Aiming to provide temporary shelter for migrants and homeless people, the government is firming up a new initiative to launch a rental housing project in the big cities to answer their accommodation needs.
“We are launching a major initiative to promote rental housing on a large scale, for which an investment of Rs 6,000 crore is proposed,” said a senior Urban Development Ministry official.
The Bonhooghly Tenement Project, a PPP initiative of the West Bengal government’s refugee relief and rehabilitation department, is expected to be completed by October 2016, the developers said Monday.
Initiated in 2006, the project to rebuild the decrepit refugee complex in north Kolkata was stalled in 2008 before it was revived by the Mamata Banerjee government in 2012.
Private promoter Eden Realty has now joined hands with real estate developer Siddha Group for the project which, when completed, will have 34 four-storeyed towers for rehabilitating 800 refugee families.
Housing prices appreciated in 18 major cities by up to 3.9 percent in April-June over the preceding quarter while property rates fell in six cities including Delhi, according to National Housing Bank (NHB).
In the national capital, housing prices dropped by 3 percent during the first quarter of this fiscal compared with the January-March 2014.
Maximum price increase was witnessed in Pune by 3.9 percent, while Chandigarh saw highest fall of 4.4 percent, according to NHB’s ‘RESIDEX’.
Fitch Ratings has assigned a stable rating to Mumbai-based Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd.
It has also assigned B+ rating to the company’s proposed dollar denominated notes.
“Fitch Ratings has assigned India-based Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd (IBREL) a Long-Term Foreign Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of ‘B+’. The Outlook is Stable.
“The agency has also assigned IBREL’s proposed US dollar denominated guaranteed notes an expected rating of ‘B+(EXP)’ and Recovery Rating of ‘RR4’,” Fitch said in a statement.
Even as the overall sentiment in the real estate sector has improved, buyers feel property prices across top 10 cities are likely to remain stable for the next six months, according to a recent survey. DH file photo
Even as the overall sentiment in the real estate sector has improved, buyers feel property prices across top 10 cities are likely to remain stable for the next six months, according to a recent survey.
Real estate industry on Wednesday hailed the government’s decision to relax FDI rules in construction sector, saying the move would help cash-starved developers raise significant amount of foreign funds and also complete the stuck projects.
“Praise to the Finance Minister for being so prompt in meeting the requirements of this industry in his budget announcement, then approval for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and now relaxation in FDI norm. There will be huge amount of FDI inflow in this sector after this easing of norms,” realty major DLF’s Executive Director Rajeev Talwar said.
Realty firm Emaar MGF has tied up with payment gateway firm PayU India for providing an online payment facility to its customers.
“Emaar MGF customers can now pay EMIs for their properties through PayUMoney,” the developer said in a statement today.
PayUMoney would help customers to pay anytime and any amount with no restrictions of NEFT or RTGS, it added.
PayU is one of the world’s largest consumer payment processors. PayUMoney is a payment solution developed by PayU India.
As realty giant DLF fights a three-year capital markets ban imposed by regulator SEBI, the case is being seen as one having wider ramifications for the entire real estate sector and the regulatory framework applicable to them.
SEBI barred DLF and six others, including the company’s chairman and other top executives, earlier this month from accessing capital markets for three years for “active and deliberate suppression” of material information at the time of its public offer more than seven years ago in 2007.
Despite recovery in market conditions and sentiment, this festive season has failed to bring in cheers to the real estate industry as home buyers continue to remain cautious, according to industry experts.
Festive season is generally considered as the most important time for the realty sector as it records the highest number of sales, which is nearly 20-25 per cent more than non-festive period.
Real estate industry body Asia Pacific Real Estate Association (APREA) has sought greater clarity on taxation issues for the newly created investment vehicles Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs).
The APREA applauded market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for issuing final regulations on REITs and InvITs but said that tax clarity for the investment vehicles was a critical issue.
“A significant stumbling block remains the tax treatment of REITs and InvITs,” APREA CEO Peter Verwer said.
Barred by SEBI from accessing capital markets, realty giant DLF Wednesday sought interim relief from Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) to allow it to redeem funds locked in mutual funds and other instruments.
After hearing the petition filed by India’s largest realty developer last week against the ban, SAT Presiding Officer J P Devadhar adjourned the matter to October 30, and sought response from the capital markets regulator on DLF’s plea for an interim relief.
Property consultant Cushman & Wakefield on Monday projected an additional urban housing demand of 13 million units in the country by end of 2018, of which nearly one-fourth would be in the country’s top eight cities.
This is in addition to the already existing unmet demand, it added.
Acccording to the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation’s 2012 estimates, housing shortages was around 18.78 million units in the entire country.
In the largest office leasing deal, homegrown e-commerce giant Flipkart on Saturday agreed to take 3 million sq ft of prime office space in Bangalore from realty firm Embassy group at an annual rent of Rs 300 crore.
The lease contract is part of Flipkart’s expansion plans as it will hire 12,000 people this year to beef up support and technology operations.
The Bangalore-based firm has chalked out an ambitious expansion plan as it aims to take on rivals like Snapdeal and Amazon to grab a lion’s share of the estimated over USD 3 billion e-commerce market in India.
As many as 8.5 lakh applications have been received by DDA for it flagship ‘Housing Scheme 2014’, with the housing authority today attributing the “not-so-overwhelming” response to the five-year lock-in period imposed on the ownership of the flats.
“The total number of applications received so far stands at 8.5 lakh. Some of the bank branches are located in remote and far-flung areas, so the data reached our office late, after the closing date of the scheme,” an official told PTI.
Realty firm Supertech Ltd on Friday said it is handing over 1,000 housing units to customers in its two housing projects in Noida.
The two housing projects ‘Ecociti’ and ‘Capetown’ are spread over 13 acres and 50 acres, respectively.
These projects were launched in 2009-2010 and there has been a delay of 6-12 months in both these projects.
Real estate sector is facing a slowdown since last 2-3 years due to high interest rates and slow economic growth, resulting in huge delay in completion of projects.
Housing sales have remained lower than expected so far during the current festival season mainly due to high interest rates and the demand is likely to pick up only in the next 6-8 months, according to a report by Knight Frank and Ficci.
Property consultant Knight Frank and industry body FICCI Tuesday released the Real Estate Sentiment Index for Q3 2014 (July-September) based on a survey of various supply-side stakeholders including developers, private equity, banking and non-banking financial firms.
Regulator Sebi has barred realty major DLF, as also six top executives including Chairman K P Singh, from securities markets for three years, after finding the company guilty of “active and deliberate suppression” of material information at the time of its public offer.
Those prohibited from the markets including Singh’s son Rajiv Singh (Vice Chairman) and daughter Pia Singh (Whole Time Director), Sebi said in its order.
(DDA) has dedicated a chapter on conservation of built heritage in the city’s master plan, a step that is likely to prove a boon for “unprotected” monuments and buildings in the national capital.
As part of its efforts to preserve the city’s architectural fabric, DDA has identified six heritage zones and designated three archaeological parks in the Master Plan for Delhi, 2021.
Mahindra Lifespaces Developers, the real estate arm of the Mahindra group, on Monday launched its new business vertical ‘Happinest’ that will focus on developing affordable housing projects.
The first two projects under the new vertical will be developed at Avadi in Chennai and Boisar in Mumbai and would be priced between Rs 10-20 lakh.
Residential property listing site Housing.com, earlier known as Housing.co.in, has raised Rs 115 crore in its fourth round of funding from leading venture capital (VC) firms, Qualcomm Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners and Helion Venture Partners.
While Qualcomm pumped in another Rs 24 crore, Nexus has invested Rs 43 crore and Helion has pumped in Rs 48 crore.
The most recent pool of funding will be utilized to expand the company’s new projects, widen its technology to new platforms, and accelerate its branding and marketing activities
V Resorts, a unique chain of Offbeat resorts in India, recently introduced an online platform for hotel, cottage and resort owners in the country.
Supported by institutional investors and managed by an adroit team of professionals, V has developed effective solutions and carefully designed processes that help maintain and monetize properties with 5-25 rooms, across offbeat locations of India.
Properties set in pristine and less explored locations often struggle with low occupancy levels, high employee attrition and stressful daily management issues.
Over fifty percent of real estate buyers decisions are influenced by Internet research, revealed a study by Google India.
The study is based on a pan India offline research conducted by Zinnov and real estate related search query trends on Google.
Researching online for real estate information was not limited to metros but also extended to buyers in tier II cities, said a Google release here Wednesday.
Realty firm Omaxe is expecting about 20 per cent increase in sales bookings this fiscal at over Rs 2,500 crore.
The company’s sales bookings fell by 11 per cent during last fiscal to Rs 2,107 crore against Rs 2,373 crore in the year before.
In terms of volume, sales bookings fell by 31 per cent to 7.83 million sq ft in 2013-14 fiscal. However, the average realisation grew by 29 per cent to Rs 2,692 per sq ft.
The largest-ever housing scheme of Delhi Development Authority will be rolled out for city- dwellers by July end, offering over 26,000 flats across various categories with most of them being built with “green technology”, a top official of the housing body today said.
Bollywood actor Arbaaz Khan will inaugurate the Indian Property Show here tomorrow, which is back with a new set of properties featuring the latest projects in India and diverse offerings from developers.
Khan, 46, is the brand ambassador of the Indian Property Show, which will be held at the Dubai World Trade Centre.
The show is specially designed to meet the needs of NRIs in the Middle East featuring the latest projects in India and diverse offerings from developers, the organisers said.