Real Estate

Supreme Court Monday asked its registry to invest in a nationalised bank the money deposited with it by real estate major DLF as a fine which was imposed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).

DLF, which had earlier deposited 150 crore out of total fine of Rs 630 crore, today gave another Rs 75 crore to the apex court registry. The real estate firm now has to pay the remaining amount of Rs 405 crore.

A bench of justices S J Mukhopadhaya and N V Ramana would now hear the final arguments in the case on February 11.

Indiabulls Asset Management Company (IBAMC) Tuesday said it has launched its first real estate fund, which aims to raise Rs 1,000 crore.

Indiabulls Real Estate Fund, a close-ended scheme, also marks IBAMC’s entry into the alternative investment fund (AIF) space.

The proposed target size of the fund is Rs 500 crore with an option of raising an additional Rs 500 crore.

Locked in face-offs with two different regulatory agencies CCI and Sebi, realty major DLF’s Chairman K P Singh today suggested a provision in laws to sue regulators if their decisions get overturned at later stages.

CCI Chairman Ashok Chawla immediately rejected the idea, which was made to him by Singh during an interactive session at an event organised by industry chamber Assocham.

DLF had earlier challenged an order passed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI), while it also appealed against an order passed by capital markets regulator Sebi against it last year.

Backed by funding from Rupert Murdoch-led News Corp, realty portal PropTiger has forayed into secondary market property transactions and plans to expand operations in ten more cities in the next 18 months.

Noida-based PropTiger, founded in February 2011, has so far facilitated sales of over 10,000 housing units, worth about Rs 7,000 crore, in primary market and is targeting to sell 50,000 homes over the next three years, its co-founder Prashan Agarwal told PTI.

Competition Commission is expected to soon finalise its order on alleged unfair business practices in the realty sector, a matter where around 20 entities have come under its scanner.

The Commission, which had issued notices to various real estate entities with regard to the caseaa, has completed their personal hearings.

According to sources, the fair trade watchdog has completed personal hearings of entities in the realty sector with regard to alleged cartelisation and anti-competitive trade practices.

Housing finance company Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL) Friday reported a 15 percent jump in net profit at Rs 160 crore in the October- December quarter of this fiscal compared to that of Rs 138 crore in the same period a year ago.

“Our focus on reaching out to customers in the low and middle income segment in tier III, IV and V locations has helped us in maintaining a healthy loan portfolio and steady net profit growth in the quarter,” chairman and managing director Kapil Wadhawan said.

Its loan book outstanding grew 26 percent to Rs 47,776 crore from Rs 37,849 crore.

Maharashtra PWD Minister Eknath Shinde today asked realty developers from the city to focus on construction of affordable housing projects.

Such projects will allow the middle-class citizens to realise their dream of owning a house, said Shinde, who is also Guardian Minister of Thane.

“Developers can very well build big flats and grow their business. But at the same time they should also provide housing for the middle-class people,” he said.

The Minister was speaking after inaugurating the 14th Real Estate and Housing Financial Expo-2015 here.

The real estate industry Thursday hailed the RBI’s decision to cut key interest rate, saying the move will boost housing demand and also improve sentiments in the sluggish property market.

However, real estate developers and property consultants demanded that interest rates be further reduced.

Encouraged by softening inflation, the RBI today decided to cut the benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percent to 7.75 percent with a view to boost growth.

The real estate industry today hailed the RBI’s decision to cut key interest rate, saying the move will boost housing demand and also improve sentiments in the sluggish property market.

However, real estate developers and property consultants demanded that interest rates be further reduced.

Encouraged by softening inflation, the RBI today decided to cut the benchmark interest rate by 0.25 per cent to 7.75 per cent with a view to boost growth.

Chandigarh could be the first Indian smart city as the government moves to create many hi-tech cities in the country.

Referring to the NDA’s proposal to set up 100 smart cities in the country, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, “The first Indian smart city to be created probably could be Chandigarh. There are satellite cities around Chandigarh which are being created.”

Elaborating on his point, he said Gandhinagar is an example of a smart city and towns like Noida and New Raipur are attracting foreign investments.

The Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC) is embarking upon property development and also evaluating its existing set of investments on land, the company’s chairman Sanjiv Goenka said.

CESC is part of the Kolkata-based conglomerate R.P.-Sanjiv Goenka Group.

“We have assets which are not revenue generating and want to convert them into revenue generating ones,” Goenka said on the sidelines of the announcement of commissioning group’s Haldia power plant.

According to Goenka, the group has properties spread across India that it is not utilising for revenue generation purposes.

Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said here Monday that the union government is not in a position to make all investments for smart cities and hence the public-private partnership (PPP) route would be necessary.

“It will take lakhs of crores of rupees to invest in smart cities. You cannot expect the government to make all that investment. We will invite private players to come forward and build smart cities.

Realty firm Sobha Ltd’s sales bookings declined by 15 percent to Rs 427 crore during the third quarter of this fiscal due to slowdown in demand.

Bangalore-based Sobha had achieved sales bookings of Rs 502.3 crore in the year-ago period.

“Q3’15 was operationally a subdued quarter with the company achieving new sales of 6,61,451 sq ft valued at Rs 4.27 billion with an average realisation of Rs 6,456 per sq ft,” Sobha said in its operational update.

Housing sales are estimated to rise this year to 1.92 lakh units in the country’s top seven cities on expectations of interest rate cut and stable prices, according to property consultant JLL India.

Housing sales fell to 1.75 lakh units in the primary markets of seven major cities in 2014 as compared to nearly 2 lakh units in the previous year.

These seven cities are Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune.
Supply, however, is estimated to decline marginally to 2.18 lakh units this year from 2.2 lakh units in 2014.

Absorption of office space increased by nearly 10 percent in 2014 to over 33 million square feet compared to the previous year, indicating optimism in the commercial real estate market which is likely to continue in 2015 as well, according to a report.

The report by property consultant CBRE said “enhanced” levels of activity in corporate real estate transactions have led to a total office space take-up of more than 33 million square feet (sq ft) during 2014.

Despite signs of revival in the Indian economy, the stake-holder sentiment in the residential real estate space did not improve during October-December quarter, mainly due to liquidity issues and lesser number of transactions, according to a study.

However, sentiment in the commercial space got a leg-up mainly backed by the growing confidence in Indian economy and expectations of an increase in transaction volumes and rentals in the next six months, the study conducted by property consultant Knight Frank said.

Absorption of office space increased by nearly 10 percent in 2014 to over 33 million square feet compared to the previous year, indicating optimism in the commercial real estate market which is likely to continue in 2015 as well, according to a report.

The report by property consultant CBRE said “enhanced” levels of activity in corporate real estate transactions have led to a total office space take-up of more than 33 million square feet (sq ft) during 2014.

Housing sales are estimated to rise this year to 1.92 lakh units in India’s top seven cities on expectations of a cut in interest rate and stable prices, according to property consultant JLL India.

Housing sales fell to 1.75 lakh units in the primary markets of seven major cities in 2014 as compared to nearly 2 lakh units in the previous year.

These seven cities are Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune.

Supply, however, is estimated to decline marginally to 2.18 lakh units this year from 2.2 lakh units in 2014.

The Labour Ministry is preparing a mega housing scheme to offer affordable houses to over 5 crore subscribers of retirement fund body EPFO in the backdrop of the government’s mission ‘Housing for all by 2022’.

The Ministry intends to collaborate with PSU banks, housing finance companies, state-owned construction firms like NBCC and authorities like DDA, PUDA, HUDA to build houses at a price to be fixed by the government.

The real estate industry has welcomed the Cabinet’s decision to amend the Land Acquisition Act, saying it will boost construction of affordable housing.

The ordinance makes significant changes in the Land Acquisition Act including removal of consent clause for acquiring land for affordable housing and four other areas.

Engineering firm Larsen & Toubro (L&T) on Tuesday said it bagged contracts worth Rs 2,521 crore in its building and factories business in both domestic as well as international markets in December.

The company’s overseas subsidiary L&T Oman from the ministry of transport and communications, Sultanate of Oman, has secured an order for the construction of a new passenger terminal at Duqm Airport in Oman, a release issued said.

Paris-based Louvre Hotels Group plans to open four new hotels in India by April as part of its expansion plans in the country.

The group that currently has 16 hotels in India under three brands — Royal Tulip, 5 star luxury; Golden Tulip, 4- star; and Tulip Inn, 3-star — will add the new properties under these brands.

“We are going to open four more hotels in India by beginning of April 2015 as part of our expansion plans in the country,” Louvre Hotels Group Managing Director South Asia Vimal J Singh told PTI.

Lucky winners of DDA’s housing scheme will begin the New Year on a joyous note as the housing authority will start handing over the flats from January 1.

Top officials at the DDA said except for a few flats in Sirsapur area and Rohini, the rest are ready and hence they would be handed over in the month of January.

Action group realty firm Microtek Infrastructures will invest about Rs 500 crore to develop a housing project in Gurgaon.

Mictrotek Infrastructures, an equal joint venture between Action group and Okaya Power, has awarded Rs 300 crore worth contract to L&T for construction of this housing project spread over 14.6 acres.

“We are developing a housing project in Gurgaon comprising 716 units. The construction of the project has started and we expect to deliver this project early 2017,” Microtek Infrastructures Managing Director Ajay Aggarwal said.

In an unbelievable discount offer to beat slowdown blues, realty firm Supertech on Friday claimed to offer a free add-on studio apartment with the purchase of a luxury flat, but ‘conditions apply’ like all such schemes.

The offer comes with quite a few riders — the scheme is valid only for top-floor flats and the cost of the flat stands at Rs 1.38 crore, while the ‘free’ studio apartment carries a price tag of Rs 22 lakh and is located several kilometres away at another project.