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.

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.

As researched by Boston Analytics, the Indian realty sector has undergone an increased supply and pace of development activity which brought an improvement in pessimism associated with the realty prices. A low interest rate on home loans driven by Government’s impetus packages have also catalysed the Indian consumers to buy homes.

“Increased supply, improvement in pessimism related to realty sector rates, and low rates of interest on home loans seems to be encouraging Indian consumers to firm up their home purchase decisions” as said by Shirin Bagga, Economist, Boston Analytics.

The data was collected by conducting a monthly survey that targets 10,000 respondents cross 15 Indian cities—Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Nagpur , Ahmedabad , Kochi, Jaipur, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar, Patna, and Vishakhapatnam.

According to the recent reports the conviction concerned to speed of construction activity conveys more anticipation with regards to observed change in construction activity in Tier II and Tier III cities relative to Tier I cities.

The real estate projects which are in different phases of completion in all levels of towns and cities appear to be introducing optimism about the expected change in construction activity among respondents across Tiers,” the report said.

As brought into light by Economic Survey of 2009-10, the need of the construction and real estate sector in creation of both financial and physical assets has been amplifying over the years. The construction sector now accounts for 8% of GDP at constant prices, hiked from 7.7% in 2004-05.Equivalently, the share of real estate ownership of dwelling and business services in overall GDP as hiked to 9.2% in 2008-09 from 8.9% in 2004-05.

The company has raised Rs 16,750 million as private equity in eight projects in November 2007.

According to sources, DLF Home Developers, the wholly-owned arm of DLF, would develop about 40,000 housing units in the mid-income category.

Despite slump in the housing demand for the last six months, the company has witnessed marvelous response for its mid-income housing projects and sold over 7,000 flats so far in the current fiscal.

DLF has unveiled mid-income housing projects in Bangalore, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Kolkata and Pune.

* The hotels would be located in the national capital region (NCR), Kolkata, Chennai, Goa, Mysore, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Siliguri and Assam.

* Of the total planned hotels, about 50 per cent would be located in Kolkata and the NCR, Chandra said.

They were assessed on eight parameters necessary for a metro city, such as social infrastructure, infrastructure availability, real estate cost and availability, transportation facility (connectivity), presence of quality educational institutes, employment opportunity, facility of financial services and business environment.

According to the analysis, Pune occupies the first position, though it needs to improve on transportation, social infrastructure and financial services. Ahmedabad is the second city with most potential to be a metro, as it provides good infrastructure facilities and connectivity. The study puts Lucknow in the third place as it needs to pick up on infrastructure, business environment and social infrastructure.
Chandigarh, the smallest of the four in terms of area and population, ranks fourth though it fares well in real estate prices, financial services and business environment. At 9.21%, it is the least employment-generating city among the four emerging metros.

M Murali, managing director of Shriram Properties, said the company would develop 15 shopping malls and 70-80 budget hotels in the next 3-4 years period. Each mall would absorb an investment of Rs 250 crore while Rs 30-40 crore would be pumped in for each budget hotel.

Initially, the company would develop malls covering two million sq ft with a combined investment of Rs 700 crore in the cities like Chennai, Vizag and Kolkata.

He said, “we are looking at strategic partners who can also bring value to promote mall and hospitality projects.”

SS Asokan, executive director of Shriram Properties, said the company is in talks with global players to promote mall and hotel projects. Without disclosing identities, he said the company held talks with retail and hospitality giants in the US, Europe and Japan. The budget hotels would be promoted both in Tier I and Tier II cities.

In addition, Murali said the company also has plans foray into low-cost affordable housing segment in the near future. For the cities like Bangalore, he said the company would launch projects with housing units in the range of Rs 15 lakh per unit. For Tier II cities, budget homes would be in the range of Rs 10 lakh per unit.

He said the real estate market has already witnessd around 20% dip and it would decline by another 5-10% in the next 6-9 months, but it would pick up once election in the US and India were over in the next year. In the long term, he said the Indian real estate market is reliable. The company, which currently owns a land bank of 1,520 acres across the country, is developing projects covering 73 million sq ft.

After the bomb blasts on July 25 and 26th in Bangalore and Ahmedabad, a number of questions have been raised on how terrorist attacks could have an impact on the real estate markets in India. With worries looming large over similar attacks in other cities, it is time to reflect on some of the short-term global real estate trends which were seen after 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre.

There are two mediums through which terrorism impacts economies. Firstly, terrorist attacks have a direct impact on our economy because they destroy productive physical and human capital. Secondly, terrorism increases the level of fear and uncertainty which could have a larger impact on the overall economy.

After 9/11, office properties in landmark buildings in the proximity had experienced increases in vacancy rates than office properties not located in the nearby areas. The attacks have also drastically increased the perceived risk of large-scale terrorist attacks in Central Business Districts (CBD) and in turn, placed particularly large pressures on major financial centers world over.

In the post 9/11 era, vacancy rates had increased more for buildings with a high perceived vulnerability to large scale terrorist attacks than for buildings that are not perceived as preferred targets. After the WTC attacks, it was anticipated that there would be a flight of occupiers and capital from the CBD areas. Even though this did not happen, new demand was stronger in suburban markets than in CBDs in many cities around the world.
From a short-term perspective, in the face of uncertainty, corporations have delayed their realty decisions. Many companies have only renewed their leases than move to new business premises. Global corporate real estate expansion was slow during the gulf war. Premiums paid for prestigious buildings and the highest floors have also marginally declined.
Many major firms adopted a multi-premises strategy facilitated by technology and favored decentralization. Global firms even considered a greater regional and international dispersal of headquarters activities to avoid business damage. Demand has accelerated for teleconferencing facilities and broadband connections as a substitute for frequent business travel.
Building management costs also increased due to enhanced security measures and higher insurance premiums. Many new projects at that time which were under development were reviewed in terms of building specification and configuration.
The security aspect has also become a differentiating factor for Grade A versus Grade B space. Buildings across the world started following the extensive security practices which were in place only in a few developed countries.

Company’s director Mr. P Surya Prakash said that besides private equity, SatyaVani Projects is looking at raising cash through a combination of internal accruals and private placement. He declined to name the potential investors.

A 5 million square feet medical tourism project in Hyderabad will be the biggest, costing $120 million and consisting of two hospitals, a health resort and service apartments.

In Bangalore, it will establish an eco resort and a housing project at an investment of $50 million. The company will spend another $20 million on residential projects in Vizag.

These include two Ahmedabad-based and one from Baroda. The initiative has been taken by the company to market and sell its international properties to Indian buyers.

“We are proud to have appointed agents in India. Apart from three in Gujarat, we have signed agents in important cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Gurgaon. As the potential is high here, we wanted to touch each corner of of the country through a network of experienced agents,” said founder & chairman, DAMAC Holding, Hussain Sajwani. “We will provide our agents all the necessary information and training to sell our properties.”

The company is also considering investment options in the subcontinent along with marketing its current projects. “We are looking at all the major cities in India and we will earmark investments as soon as the feasibility study is over,” said the CEO of DAMAC Properties.

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.

Talking to DNA Money, Ramesh Jogani, the fund’s CEO and MD, confirmed the development but did not disclosed details.
Jogani said, “In the subsequent two years we will introduce our fourth domestic fund. We are also focusing on the retail sector.” The company has earmarked one-third of the funds for investment in retail sector.
Indiareit’s second offshore fund has previously raised $450 million from 3i Plc, which is a cornerstone investor in the fund.
ICICI Bank is the chief distributor of the offshore fund which would be closed in eight years.
Additional investors include high net worth individuals from Middle East, Singapore, Japan and Europe.
The second offshore fund is planning to raise $600-850 million through a green shoe option. The fund will have three closings, of which first closing will be on July 2008.

The main cities where the funds would be implemented are:- Mumbai , Pune, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Indiareit, at present, supervises funds worth $470 million, which it mopped up through its earlier two domestic and one global offerings.
About 85% of these funds have already been disbursed and rest would be deployed in the next few months.
According to a assessment report, the company’s investments have developed over two-and-a-half times during 2008.
In Pune, Indiareit had invested in Paranjape Schemes residential-cum-commercial project on eight million square feet land through a special purpose vehicle called Flagship Infrastructure Pvt Ltd. The project is expected to be ready by September 2012.

Ending months of speculation over the second plant, Toyota, which runs the Indian operations through a joint venture with the Kirloskar Group, has decided to set up the new plant at its existing location in Karnataka.

Mr. K K Swamy, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) deputy managing director, said, “We have decided to build the second in Bangalore at the site of the existing facility with an investment of USD 350 million”.

Further he said that the new plant will have a production capacity of 1,00,000 units and will become operational by 2010. The company’s current plant has a capacity of 63,000 units a year.

TKM has been scouting for a location for months and finally zeroed in on the existing location to drive synergies with the existing operations.

He further added”From this plant, we will roll out a strategic new small car which is currently under development at our Japan R&D facility. The small will meet the broad needs of the Indian customers”.

The new small car, which will have high localization level, is primarily aimed at the Indian market although some of it will be exported.

Toyota had in the past declared that it would capture 10 percent of the Indian car market by 2010 and the new car is expected to play a key role in it.

Asked about the pricing and positioning of the small car, he said it would not be at the ‘Nano’ range nor it would be too expensive.

According to the agreement, the joint venture will obtain land, develop the property and manage the assets and will firstly focus on protecting development chances in cities together with Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Pune. The joint venture will invest around two thousand three hundred crore for three years.

To start with, the joint venture has obtained twenty seven acres in Loni near Pune. The joint venture is expected to develop 7.5 million square feet in the subsequenty three years and a total of twenty million square feet for the next five years.

The K Raheja Group is also into retail and hospitality sections in addition its centeral business of realty. The group possesses some of the country’s important retail brands such as Shopper’s Stop, Inorbit Mall, HyperCity and Crossword.

This will be the second one for the company after its theme-park at Bidadi near Bangalore. The company has already acquired around 80 acres and plans to acquire further 40 acres for the project.

Presently, the firm is looking at the feasibility of setting up a park-cum-resort in Navi Mumbai. This is the model followed in many of the western countries.

The amusement park, expected to be up and running in three years, will be an integrated project which will also include commercial space to go with it, according to sources. The firm had acquired the land for a price between Rs 15 crore and Rs 20 crore. The project when completed, is expected to see an investment of over Rs 150 crore.

“The project is still in its early stages,” said Arun K Chittipally, executive director, Wonderla Holidays Pvt Ltd.

With property prices shooting up, the firm is finding it a challenge to find more land to buy as the development taking place in and around Navi Mumbai and the consequent rise in the property prices is making farmers staying away from selling their lands. With Reliance planning a township in the vicinity, said Chittipally, “The park could have a high number of footfalls.”

Speaking on the existing Wonderla amusement park on the outskirts of Bangalore, he said they are looking to expand it. The park, set up at an investment of Rs 105 crore about two years ago is set to breakeven in another two to three years. The company reported Rs 30.5 crore revenues in 2006-07, a growth of 8.9 per cent in the previous fiscal year.

The firm, which has 90 acres of land at Wonderla, has built the park in over some 40 acres. Wonderla has seen average footfalls of over 7 million per annum over the last two years its been in existence.

The size of the amusement parks business in India in 2006 was estimated around $6.6 billion, according to the Indian Association of Amusement Parks and Industries, better known as IAAPI.

The business has been growing at a break-neck speed over the last few years. Chittipally said, “The Indian amusement park business is where the movie theatre business was 15 years ago. Now, its the the age of multiplexes. There’s a lot more to come in the theme park industry to

“The best international brands are all that we are looking at. It is not only certain people, certain brands; it’s also what fits into the positioning that we are looking at” Duggal said. India’s luxury market is on the way of becoming top five markets in the world. It has been estimated at USD 1.4 billion. India’s luxury market is expected to grow at 15% to 20% a year.

P R Shankara Raju, regional manager of LIC Housing Finance, says “Builders, who are not able to market their property effectively, use such offers to attract buyers.”

J C Sharma, MD of Sobha Developers says “I don’t believe in such offers. Our product is an apartment and nothing else. Customers are aware that these attractions are not a value addition.”

Now a days, customer is more conscious and they don’t run for offers. Rather, offers leave buyers with doubts about the deal itself.