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.

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.

“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.

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.

Photo by nancyarora2020The 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

Photo by vm2827

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.

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.

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.

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.

V. P. Arya, Managing Director Milestone Capital Advisors told“We want to ensure that most of the development (approx. five million sq ft) being funded by Milestone across the country would be eco-friendly and meet global norms in sustainable development,”.

“MEAS will not just offer its services to developers in metros, but for the first time in India offer world class green building consultancy to developers in Tier II and Tier III cities”, Mr. Arya added.

Milestone has invested in over twenty five projects across Tier II and Tier III cities, including residential, commercial, mixed-use projects and townships.

Initially MEAS will provide consultancy to projects being funded by Milestone and later extend the service to third party developers as well.

India has emerged as the hottest new favorite destination for green buildings and ranks fourth after US, Australia and Canada in the amount of area under green construction. As per CII-Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), one hundred forty seven million square feet of green space has been registered in India to date across a total of two hundred thirty nine projects. IGBC is aiming one billion sq ft of green footprint by 2012.

Milestone has so far raised over Rs.2, 400 crore from the domestic market and has the highest deployment ratio in the sector having so far signed investment deals worth Rs.1,800 crore.

Milestone presently is in the process of raising Rs.500 crores for its domestic fund “Milestone Domestic Scheme II”.

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.

The newly formed real estate company has already obtained FIPB approval to invest and hold downstream investments in Companies formed for the Coimbatore project.

FIPB had considered the Rakindo proposal in March, which was subsequently approved by different ministries including the department of industrial policy and promotion, department of economic affairs and the ministry of urban development. Built around the concept of “walk to work culture”, the Coimbator project plans to have an IT SEZ, specialty hospital besides commercial and residential complexes. The CCEA will also consider another proposal by Essar Power Ltd Mumbai for FIPB approval to operate as a holding company.

Emaar MGF (40% of which is owned by Dubai-based leading property developer Emaar and 56% by Delhi-based MGF) was forced to withdraw its Rs 7,000-crore share sale, the third-biggest in the history of the country, due to poor market sentiments. Since then, markets have lost steam on global cues, leading to dramatic erosion in the market cap of real estate firms. Real estate biggies such as DLF and Unitech have lost 45% and 50% of their market caps while smaller players such as Parsvnath and Omaxe witnessed a close to two-third erosion of their market caps from their January peak.

The poor market sentiments have also forced DLF, Unitech and Indiabulls to postpone Singapore listing of their real estate investment trust. Though money flow has not stopped in the real estate sector, developers, including the unlisted ones, are hesitant to go for equity dilution at parent company level fearing lower valuation. This has prompted most companies to look at private equity fund at project or SPV level.

Emaar MGF, too, is raising funds at SPV level purely because the current market situation may not have given them the expected valuation. Three SPVs, where the PE money is likely to come, are expected to take up development projects across verticals: housing, retail and office. The exact projects to be undertaken by these SPVs couldn’t be ascertained, but they would be part of the projects already being undertaken by the company.

Some of the mega projects the company has undertaken include a 3,000-acre integrated township in Mohali, a 531-acre integrated township in Hyderabad and a 14-acre residential project in Chennai. The company is also executing the prestigious Commonwealth Games village project, where it is developing a 27.7-acre residential complex with an estimated saleable area of 1.8 million square feet.

The company also plans to develop more 200 hotels over the next 7-9 years. It has two equal joint ventures with Accor for 100 budget hotels and Premier Inn for 80 hotels. The company has also entered into separate management tie-ups with Hyatt, Intercontinental and JW Marriott to run a total of 26 hotels.

Since India eased rules on inward investment in the construction industry in early 2005, foreign investors have earmarked an estimated $20 billion for the booming property market. But government figures show only about $2 billion has actually been spent in the last three years.

Funds used to complain that Indian developers slapped inflated price tags on themselves, their land, and projects.

But a fall in company valuations, and prospects of a drop in overheated land prices, has cheered private equity investors while making life tougher for developers.

Mr. Parry Singh, managing director of Red Fort Capital, which runs a $300 million fund that includes sovereign wealth fund money, said, “It’s brutal”.

Delhi and Mumbai hotel industries charged highest room rates in the country. Customer paid more than ten thousand for a night. Bangalore finally saw a marginal correction in room rates. Mumbai performed the best as far as hotel occupancy is concerned. While branded hotels in Mumbai registered an average occupancy of 80 percent, Delhi was at 78 percent and Kolkata at 77.4 percent.

The SPV is applying IT specific SEZs at Noida, Greater Noida, Faridabad and Gurgaon. The Noida SEZ is being developed on 25 acre of land, Greater Noida on 100 acre, Faridabad on 54 acre and Gurgaon on 27 acre of land. In the first phase, the company will develop six million square feet in the four SEZs by 2010. The total area to be developed in the four SEZs is 20 million square feet.

All four SEZs have got the approval of the government and land has been acquired. The money raised by the SPV will fund the project.

The government rejected to extend the tax benefit for software technology parks after March 31, 2009, IT SEZs have become popular amongst the export oriented units. The developer of SEZ will get tax concessions not only on profit, but also on all inputs required for the project.

The deal reveals that the real estate tale in the country is still shining and the investors are prepared to put money, provided the project is at the implementation stage, said a banker. He said if India maintains an eight per cent growth, it will require enormous real estate supply.

Commenting on the deal, Mr. Sunil Mantri, Chairman, Mantri Realty said, “Having made a mark in real estate sector, we will make a major foray into the infrastructure sector with our power projects. Through our subsidiary Mantri Power Ltd, a 540 MW thermal power plant with an investment of Rs. 2,400 crore would be set up near Nagpur. The plant will be fully functional by 2012 and 60% of the power generated out of the plant will be supplied to the Maharashtra state power utility.”

Mantri Realty has recently launched projects in Bangalore and Hyderabad. The company is also developing 2 SEZs, IT Parks spread over 50 acres and 25 acres of land and one large township spread on 400 acres of land in Nagpur. Mantri Realty client list boasts of several large corporates including Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, Mercedes Benz India Ltd, HDFC bank Ltd, SAIL, NSE and SBI Homes Finance Ltd. The company has tie-ups with major Housing Finance Companies and Banks to devise loan schemes for its various projects.

This is the business trend to attract Indian investors toward real estate  abroad. Indians have high disposable incomes and travel on work across the world. Buying a house in a foreign country is no longer a dream.

Dubai, Malaysia and Singapore have been locations which have generated interest over the last two to three years as investment destinations and prices in all three markets have soared

The Dubai Mall, with an approx area in excess of Twelve million square feet, is setting a new structure in mall development with a range of construction machinery in fact epic in proportion and scale. The structural steel used in The Dubai Mall is twice that of deployed for the Eiffel Tower (seven thousand three hundred tones), and the stone and tile works of 1.2 million square feet already laid are nearly eighteen times the size of a football field measuring sixty nine thousand square feet. The net leasable floor area will be equivalent to the size of fifty football grounds put together.

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.