Category: Real Estate Information

Investment on housing plots, how good is it?

Investing on housing plots is better. However the returns from the investment depend on the features and specialties of the housing plots.

Property investment has been in the forefront of investment for a long while. This has been one of the best forms of investment for many reasons. However as the time passed the investment shifted from residential sector to the commercial sector. Read More »

Why Investment in township projects is better?

Township projects remain one of the best options for property investment. They offer easy exit with higher returns.

There is all possibility for infrastructure development around the township projects. The builders do take care that their projects are well-connected and supported by infrastructure. Read More »

Property Investment in Pre-Launch Properties Is Better

If you wish to have some sort of property investment, prelaunch properties would be the better options. Property investment in prelaunch projects offers better returns to the investors.

Seeing the blooming nature of real estate sector, many of the investors are leaping into property investment. Yet they seldom know how to invest wisely. If you wish to become a good investor you should know and how to have property investment. Read More »

Property Investment: Most Preferred and Top Cities Of India

There are many cities emerging in India as hotter destinations for property investment. We have listed them according to the amount of returns they assure.

Property investment is one of the best options of investment in India as they provide better returns to the investors. However before we decide to have Property investment it is highly advisable to know the hot destinations which will offer you comparatively higher returns. Read More »

Indian Real Estate Becomes Branded with Universal Stars

Indian Real Estate Market which is recently moving very slow expects to receive pace and boost from endorsement with universal stars.  Universal stars like Maria Sharapova and Michael Schumacher have recently visited India to endorse real estate projects.

UK centered real estate firm Homestead has bagged Maria Sharapova to promote one of their real estate residential projects in India. The same group had earlier signed with Michael Schumacher as well. Read More »

Smarter Way of Buying a Home.

Profit is the keyword, when it comes to Investment and Investment in real estate rotates around purchase, ownership, management, rental and sale of property.  It involves a lot of planning, especially because of the rapid changes in the economic scenario.

Here’s a checklist of the things you need to keep in mind:

  • The Location: While buying a home, location is the most important factor. It is essential to take several factors into account. If you are to reside in a house, it becomes important to see the other factors such as propinquity to the work place, school, family and friends. No one would mind spending a few lakhs of rupees if the house were close to ones child’s school or ones office.
  • Th Condition of the Home: If you are buying an old house, scrutinize it carefully. No one don’t want to waste a lot of money in repairs later on.
  • Nearness to leisure time areas: You may want to live in a neighborhood with parks, libraries and walking trails, local markets, shopping malls, etc. as these are the points where you can relax or have fun on daily basis and also fulfils your basic needs of life.
  • Future Prospects: You can have an idea about the property by the area is going to develop by looking at the current local real estate trends. Upcoming malls and hotels are a key of the kind of development that the region is expected to undertake. The more developed an area, the more valuable your property becomes. High property values are especially useful when you want to go in for rent out or selling, so that it gives you good profit.
  • Your Neighbors: Try to meet the people living in the neighborhood of the choice of your area. If they are unfriendly to the idea of having you as their neighbor, it’s likely to show in their behavior.
  • Finance: You need to work out the financial implications of buying a home. You will have to decide whether which home loan, which bank at pertaining interest percentage you want to opt for to finance your property. If you already have the money, you need to work out whether investing your money in a property will affect your other expenditures in any way as you may need some for unforeseen emergencies.

IT Majors in big Realty Deals

On the road to rapid recovery from recession, many large IT firms are signing up big commercial real estate deals in different parts of Bangalore.

According to sources, Accenture has committed to take 8 lacs square feet in Pritech Park on the Outer Ring Road in Bangalore. HP and Wipro are said to have recently taken 2.5 lacs square feet and 1.2 lacs square feet respectively in Pritech.

The east and south of Bangalore has been the traditional IT belt, but now the north too is buzzing. IBM, Cognizant, Accenture and HP will be renting space in the second phase of Manyata Embassy Business Park near Hebbal. IBM has committed to 5 lacs square feet of office space in Manyata phase II. The Big Blue has already occupied 3 lacs square feet in the first phase of the park.

There is a lot of demand from IT sector as it continues to expand at the highest rate in Bangalore. Real estate consultancy CBRE estimates that Bangalore has seen absorption of 6.8 million square feet of office space this year. Experts predict that the pan-India office space demand over the next five years is estimated to be about 240 million square feet.  Tier I cities such as, Bangalore, NCR and Mumbai are expected to account for 46% of the total demand. Kolkata and Chennai are likely to see higher growth rates though, with suburban locations having attractive price points, according to a Cushman & Wakefield report.

Chintels India’s New Venture

In a press conference today, Realty firm Chintels India Ltd. said it will invest about Rs 310 cr over the next 3 years to develop a residential project  in the National Capital Region. The company has already acquired 12.3 acres of land for Rs 103 cr. Chintels India Ltd. has been active in the field of real estate in the NCR since 1992.

“This project will be developed in a location next to our ongoing township with Sobha Developers at Gurgaon. We will invest about Rs 205 cr in construction work of this group housing project,” Chintels India Joint Managing Director Prashant Solomon told PTI.

Chintels Serenity, group’s housing project will house 555 flats of 1,720-3,200 square  ft., with prices between Rs 64 lacs and Rs 1.2 cr. Construction is likely to start from May next year. Currently, Chintels India, has a land bank of about 450 acres, and is developing one integrated township and four group housing projects in association with Sobha Developers in Gurgaon.

REAL plans for Godrej

Godrej Properties Limited (GPL), real estate segment of Godrej Group, has revealed its plans for the development of residential housing project at Mohali in Punjab, involving a capital of about four hundred and fifty crore rupees.

The company also has future plans for several cities, including NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Chennai and Chandigarh for development of residential projects in line to cash in on the growing demand for housing from urban sector.

“We are looking to develop a residential project in Mohali with a minimum land of 20-25 acres…we are in talks with certain land owners here for (entering into a) joint venture in this project,” stated the company’s MD Milind Korde.

GPL is already in the process of developing its first Rs 400 crore commercial project in Chandigarh, going to be completed by September next year. Company’s focus towards growing in the real estate sector of northern region can be realized from the fact that it has set up a 3,500 square feet office which will take care of its projects in northern region.

GPL, has presence in 11 cities across country, and plans to develop 83 million square feet of area in the span of next 8 to 10 years. It seems Godrej Properties is also keen on redevelopment of real estate projects particularly in Mumbai as they revealed their plans to go into redevelopment of areas like old buildings, cooperatives society houses and slum area in Mumbai. The company’s has other ongoing projects in Gujarat, Mangalore, Kochi, Chennai, Gurgaon, Pune, Bangalore, and Hyderabad.

Delhi Is The Favorite

According to a recent survey conducted by a leading real estate website Delhi is the most preferred location to buy a house, Mumbai follows next. It is interesting to note that Bangalore and Hyderabad come at the third most favored location for buying property.

Lucknow Properties - Real Estate India - Sushant Golf City Location
Photo by nancyarora2020
The nationwide poll named ‘Realty Trends 2010’ for metros and Tier II cities across the country, which saw participation from over 4,800 property seekers consisted of Majority of the respondents belonging to the age group of 26- 35 years.

The country capital topped the charts with 34 per cent while Mumbai got 28 percent votes. Bangalore received 11 per cent votes in its favor with particularly south Bangalore being preferred the most.

With the introduction of budget 2010 the economy is improving and property prices are stabilizing, this is attracting the investors who restrained from investing last year to jump into the market with full swing.

The survey showed a large number of people looking to purchase a house want it for self-consumption. The figures tell that 67 per cent of the national property seekers want to buy a house for themselves while only 23 per cent are looking for property options from a long-term investment perspective. Short-term investors have only 10 per cent survey takers.

Surely the Indian Real Estate sector is on a roll.

Palm Hills in Gurgaon

One of India`s leading real estate developers, Emaar MGF Land, announced the launch of a new mid-income housing project `Palm Hills` in Gurgaon in NCR. It will be located on NH8 with the prime location in Sector 77, Gurgaon. The total investment will be Rs 500 crore as said by sources on an area spread over approx. 29 acres with a scenic view of the Aravalli Hills.

Palm Hills proposes to house1250 units approximately with an expectation to raise up to Rs 3,850 crore. With a starting price tag  of Rs 48 lakh the company has already sold 650 units in the first phase. These apartments will be giving a feeling of a villa with unique features that no development serves. These will include 3 and 4 bedroom apartments with 1450sq ft to 1950 sq ft per villa. These villas have efficient floor plans and offer us the choice to make amendments to maximize our living space.

Shravan Gupta, executive vice chairman and managing director of Emaar MGF said, “The launch of Palm Hills marks the obligation of Emaar MGF to continuously develop properties with modern design concepts  and gives the experience of living in a gated master planned community a new definition. “The exhilarating response on the very first day of the project launch is an indication to the predominating huge demand for quality housing in the mid-market segment” he added.

Palm Hills are located at only a 20 min drive from Delhi`s International Airport and surrounded with green landscaped areas with a tinch of Spanish styling architecture.

The rocketing success of Emaar MGF can be guessed by taking a look at their reserves.they have a land bank of 11,340 acres.including the Commonwealth Games Village it is currently working on 29 projects.

Snowy palms in Beacon Hill
Emaar MGF which is a joint venture between domestic firm MGF and Dubai-based Emaar Properties is planning to utilize Rs 1,972 crfor part re-payment of debt of over Rs 5,800 cr. It will also be investing Rs 276.8 cr in paying development and licence renewal charges.

A Model real estate bill by housing ministry


For promoting a planned and healthy real estate development of colonies and apartments in big cities, Union Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Ministry has drafted a bill and invited suggestions from experts.

Kumari Selja-Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister- said, “The government has taken a major initiative in the shape of a model Real Estate (Regulation of Development) Act for which the ministry has held preliminary discussions with various stakeholders”.

She added that a draft bill to promote planned and healthy real estate development of colonies and apartments, with a view to protecting consumer interest and facilitating smooth and speedy urban construction, has been placed on the website of the ministry for comments from experts and public.

The ministry is also encouraging institutionalized financing and formal channels of credit.

NHB Residex to cover cities with over 1 million population

National Housing Bank (NHB) aims to cover all cities with population of over one million under its NHB Residex, which is the country’s first official residential property price index.
Currently, the NHB Residex gives relative movement of residential property prices in different localities in fifteen cities.
According to Mr S. Sridhar, Chairman of NHB, “By the end of next year, we want to cover sixty-three cities — all cities with over one million population”.
He also said that NHB Residex will be available on a half-yearly basis from now. The values for the index are derived from the market, and not from Government data.

Temasek look at Prestige

HDFC Property Ventures and Temasek are in talks to invest about Rs 625 crore in the Bangalore-headquartered Prestige Group, as cash-hungry real estate companies continue to tap private equity funds to meet critical funding needs.

HDFC’s real estate fund along with Singapore’s Temasek is in discussions with Prestige, which is seeking a valuation of $1 billion for its business. But the deal could take some time to fructify as both sides need to iron out a number of issues, including pricing.

Prestige Estates is seeking a valuation of about $1 billion. It is not clear if Temasek and HDFC are willing to do a deal at that price. They may look at something between $800 million and just under $1 billion.

The two funds may jointly pick up a little over 15% stake in Prestige Estates Projects, valuing the holding entity of the southern real estate major anywhere between $800 million and $1 billion.

Small cities are getting more interest

Real estate
Due to the major hike in property prices in metros most of the people are showing interest for small cities. The new name in this list is the Neharpar city in Faridabad. Buyers as well as developers are started looking at Neharpar as the emerging real estate investment destination. It is supposed to become the big realty junction of NCR in near future. The development work is going on its best in this city and the most attracting point is that prices are much affordable.

Omaxe subsidiary will develop township

Twin Towers by Omaxe at NOIDA
Photo by vm2827
Construction firm Omaxe said its subsidiary has entered into an agreement with Allahabad Development Authority for the development of a township in Allahabad.

Pancham Realcon has has entered into a memorandum of understanding for the development of township in Allahabad on a proposed area of 1,535.12 acres, Omaxe said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. However, the company has not disclosed the financial details of the township project.

Indian HNIs make realty investment

3D Realty HandshakeForeign developers are trying to attract Indian HNI (High Net Worth Individual). HNIs are people with net financial assets (liquid assets) of at least $1 million, excluding primary residence and consumables. India is projected to be the world’s third largest economy by 2050. A subsequent increase in the number of wealthy individuals, real estate consultants from across the world are trying and also getting the HNI segment interested enough to buy.
Strong GDP growth, robust figures in industrial and service sectors, high market capitalization and steady FII inflows are some factors contributing to the rise in HNI wealth. In 2006, India’s HNI population crossed the one lakh figure, which made it the second-fastest growing HNI segment in the world.

Cement Companies Transform Product Mix

With increasing cement supplies to north India, companies dependent on this market are changing their product mix from portland pozzolana cement (PPC) to ordinary portland cement (OPC) to sustain growth. OPC is used for roads and infrastructure while PPC is used in real estate projects.

Shree Cement managing director HM Bangur, who runs the largest single-location integrated factory in northern India, confirmed the trend. Mr Bangur said: “The contribution of PPC to our total income will gradually come down as we have decided to increase 20% of our OPC production in the subsequent few quarters.” Shree’s share is the highest in the Delhi market, the most significant market in the national capital region region. The company’s 86% output is sold in north Indian markets while the remaining 14% is consumed in central India.

Binani Cement has shifted its focus too. The group MD Vinod Juneja said: “The demand for OPC has more or less doubled in the northern region due to construction works for Commonwealth games and the international airport. Binani Cement is a leading player in the northern region. It enjoys 13% market share in Rajasthan. It dispatches nearly 45% of its sales in this state.

Analysts said the data shows that the new trend is gathering momentum in the northern markets. OPC constituted 21.6% of total sales in the June quarter from 16% in the year-ago period. They said even after the rise in OPC production, there is still shortage of this product in the market. “With the real estate boom slowing down in the last few months, the demand for PPC has also gone down. So it makes more sense for the cement makers to concentrate more on OPC,” said an analyst.

New Investment Rules For Venture Capital And Private Equity

The government may soon come out with new investment norms for venture capital (VC), private equity (PE) and hedge funds to make their operations transparent and create a level-playing field for both the domestic and foreign players.

Joint secretary in the finance ministry KP Krishnan said government is likely to revisit norms for VC funds and talks have already been held with the market regulator SEBI towards this end.

Efforts are also on to create a legal framework so that venture fund investments should not land in a few sectors only and equitable distribution takes place. The government is specifically worried about huge fund inflow in sectors like real estate, which has affected investments in other hi-tech sectors like software and biotechnology. At the same time, it has led to appreciation in the prices of real estate in the country.

Government, it is learnt, is considering to give some new tax incentives to venture funds and PE funds to invest in high-risk areas.

Venture funds invest in the equities of high growth companies to earn hefty returns. At present, foreign funds have an advantage over their domestic counterparts under the existing tax system of the country.

Head of financial services at PWC India, Punit Shah said foreign VC funds are at an advantageous position against domestic ones, while investing other than nine hi-tech sectors like biotechnology, software and nano technology. Government gives tax sops (no capital gains tax on profit) to domestic funds if they invest in these nine sectors but not others.

But sectors like real estate is not included in this list. Therefore, when a domestic venture fund invests in an unlisted real estate company, he pays tax on the capital gains earned while exiting the company, Shah added.

But, foreign funds registered in tax heavens like Mauritius and Cyprus do not pay any tax on the capital gains earned such transaction because of the double tax avoidance treaty. The new initiative, according to Krishnan, would ensure that same tax rule apply on both foreign and domestic VC, PE funds to achieve a level-playing field. Besides, the move will also make the investments by these entities transparent. For this purpose, the government would like to redefine VC, PE and hedge funds.

On its part, SEBI will make it mandatory to register VCs and PEs after compiling data about their investments in sectors like real estate, ITeS, education. SNI director TC Nair said that at present the market regulator has no definite source about the exact investments of PEs and VCs.

Milestone To Launch MEAS With Ecofirst

Milestone, India’s largest independent Real Estate Fund house is launching Milestone Ecofirst Advisory Services (MEAS) through a 50:50 Joint Venture with Ecofirst. Ecofirst, established with a multi million pound budget, is a J. Leon Group company based in UK.

With the launch of Milestone Ecofirst Advisory Services (MEAS), for the first time in the country, a real estate fund house will be offering its invested companies/projects specialized consultancy services for eco-friendly development. Read More »

Rakindo Plan To Set Up $250-m Arm May Get Okay

Chennai-based real estate developer Rakindo Developers’ proposal to set up a wholly owned subsidiary with $250-million FDI from Dubai-based Rakeen Development is expected to get Cabinet clearance on Thursday.

Rakindo has plans of building a $1.5-billion (Rs 6,000- crore) integrated township at Coimbatore which will be ready for launch after the CCEA clears the FDI proposal. The plan envisages developing over 1,000 acres of property with an 18-hole golf course as the centerpiece. Rakindo is proposed to be a holding company that will promote investments in several SPVs to develop and operate townships. It is a joint venture company formed by Rakeen, a joint stock global business company promoted by the Ral Al Khaimah group, UAE and the Chennai based mineral conglomerate Trimex group owned by Koneru Prasad. Read More »

Sistema Will Invest In Hospitality Sector In India

Kolkata, April 30:- Mr Alexander A. Chinyaev, the chief representative in India of Sistema said that after venturing into the Indian telecom business, Russian conglomerate Sistema is now planning to tap the real estate and hospitality industries in India. The London Stock Exchange-listed public sector company is looking at investing an estimated eight hundred crore rupees to construct office and commercial projects in the country by year end.
Talking on the sidelines of a conference organized by the Indo-CIS Chamber of Commerce here recently, Mr Chinyaev said, “We are looking to launch an ‘A class’ office and hotel projects in Delhi, Goa, Gurgaon, and in almost all the metros, including Kolkata. If we find proper partners, we will invest $100-200 million in a pilot project by the year-end.” Sistema, however, will not build residential projects in India, he clarified.
The company, which deals with thirty star hotels across the CIS countries, is also looking at building and managing hotels in India.
“We have plans to take part in the tourism business in India through exchange of tourists between the two countries. We can bring our tour agencies to India for this purpose. This will be supported by developing businesses like hotel and resort projects,” Mr Chinyaev said.

Emaar SPVs To Get $800 Million PE Funding

Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and one more financial investor are likely to make a combined investment of $800 million in three special purpose vehicles (SPVs) which are being created by real estate group Emaar MGF. Each SPV will have one financial investor who will hold a minority stake.
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No Chance Of Slow Down In Hotel Industry

Hotel industry in India has shown strong growth in last financial year. Though hotel occupancies in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune dipped marginally owing to over capacity, average room rates for branded hotels across star categories continue to witness robust growth in most cities.

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