Vice-president of Confederation of Real Estate Developers of India (CREDAI), Rohit Gera, Pune, said the commotion in demand had prompted many builders in the city to go for new projects, which they had been avoided during the downturn. “In the last few years, unenthusiasm of builders was noticed to take up new projects. Also, many good and promising projects were on a slow pace. But now, with the market showing positive signs, builders have started to pitch in.” The construction has hiked again.

According to Gera, the realty sector in Pune had begun to catch the increasing pace as observed from October last. “People who had some plans for new homes were waiting as there was an ambiguity in the job scenario and banks were not interested to give home loans. People have started to buy properties with the industry recovering on a hike and the RBI lending support to banks, creating a rush in demand.

Demand has hiked for budget apartments along with the luxury sector. “There is a rise of at least 12-15% in the property.”

Vice-president, Estate Agents Association of Pune, Kishen C Milaney, reported that the builders had started “customising” the apartments. “Previously, developers used to offer spacious 2BHK apartments of above 13,000 sq ft that came with a higher price tag. But now, 900-950 sq ft apartments are offered at a lower price, and they are finding many takers.”

He said the demand for apartments was increasing efficiently. “The demand is not restricted to any particular area, but the city is growing in all areas.”

The overall optimism in all sectors and better job visibility among the salaried class are the reasons for the new-found boom.  An attempt made to increase in prices may decrease the demand.

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 board has also approved the fixed deposit scheme of the company for the year 2008-2009.

DS Kulkarni Developers is a real estate developer. It was incorporated on Sept. 20, 1991. The company has developed real estate projects in and around Pune and Mumbai.

Shares of the company declined Rs 4.6, or 6.79%, to end at Rs 63. The total volume of shares traded was 8,020 at the BSE (Friday).

With this, Big Bazaar, a subsidiary of the Kishore Biyani-spearheaded Pantaloon Group, will have 112 stores pan-India by November, a top company official said.

Big Bazaar is targeting a network of 145 stores by June 2009.

“We have zeroed in on several new and existing markets for the 15 stores that we plan to open by end-November. The investment will be in the range of Rs 1,500-1,600 crore,” Big Bazaar’s CEO Rajan Malhotra said in Mumbai.

The stores would be set up in places such as Mysore, Pune, Cuttack, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Agra, Faridabad, Surat, Nashik, Mumbai, Delhi and Solapur, Malhotra said, adding that in some locations two stores would be opened.

The retail chain would be extending its footprint into new markets such as Mysore, Cuttack, Chandigarh, Faridabad and Solapur. “These are new markets for us. We have done our research and expect these stores to perform well,” Malhotra said.

Presently, there are 97 Big Bazaar stores with the 98th and 99th to be opened in Mysore and Pune. “Our 100th store will be opened in Cuttack market all the three stores are likely to be set up by mid-September,” he said.

Big Bazaar wanted to mark its century by opening its 100th store in the same location where it had launched its first Kolkata, “but there were some issues and hence, we moved ahead in search of other markets,” Malhotra said.

Unitech, the country’s largest listed developer, posted a 15.7 % growth in net profit during the quarter, mainly due to higher realisations the company made in the mid-income segment housing, in the range of Rs 40-45 lakh apartments.The company posted a net profit of Rs 423.31 crore in the first quarter of financial year 2009 as compared to Rs 365.67 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Total income went up by 17.19 per cent to Rs 1,054.37 in the first quarter of FY09 as compared with Rs 899.67 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

DLF, which is scheduled to announce its results, also entered into affordable segment in cities such as Chennai, and Kolkata.

Bangalore-based Puravankara Projects posted 40.62% growth in year-on-year profit during the quarter due to higher realisations from the sale of apartments and income tax exemptions on its residential projects under section 80 IB. The company sold 1,000 apartments during the quarter.

The company posted a net profit of Rs 61.89 crore as compared to Rs 44.01 crore recorded in the corresponding quarter last year. The company’s revenues went up by 30.88 % at Rs 157.58 crore as compared with Rs 120.40 crore in the last financial year.

Pune-based property company Kolte Patil’s net fell nearly 7% mainly due to lifting of tax exemption on IT parks under section 80 IA. The company posted a net profit of Rs 31.46 crore in the first quarter of FY09 as compared with Rs 33.87 crore in the comparable period last year. However, the company’s revenues rose 17% at Rs 104 crore from Rs 89 crore due to higher realisation from housing projects.

Hyderabad-based IVRCL Infrastructure posted a 15 % rise during Q1 due to higher realisation from infrastructure projects, on a year-onyear basis. Net profit increased to Rs 43.50 crore from Rs 37.87 crore in the comparable period. Total sales increased by 38% at Rs 948.34 crore (Rs 688 crore).

IVR Prime Urban Developers, the group’s real estate firm, posted a 263% increase in net profit at Rs 5.44 crore during the Q1 period as against Rs 1.5 crore, while the turnover went up by 55 per cent at Rs Rs 32.25 crore.

Last week, D S Kulkarni sold 50 % in a unit setting up a SEZ in Pune to GTC Cyprus for $90 million. Ahead of the announcement, DS Kulkarni shares ended at 95.30 rupees, up 2.2 % in a strong Mumbai market.

Out of the current order book, 56% pertains to government and 44% to private sector. The current order book as on May 2008 is at Rs 30224.6 million.

In order to diversify across real estate and infrastructure development, the company has initiated real estate projects across 3 cities through a wholly owned subsidiary.
The real estate projects are across Pune, Nagpur and Goa all in JV with BSEL Infrastructure.

Going forward, the company expects continued rapid and profitable growth – targeting topline and bottomline growth of more than 40% over the next couple of years.
The order book in March 2009 is expected to grow by more than 50% over that of March 2008.

Company is increasingly focusing on bigger ticket projects. It recently bagged on road project worth Rs 250 crore.

On the foundation of frustration about Pune real estate market and desperation about housing, ‘Nanded City Pune’ developed huge hope in the minds of the property buyers.

All inclusive model of Magarpatta City will also include the middle class was the hope of the majority. Thousands of 1 bhk flats was the main attraction.

Taking advantage of this Mr. Satish Magar, Chairman and Managing Director of Magarpatta Township Development and Construction Company Limited, said “Consider ‘Nanded City Pune’ as any other real estate development project in Pune. Book your 1 bhk, 2 bhk, 3bhk flat for the quality of the construction and infrastructure support we offer”.

The Mumbai-based firm may need cash for developing a planned special economic zone in Maharashtra and townships in the future, but has enough cash for ongoing projects, Vice-Chairman Arun Nanda told analysts late on Tuesday.

The company has developed a 1,400-acre special economic zone (SEZ) in Chennai, while its second SEZ, spread over 3,000 acres at Jaipur, will start operations by July 2008.

“Chennai has started generating cash, while Jaipur is self sufficient. When we go to Maharashtra, we will need to look for funds,” he said.

The company has planned a 3,000-acre multi-product special economic zone at Karla, near Pune. While it has received approvals, land acquisition for the project may only start later this year, Nanda said.

“There is no intention for Mahindra group to dilute equity. At best, we might bring in some private equity,” Nanda told analysts. “We are a zero-debt at company level and currently hold cash reserves of 250 crores (2.5 billion rupees).”

The Mahindra group holds 51 percent equity in the company.

Last month, the company formed a joint venture with private equity fund ARCH Capital to develop a 55-acre township project, within its Chennai SEZ.

Mahindra Lifespace, which on Tuesday outlined an investment of 5 billion rupees for a 25-acre residential project in Nagpur, is also planning four other large integrated township projects. However, Nanda declined to give details of these projects.

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.

“In order to diversify business operations, the Amrut Runwal Group decided to enter the hospitality industry. Since Pune is an upcoming IT hub, the demand for hotels is increasing. Hence we started our hospitality business in this city,” says Ankush Parakh, Vice President, Amrut Runwal Group. The Ramada, the brand owned by Wyndham Hotel Group will be franchisor for the property. Amrut Runwal group plans to have four five star properties in India (which includes the Pune property) by 2013. The company is in talks with various hoteliers for management contracts. The group plans to raise funding for this property through private equity.

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.

With the labour rates in the building industry almost trembling due to insufficient workers and absence of skilled employees, buyers will have to shell out more for their flats. Kumar Gera, chairman, Gera Developers, said, “We have informed our customers that there will be a delay in the delivery of flats due to this force majeure situation”. Further Mr. Gera said, “We can’t say when the sub-contractor’s labour will be back and when normalcy will return or when flats will be ready”. He added, “The number of laborers on our project sites has come down from 2,300 to 1,400 now. This has resulted in a 75% slowdown in construction”. Mr. Gera is also the founder chairman of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India.

Kumar Builders chairman and president of the Promoters and Builders Association of Pune (PBAP), Mr. Lalit Kumar Jain said that the labour rates have shot up by 250% to Rs 750 a day. This means that it is only a matter of time before prices of residential properties go up as builders pass on this hike to the buyers.

Mr Jain said, “We believe that 50% of labourers have gone back and labour rates have surged from Rs 350 a day to Rs 750. We are not even sure if the labourers will come back”. He added that builders have sent people to Bihar and UP to try and force the labourers to return to work, but the response so far has been poor. Further he said, “The Builders Association will wait till the end of March and assess the situation. The members will then take a decision on informing their customers about the possible rate hike”.