Real Estate

Real estate developers and property consultants have hailed Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) decision to not raise the key policy rates, saying that the bold move by the apex bank would infuse positive sentiments in the property market .

RBI surprised the markets by leaving key policy rates unchanged, notwithstanding persistent high inflationary pressure. Developers hoped that RBI would soon be able to cut policy rates as inflation is expected to ease.

Punjab National Bank on Friday rolled out online collection of property tax system for Mohali in Punjab, enabling people to pay their taxes online.

For the convenience of residents of Mohali, PNB and Municipal Corporation Mohali, have joined hands together to launch online collection of property tax by using Finacle software, an official of PNB said here.

The main highlight of this system will be that it will automatically calculate property tax payable on simply entering property details.

Welcoming the 0.25 per cent rate cut by two of the biggest home loan financiers SBI and HDFC, realty sector participants today said the move will help revive interest in the gloomy market.

“This is a positive move to boost property sales and spur industry growth. Home buyers who were earlier waiting for rates to come down will now certainly look at buying their dream homes,” industry body Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (Credai) Chairman Lalit Kumar Jain said.

Real estate developers and property consultants today hailed RBI’s decision to not raise the key policy rates, saying that the bold move by the apex bank would infuse positive sentiments in the property market.

RBI today surprised the markets by leaving key policy rates unchanged, notwithstanding persistent high inflationary pressure. Developers hoped that RBI would soon be able to cut policy rates as inflation is expected to ease.

Two biggest housing financiers SBI and HDFC on Thursday cut home loan rates by up to 0.4 percent for new borrowers, a day after the Reserve Bank kept its key policy rates on hold.

Women borrowers would get an additional 0.05 percent concession on card rates, SBI, country’s biggest lender, said in a statement.

SBI home loans will now be available under two slabs– under Rs 75 lakh and above Rs 75 lakh.

Tata Housing Development Company today said it has partnered with the film ‘Club 60’ for promoting its housing project for senior citizens in Bangalore.

The film ‘Club 60’ is based on the theme of celebrating life after 60.

“The partnership is in sync with the launch of Tata Housing’s new project for senior living in Bangalore ‘Riva Residences’,” the company said in a statement.

This project is being promoted in the film as well as the promotional events being held across the country.

Fresh supply of retail space in shopping malls increased by 39 per cent in 2013 to 4.59 million sq ft in eight top cities despite delay in completion of 18 malls, said a global property consultant.

National Capital Region (NCR), Bengaluru and Ahmedabad did not see any new addition of mall spaces for the entire year in 2013, Cushman and Wakefield said, adding that Chennai saw the highest supply of 2 million sq ft, followed by Mumbai (9 lakh sq ft), Pune (7 lakh sq ft) and Kolkata (5 lakh sq ft).

Housing prices in India fell 1.7 per cent during the April-June quarter due to poor demand amid subdued economic conditions and there are no signs of recovery, real estate consultancy Knight Frank said.

Housing prices in India fell 0.1 per cent in the January- June period, while they rose 5.9 per cent during the 12 months ended June, according to the Knight Frank Global House Price Index, which tracks mainstream residential prices in 53 nations, including Dubai and Hong Kong.

Tata Value Homes, a subsidiary of Tata Housing Development, today said it sold over 50 flats registering sale of over Rs 25 crore during the four-day Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF) organised by Google.

The second edition of GSOF took place from December 11-14. “The company concluded India’s first-ever online home booking with sales totaling more than Rs 25 crore. Tata Value homes sold more than 50 apartments in four days with payments via debit and credit cards during GSOF by Google,” Tata Housing said in a release.

The on-line real estate portals have able to garner around three per cent of the total industry transactions and eastern region was fast catching the trend. “The market share for on-line real estate market was 0.5 percent 2-3 years back and now it has grown to 3 per cent,” India Property Online Regional Manager (East) Srinivas Verma told PTI here.

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Kerala is planning to introduce a new bill to prevent fly-by-night operators from cheating people by promising villas and flats, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said Wednesday.

Many real estate operators promise flats or villas, collect initial payments, and then disappear in a trice, leaving those who had paid them high and dry. Since many such complaints have been received in the state, a new law will be made to deal with this meance, the chief minister told reporters.

Chandy was speaking after the regular weekly cabinet meeting in the state capital.

The government has allowed Dubai-based Limitless to exit its joint venture with realty major DLF and repatriate capital of about Rs 200 crore as the partners were not able to acquire land to develop a project in Karnataka.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has approved the proposal of DLF Limitless Developers Pvt Ltd, the 50:50 joint venture between DLF and Limitless, an official statement said.

The proposal was related to exit of foreign investors and the repatriation of capital as the construction sector project could not even acquire land, it added.

Realty firms Ashiana Homes and Landcraft Projects said they have raised Rs 100 crore from Pirmal Group’s private equity firm Indiareit and another Rs 80 crore from financial institution India Infoline to fund their upcoming housing project in Gurgaon.

Ashiana Homes and Landcraft have formed a 50:50 joint venture firm to develop a housing project in Gurgaon. The project, located on Dwarka Expressway, would have 750 flats.

Property prices in Mumbai and Delhi NCR, among India’s top realty markets, marginally rose in the third quarter of 2013 mainly due to lack of new launches and cautious sentiment in the sector, a survey said.

Mumbai’s property rates grew 3 per cent in Q3 2013 compared to the April-June period. On the other hand prices in Delhi NCR remained largely stagnant at the Q2 2013 levels, according to a survey by property portal 99acres.

However, on year-on-year basis, Mumbai and Delhi NCR saw an improvement of 13 per cent and 8 per respectively, compared to Q3 2012 rates, it said.

Launch of new homes dropped by 12 per cent to over 1.72 lakh units so far during this calendar year in the eight major cities due to cautious approach by developers in view of slowdown in demand, according to global property consultant Cushman & Wakefield.

National capital region (NCR) saw a decline of 33 per cent in new launches this year at 38,411 units compared with 57,098 flats in the year-ago period.

With regards to the real estate market in the entire country, the Bangalore real estate market has been very strong and the projects are in very good demand, as termed by the market research companies as well as CREDAI Bengaluru.

The Income Tax (I-T) department today said its Directorate of Investigation has unearthed over Rs 300 crore of undisclosed income from co-operative housing societies during September and October.

“The Directorate of Investigation, Karnataka & Goa has conducted search and seizure operations during September and October 2013 in some co-operative housing societies, leading to unearthing of over Rs 300 crore of undisclosed income in these cases,” the department said in a press release.

Investigation in the raid cases are still in progress, it added.

Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (Credai) today said governments need to be more efficient to accelerate growth in the housing sector.

“Today, real estate sector is the largest generator of economic activity contributing 6.3 per cent to GDP and has the ability to drive the economy to a double-digit growth. But in order to accelerate growth in the housing sector, it is necessary that governments at all levels work efficiently,” Credai chairman Lalit Kumar Jain told reporters here.

Real estate developer Casa Grande has lined up projects worth Rs 1,250 crore and plans to launch more than 1,000 villas during the current financial year, the company said.

“Casa Grande plans to launch 1,000 villas this fiscal and has projects worth Rs 1,250 crore in the pipeline….” the city-based company said in a statement.

The company has developed and sold 2.5 million sq ft properties so far, it said.

Meanwhile, the company announced its latest project — Aldea, a garden themed project in Thoraipakkam on the famous Old Mahabalipuram Road.

Demand for commercial real estate is likely to remain subdued in the medium term as corporates continue to be in a consolidation mode while excess supply may put pressure on capital and rental values, property consultant CBRE said today.

The economic downturn has subdued office and retail markets that has affected sales and put pressure on capital values as well across major cities, CBRE South Asia Chairman and Managing Director Anshuman Magazine said in a statement.

Housing sales have risen by 18 per cent in Delhi-NCR during the first half of this year at 35,000 units, showing signs of improvement in the property market that has been facing slowdown in demand.

“During H1 2013, the NCR residential market witnessed a total absorption of 35,000 units showing an increase of 18 per cent from H1 2012. This increase in sales can be ascribed to the high number of project launches in the affordable category,” property consultant Knight Frank India said.

A top industry body Saturday underlined the need for developing and embracing low cost technologies to cater to the growing demand for affordable housing, especially for the lower and middle income groups in the country.

India is currently facing a shortage of around 18.78 million homes and the main reason behind falling sales is the mismatch between the price range of the housing offered and the type and costs of units demanded, Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry ( ASSOCHAM) President Rana Kapoor said.

The final guidelines on the proposed real estate investment trusts (REITS), which help the fund- starved realty sector with long-term funds, will be issued soon, Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram said today.

“We are very actively looking at announcing the final guidelines for REITs…there is now a concerted effort on the part of the government and the regulators on this and we believe that in this rapidly changing environment, credit rating agencies will have to play an important role,” Mayaram told an corporate bond market summit organised by Crisil here.

The US based real estate major RE/MAX is now making inroads in Tamil Nadu and as a first step appointed an Indian Businessman, as the Regional Franchse Owner of RE/Max in Rest of Tamil Nadu.

RE/MAX India, a division of RE/MAX International Property Group, appointed Raj Koneru, as the Regional Franchisee Owner Rest of Tamil Nadu as part of identifying franchisess and agents all over Tamil Nadu that would operate in the local, national and International Network of RE/MAX.