After nearly 18 months of slowdown, property developers are looking at marginally increasing the prices of affordable homes. Whether it would help these cash-starved firms to improve their profit margins is yet to be seen, but such a move would send a strong signal that the phase of price correction is over.
Unitech, the countrys second largest property developer, has already increased its apartment prices by Rs 50 a sq ft to Rs 3,000 a sq ft. These projects were launched under the brand names The Residency and Uniworld Garden-II in April and May, under the affordable home category, with unit areas of around 1,000 sq ft. These were one of the few projects that help in reversing the downward trend in the realty space.
We had not thought we will see such a huge success for our mid-income projects. Though the price hike is minimal, it shows our projects are selling quickly, even with increased prices, said Unitech MD Sanjay Chandra. The company is planning to build 20 million sq ft of property in fiscal year 2010.
More : business-standard.com
BoA grants extension to Orion SEZ despite delay
Setting a precedence, the commerce ministrys board of approval (BoA) on special economic zones (SEZs) on Friday granted an extension of an in-principle approval to Orion Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd even though the developer approached the board 20 days after the expiry of the validity period.
Orion proposes to build an SEZ for information technology firms at Bandhwari near Gurgaon, Haryana. The developer has submitted that it has acquired the entire 130 ha of land for the project. It had obtained the approval in 2006.
An SEZ is an enclave aimed at increasing investment and exports. Companies based in SEZs are eligible for tax and other incentives.
More : livemint.com
M J Antony: Shady land transactions
The SC says power-of-attorney sales adversely affect the economy, civil society as well as law and order.
Buy land, theyre not making it anymore, said Mark Twain. So there is a mad rush for property in urban centres and rules are broken with impunity. Several illegalities are taken for granted. One of them is the transfer of property through power-of-attorney (POA). The legal profession and document-writers invented it in the national capital and the Delhi High Court has virtually anointed this practice in its orders over the years.
However, the Supreme Court has made some harsh observations about this devious device and initiated reforms in an order in Suraj Lamp & Industries vs State of Haryana. This has become necessary, according to the court, as this case is a typical example of an irregular process spreading across the country. This case, confounded by POA deeds to hand over the same property to different people by the same owner, bounced cheques, criminal cases and an application under the Right to Information Act is still pending. But this is the first time any court, that too the Supreme Court, candidly dealt with the misuse of POA.
More : business-standard.com
Power of attorney sales under SC scanner
The Supreme Court has summoned the chief secretaries and revenue secretaries of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra to evolve a formula to stop the misuse of the power of attorney facility in the sale of property.
According to the court, power of attorney sales impact government revenue and benefit the land mafia. Though this system started in the national capital to circumvent rules governing the sale of plots and flats of the Delhi Development Authority, it has spread to other states. An attempt to pass a law to control the menace was unsuccessful.
The issue arose in the case of Suraj Lamp Industries, a public limited company in Haryana, which bought land through a power of attorney. The owner then tried to transfer the same property by yet another power of attorney deed, leading to criminal cases and an application under the Right to Information Act.
More : business-standard.com
PSBs trespass into private property by lending wisely
Public sector banks (PSBs) have outperformed their counterparts in the Top Indian Banks Global Banks Check telebanking fraud private sector riding on the back of conservative lending practices rather than aggressive marketshare grabbing tactics.
A SundayET analysis that pitched the top-5 private banks against the top-5 PSBs shows that the turn of the economy has hit the former far more severely than it did the latter.
In 2008-09, Indias top-5 PSBs—State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of India, Union Bank of India and Bank of Baroda—saw their gross non-performing assets (NPAs) as a proportion to advances declining by almost 40 basis points. For these banks, gross NPAs as a percentage to their advances stood at 1 .91% collectively.
On the other hand, the countrys top-5 private banks in terms of market capitalisation—ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Federal Bank—had their NPAs as a proportion to advances going up by almost 70 basis points, compared to last year. For these banks, gross NPAs as a percentage to their advances stood at 2.83% collectively.
More : economictimes.indiatimes.com
Discounts pay, home buyers back in market
Home sales have picked up in select Indian markets over the past couple of months, but analysts warn that prices may not have bottomed out yet as developers are sitting on a huge inventory.
Markets such as Delhi National Capital Region (NCR), including Delhi and surrounding areas such as Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida and Ghaziabad, have seen a rebound in home demand, with several builders launching projects at a discount to market rates.
They call it disruptive pricing. And it has worked. In one day, DLF, Indias largest real estate company, sold almost double the number of flats in Delhi than all builders together in Mumbai in the March quarter. Check out the numbers. DLF sold 1,356 apartments in Delhi on April 7, when it launched a residential project in West Delhi by offering flats at up to 32% less than market rates.
More : economictimes.indiatimes.com
Mumbai slips to No. 6 on global office rental list
Mumbai, which became the second-most expensive office property market globally one-and-a-half years ago at the peak of a real estate boom in the country, has now slipped out of the top-five list, as per a survey of 170 cities by real estate consultant CB Richard Ellis. The city remained at the sixth position among the worlds costliest office markets.
The cooling realty prices have also brought down New Delhi from the number eight position globally in November 2007 to the 12th slot in the latest ranking released on Thursday.
The latest ranking highlights the decrease in rentals due to a reduction in demand. However, Mumbai continuing in the top 10 list and Delhi being at 12th place globally reflects the shortage of prime office supply in India, said CB Richard Ellis South Asia, CMD Anshuman Magazine.
More : economictimes.indiatimes.com
Now, affordable housing in NCR
After a bad year for the property market sales for affordable houses finally seem to be picking up in Delhi-NCR and right pricing and location seems to be doing the trick.
Two housing projects in Delhi-NCR have been fully booked within days of launch.
According to data available, 3300 flats in Jaypee Greens new project Aman on Noida-Greater Noida expressway were booked on day 1.
These flats were priced at Rs 2100 per square feet. Last year Jaypee had launched flats in the range of Rs 4500-6000 per square feet along the same expressway. Also, 1000 independent floors in BPTPs project Park Elite in Faridabad were over subscribed. BPTP received 3700 bookings worth Rs 80 crore for the project.
More : profit.ndtv.com
Realtors plan lock-in clauses to weed out speculators
Stung by recent experiences, many real estate companies such as Tata Housing, Omaxe, DLF and others are planning to impose lock-in periods of up to one year for their mass housing projects.
A lock-in clause means buyers cannot sell their properties within a certain period after booking the property or have to pay a penalty if they do so.
Realtors are doing these because investors or speculators often leveraged volume discounts on property purchases to re-sell them at prices lower than those available to individual buyers. This created problems for realtors when demand slowed, since it put pressure on them to take a hit on margins and lower prices still further.
In the boom years of 2006 and 2007, 30 to 50 per cent of such projects were sold on bulk discounts, especially in the national capital region.
More : business-standard.com
DHFL to enable affordable housing in India
DHFL Property Services Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of housing finance company Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL), is paving the way for urbanization of rural India in association with regional builders and developers.
The company has tied up with various builders across rural and semi-urban India to market affordable projects under its low-cost housing schemes for low-wage earners. The company will initially market schemes in the suburban areas of Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad, the company said.
DHFL Property Services will market 2,400 houses in Vatsalya Developers Dream City project in Boisar. The flat size would range between 380 sq ft and 500 sq ft and are priced at Rs 1,300 per sq ft.
More : economictimes.indiatimes.com
Housing projects are back with a vengeance
DLF, Unitech, HDIL & Puravankara line up 60 million square feet of new launches.
Top real estate developers are trying their best to make up for lost time. Buoyed by encouraging response from home-buyers for their marked-down properties, companies such as DLF, Unitech, HDIL and others have lined up housing projects of over 60 million square feet — all in the current financial year.
This is more than double the sales bookings in the past financial year.
Presentations by these companies to analysts show that Unitech is leading with 27 million square feet of new launches. DLFs tally is 15 million square feet, roughly the same as last years. Puravankara and HDIL follow with 6 to 9 million and 8 million square feet respectively.
Mid-income housing is the flavour of the year and accounts for around 90 per cent of the projects. After a prolonged lull in the property market in 2008, which saw sales declining 70 per cent from their peak, the big developers moved into the mid-income segment and cut prices 20 to 30 per cent to generate liquidity.
More : business-standard.com
Bill lends a hand to buyers on shaky land
The Delhi government is ready with a new property Bill, which through a computerised single-window operation envisages a method of foolproof land registration to minimise any chance of fraud during transaction.
This new system will now provide titles to a property owner, replacing the present practice of registration of sales deeds. While the present system is not inaccurate, the new method has a more consolidated approach to ensure undisputed ownership – doing away with the rampant practice of acquiring property by registering fake sales deeds.
In the new system, the government will become guarantor for a property when it provides it a title. In case there is still fraud, the government is liable to pay compensation to any party who has been cheated in the transaction.
More : expressindia.com
MCD to redevelop Novelty Cinema as commercial area
The old building of Novelty Cinema on SP Mukherjee Marg is going to give way to a multiplex.
As part of a beautification plan for the Commonwealth Games, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi plans to replace the defunct cinema hall with a commercial complex, which will have a multiplex, a shopping centre, food courts and parking space. The complex, stretched across 2,500 sq m, will be the first of its kind in the Walled City.
The cinema had gone into litigation after the 99-year lease of the complex expired in 2000. The Novelty Group had refused to hand over the property to the MCD but the Delhi High Court settled the matter in favour of the MCD last year. The Corporation plans to redevelop the property on the pattern of Chanakya Cinema.
More : expressindia.com
maar-MGF gets Rs 700 cr Games bailout
The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has announced a Rs 700 crore bailout package for cash-drained Emaar MGF, which is developing the Commonwealth Games Village (CGV) project.
The package envisages purchase of 333 flats in the CGV project instead of a loan. The price at which the flats will be bought is 13 per cent higher than what was recommended by an expert committee constituted by the government to decide the modalities of bailing out the Indian unit of Dubai-based Emaar. However, it is well below what Emaar was asking.
Emaar had sought a Rs 1,000 crore bailout. The request was made after the global meltdown led to a near-collapse of the Indian property market. Emaar had planned to raise money from pre-sale of flats. But the crash in the property market threw its calculations haywire, forcing the developer to plead for a bailout.
More : business-standard.com
Dont buy Emaar flats, give it loan, DDA told
The price fixation committee, constituted by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to look into the various funding options for the Commonwealth Games Village, has advised the DDA against buying 250 flats from developer Emaar-MGFs share to help out the financially beleaguered realty major.
Instead, its report has asked DDA to consider loaning the developer Rs 500 crore at an interest of 12 to 13 per cent to complete the projects 1,168 flats.
The initial partnership between Emaar and DDA gives the developer rights to sell two-thirds of the 1,168 flats, while the rest were to be sold by DDA. Emaar was to use the money from the sale to build the Village. Due to little response from the market, Emaar had approached DDA to buy out 250 flats from its share, at a discounted rate, so that it could use that money to complete the project on time.
Source : expressindia.com
DLF may soon sell 50% in new Saket hotel for Rs 75 cr
In line with its stated strategy of disposing of hotel projects to raise cash,
DLF, countrys largest property company, is close to selling off 50% of its soon-to-be-opened 120-room hotel at Saket, New Delhi, for around Rs 75 crore to a wealthy individual, who is not involved with any hotel chain, people familiar with the matter said. Less than a month ago, DLF sold another 60-room property, located adjacent to its mall at Saket, for around Rs 55 crore.
DLFs 120-room hotel has a management contract with international hotel chain Hilton and will sport Garden Inn brand name. The construction is almost complete and the hotel is due to open in the current quarter. People with knowledge of the proposed deal said an understanding has been reached, but a final agreement is yet to be signed with the buyer and no money has changed hands yet.
According to people familiar with the proposed deal, the hotel has been valued at Rs 150 crore, or Rs 1.25 crore a room. DLFs 60-room hotel property, that was recently sold, fetched around Rs 1 crore per room.
More : economictimes.indiatimes.com
Q4 turns worst ever for DLF on property slump, liquidity crunch
The quarter ended March 2009 turned out to be real estate major DLFs worst ever quarter since its listing in June 2007.
A 72 per cent decline in consolidated sales to Rs 1,122 crore and 93 per cent dip in net profits to Rs 159 crore for the latest ended quarter compared to a year ago numbers, comes on the back of a property slump and liquidity crunch borne by real estate developers across the country.
The financials for the full year ending March 2009 appeared relatively less dismal with sales declining by 28 per cent and net profits lower by 40 per cent.
More : thehindubusinessline.com
Pakistani Taliban confiscate Sikh property
The Pakistani Taliban on the rampage in the Orakzai tribal agency on the Pak-Afghan border have displaced hundreds of Sikhs living in the area even before partition after they failed to pay a hefty amount of Rs 50 million as jizia – a tax which the Muslim rulers of the sub-continent used to charge from the non-Muslim minority population as the protection money.
According to sources, the followers of Tehrik-e-Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud have occupied dozens of houses and shops in Qasimkhel and Ferozkhel areas of Kalaya Tehsil in Orakzai for failing to arrange the protection money.
The Taliban are of the view that Sikhs are a minority and liable to pay the tax for living in the area in accordance with the Sharia. As the Sikhs failed to pay the tax, hundreds of them have been been forced to flee and move to the adjacent Frontier province.
More : dnaindia.com
Unitech to tweak luxury housing project into township
Under weakening property market conditions, realty major Unitech has been forced to develop its Rs 15,000 crore worth high-end luxury housing project in Noida as an integrated township, aiming to boost sales.
Unitech had launched Unitech Grande project in Noida in July 2007 on a 340 acre plot that it had won in May 2006 by outbidding bigger rival DLF for whopping Rs 1,582 crore.
Earlier, the company had planned to build 5,300 flats targeting high-net worth individuals and NRIs for the ultra luxurious project. But, the buyers for the high-end products have vanished from the property market, which is going through a slowdown, forcing builders to change their product mix.
More : business-standard.com
Clarks Inn Group signs new property in Hubli
Clarks Inn Group has recently signed one more property in Hubli, Karnataka. A boutique full-service hotel, the Hubli property is expected to be ready for operation by August 2009. According to Pankaj Giroti, General Manager – Operations, Clarks Inn Group, the group will open three new properties in 2009 — at Hubli, Lajpat Nagar in Delhi, and Bareilly in UP — to take the groups total room inventory to 450 by year end.
The Hubli hotel is three kilometres away from the railway station and as well as the airport. The hotel will be a full-service business hotel with all the facilities of a four-star property — banquet/meeting areas, restaurants, bar, swimming pool, etc., Giroti informs. This 52-room hotel will have facilities to cater to business/corporate traveller. All the rooms will be Wi-Fi connected, with in-room safe, tea/coffee maker, board room facilities, etc, he adds.
The Hubli property will be Clarks Inn Groups ninth operational hotel. With the new addition, the total number of Clarks Inn / Clarks Exotica properties in India will go up to 13, with four properties under different project stages of completion in cities like Vrindavan, Gurgaon, Delhi/NCR and Faridabad. The total inventory under the Clarks Inn group is expected to touch 700 rooms by 2010 with the addition of these four hospitality projects, Giroti stated. Clarks Inn group, a part of UP Hotels Clarks Inn Limited, owns and manages hotels under Clarks Inn and Clarks Exotica brand in India.
Source : hospitalitybizindia.com