is again at the forefront of the real estate industry in Asia.

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Infinite India Invests $13M in Pune Project

May 1, 2012 – 1:19 pm

JM Financial group promoted Infinite India Investment Management has invested $13 million through its realty fund Infinite India Real Estate Fund in Pune-based developer Kumar Urban Development Ltd’s (KUL) residential project, said sources close to the development.

The source privy to the development said the transaction has been inked recently for an equity stake in a high end residential project which would have developed area of 1million sqft in Pune. The exact size of the stake sale could not be ascertained. Infinite India Investment Management declined to comment on the transaction. When contacted by VCCircle, KUL chairman Lalit Kumar Jain confirmed that the firm has raised capital but did not immediately share name of the investor or the deal amount.

At present KUL have 12 on going residential projects in Pune, five in Mumbai and one in Panchgani, all in Maharashtra. Two years ago KUL was looking to raise Rs 450 crore through an initial public offering (IPO) which didn’t materialise. Half of the amount was to be used to repay high cost debt taken from Standard Chartered and ICICI Bank among others at an average debt cost of 15 per cent. It then came up with the plan to raise private equity funding for its projects and last year managed to rise close to $65 million for some of the projects.

Infinite India Investment Management had first launched the realty fund as an equal equity joint venture with SRS Fund and it had plans to invest $400million. JM Financial bought out the JV partner’s stake in April 2010 and since then it has been investing on its own.

Some of its previous deals include $6 million investment in a residential development project of Windshield Developers in Pune besides its agreement with PVR for buying out the multiplex chain’s property located in Phoenix Mills in Lower Parel, Mumbai for Rs 100 crore in May 2011.

 

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