Real Estate

Disappointed with RBI’s decision to keep interest rates unchanged, real estate players today said housing demand is likely to remain weak in short term and sought government’s help to facilitate low-costing funding for buyers and developers.

Realtors’ apex body CREDAI expressed disappointment over the RBI policy and demanded a stimulus package, in form of cut in interest and tax rates, to boost housing demand and supply. It also sought the government’s intervention to facilitate low cost funding for buyers as well as developers.

Sizes of homes across the Mumbai metropolitan region (MMR) are shrinking over the past two years as real estate players are developing small-sized properties keeping in mind the price factor.

The home size has decreased by as much as eight per cent since 2012 and the trend is likely to continue as the population grows and property prices increase, property portal Commonfloor said in its study.

“…Since 2012, it may be found that property sizes have constantly decreased, while prices have almost remained the same or marginally increased,” it said.

Retirement fund body EPFO has no plans to launch a housing scheme for its over five crore subscribers on additional contribution by its members, Parliament was informed Wednesday.

“No Sir,” Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on a question whether Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has chalked out a scheme for providing housing to its subscribers on additional contribution.

CBDT has ordered an Income Tax department investigation against a number of real estate developers who were recently shown by an investigative portal to be willing to accept alleged black money in property transactions.

The apex authority of the I-T department has asked its investigation units across the country to furnish to it reports of any action or probe conducted against the groups named by the portal in the past and in case such an action has not been done, the Central Board of Direct Taxes has ordered the same to be initiated.

The north-east is not far behind the rest of the country when it comes to growth in the real estate sector. Guwahati is fast emerging as an investment hotspot with a growing demand for real estate resulting in huge expansion in both commercial and residential complexes.

Guwahati, like most of the other bigger cities in the country, has in the recent years witnessed a sharp increase in the demand for flats, both for residential and commercial purposes.

Vimal, a State Bank of India (SBI) official here, said there is a huge demand for flats in Guwahati.

The Supreme Court Friday asked DLF to deposit the balance Rs.480 crore of a total Rs.630 crore penalty imposed on the realty major by the fair trade regulator CCI for allegedly exploiting its dominant position.

An apex court bench, headed by Chief Justice H.L. Dattu, said DLF could pay the amount in instalments of Rs.75 crore each from Jan 15 till the penalty is cleared.

DLF was imposed the penalty of Rs.630 crore by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for allegedly exploiting its dominant position to the disadvantage of its customers in three projects in Gurgaon.

Real estate major DLF was on Thursday allowed to deposit Rs 100 crore towards Rs 630 crore fine slapped on it by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for allegedly resorting to unfair business practices.

A bench headed by Justice A R Dave allowed the request after DLF’s counsel said, “we will deposit Rs 100 crore more today with the Registry”.

Earlier, the company had deposited Rs 50 crore as per the August 27 order within three weeks. The court had said the Registry will be at liberty to invest it in any of the nationalised banks.

Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra was Thursday roped in to endorse Unnati Fortune Group, a real estate entity.

The “Barfi!” actress will be seen in marketing and promotional campaigns that would be rolled out shortly by the group.

Expressing her excitement, the National Award winning actress said in a statement: “Unnati Fortune Group is a brand that stands for cutting-edge innovation, quality and timely-delivery. It is a brand that has redefined the real estate space in Delhi-NCR.

DLF Thursday deposited Rs.100 crore with the Supreme Court registry – a part of Rs.630 crore penalty imposed on it by the Competition Commission of India for alleged one-sided contracts for flat buyers in Gurgaon.

Senior counsel Harish Salve, while seeking adjournment of the hearing till Friday, told the apex court bench headed by Justice Anil R. Dave that to establish their bonafide, they are depositing Rs.100 crore with the apex court registry.

Salve produced before the court a cheque of Rs.100 crore.

Realty firm Omaxe plans to raise Rs 100 crore through private placement of debt securities in order to fund construction activities of its ongoing projects.

The company’s board will meet on December 2 to consider a proposal to raise funds through issue of debt securities on private placement.

In a filing to the BSE, Omaxe said that “a meeting of the Board of Directors of the company will be held on December 2, to consider and approve, issuance of secured non convertible redeemable debt securities (including secured non-convertible redeemable debentures) on private placement basis”.

Piling up inventory and rising demand from home buyers may result in declines in property prices by nearly 20 percent in the Mumbai metropolitan region (MMR) over the next few months, according to a study.

The study conducted by ASK says the demand for housing in the MMR is expected to increase to nearly 1.20-1.25 lakh units annually over the next three years, while the property prices are likely to correct to up to 20 percent in the next few months, mainly because of the large inventory.

Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu Saturday said India need not necessarily follow Western practices in building its own smart cities.

Naidu said nature, culture and prosperity should go hand in hand and that smart cities in India should be developed keeping in mind the Indian culture and traditions and need not necessarily follow the western practices.

He was delivering the keynote address at the US-India Smart Cities Conclave here.

He said it was time to “walk the talk” on the Prime Minister’s mission on building smart cities.

Realty firm Supertech Friday said it will invest about Rs 350 crore over the next four years to develop an affordable housing project at Gurgaon that will offer units in a price range of Rs 13-20 lakhs.

It would develop nearly 2,000 flats in the 12-acre housing project and this would be under the Haryana government policy on affordable housing announced in August 2013.

National capital’s upscale Khan Market continues to be the most expensive place to hire a shop in the country, even though its ranking worldwide has dropped by three notches to 31st position.

“India’s Khan Market has slipped in global ranking for retail main street locations by three spots to be ranked at 31 from its previous position of 28,” property consultant Cushman & Wakefield said in a statement.

Competition Commission Wednesday said the probe into suspected unfair business practices by around 20 realty players is in progress.

Without disclosing specific details, Competition Commission of India (CCI) Chairman Ashok Chawla said the investigation is still under progress.

“We are looking at that if there is some formal (or) informal understanding even if they are not dominant. (This part of probe ) is in advance stage,” he said at an event here.

After facing last-minute technical hiccups today, DDA has postponed the draw of lots for its flagship Housing Scheme 2014, which was scheduled to be held tomorrow.

The decision comes in the wake of technical problem encountered by the housing body while holding the mock trial for the scheme at its headquarters ‘Vikas Sadan’ here and no new date has been announced.

The wait is not over yet for those who filled application forms for Delhi Development Authority (DDA) Housing Scheme 2014.

The tentative date for the draw of lots was originally scheduled for November 10 and it was later postponed to November 12. But now it seems, the applicants will have to wait till Nov 17 to know about the results. Sources claimed on Friday that the results will be declared around 11.30 am on Monday (Nov 17) .

DDA for the first time would also be “webcasting live” the entire draw on the Internet with a dedicated URL (www.Ddadrawlive.In) for the same.

Shares of realty firm DLF rose nearly three per cent today after the company reported nine per cent increase in consolidated net profit for the second quarter of this fiscal.

The scrip of the country’s largest realty firm gained 2.95 per cent to Rs 143 on the BSE.

On the NSE, it rose 2.61 per cent to Rs 143.

DLF had yesterday reported nine per cent increase in its consolidated net profit at Rs 109.06 crore for the second quarter of this fiscal on account of higher sales and lower expenses.

Its net profit stood at Rs 100.05 crore in the year-ago period.

Blaming the Maharashtra government for “non-fulfilment of certain critical obligations”, Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra) Thursday walked out of the contract to develop the Rs 12,000-crore Charkop-Bandra-Makhurd Metro corridor in Mumbai.

“Due to non-fulfilment of various obligations by the state government, the concession agreement for the Mumbai Metro Line 2 (Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd corridor) is terminated despite the best efforts by the company and the state,” the Anil Ambani-led company said in statement.

The decision caps months of rumours about the company walking of the project.

Rating agency Fitch on Tuesday said the easing of FDI rules in the realty sector would improve the liquidity situation of developers and boost supply but could also result in increased price competition among the builders.

On October 29, the Cabinet had relaxed FDI rules in construction sector by reducing minimum built-up area as well as capital requirement and easing the exit norms.

DDA has received over 10 lakh applications for the flagship ‘Housing Scheme 2014’ and it will on Monday conduct a dry run to check its preparedness for the much-awaited draw of lots.

The tentative date for holding the draw of the lots for the new scheme was November 10, but a senior official of the housing authority on Sunday said that the exact date would be decided based on the outcome of Monday’s trial.

DDA has approved the policy of purchase of private land through negotiations, in view of the New Land Acquisition Act under which the buying has become “cumbersome and time consuming”, the urban body today said.

As many infrastructure and housing related projects have been “held up” because DDA was not able to acquire land, the DDA said in a statement.

The Authority took the decision to approve the policy also keeping in view that land acquisition under the New Land Acquisition Act has become cumbersome and time consuming, the statement said.

Unitech Corporate Parks (UCP), the London listed Unitech group firm, on Wednesday said the company has completed a deal to sell its stakes in six IT-SEZ projects in India to Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management for 188.9 million pounds (about Rs 1,850 crore).

However, the total sale proceeds are lower than the amount agreed initially in June at Rs 2,050 crore.

In a major interim relief to DLF, the Securities Appellate Tribunal on Wednesday allowed the realty giant to redeem mutual funds worth Rs 1,806 crore to meet working capital needs and service debt payments.

DLF had sought permission to redeem money locked in mutual funds after being slapped with market regulator Sebi’s ban last month that bars it from accessing the capital market for 3 years.

Japanese real estate company TamaHome Corporation has entered into a joint venture with Developer Group to create townships in India, the company said Wednesday.

The first two township projects in India will come up in Visakhapatnam in 50 acres and the second in Ludhiana in 150 acres. Both will be in collaboration with Developer Group India Pvt. Ltd.