Month: June 2013

Noida land prices may zoom

NOIDA: Buying a house or land in Noida, Greater Noida and along the Yamuna Expressway has become costlier. At a board meeting on Monday, three development authorities for these areas announced a substantial rise in allotment prices across all categories of land.

The revision comes into effect later this week, after the authorities publish a formal notification. The Greater Noida and the Yamuna Expressway authorities have also increased the compensation rate to be offered to farmers for acquisitions, besides providing a host of benefits to them.

In Noida, the allotment rates of group housing, residential and institutional properties have been hiked by 15%, commercial and industrial land rates have gone up by 30% and 11.25%. In Greater Noida, the allotment rate for land across all categories, except industrial, has been uniformly revised by 8.53%. The Yamuna Expressway area has also seen a hike in allotment rates of all categories of land by about 15%. The allotment rate for industrial properties remains the same as last year.

The authorities last hiked the rates between 7.5 and 40% in July 2012. “The increase in prices is a carried out each year. It should have happened in March, but got delayed,” said Rama Raman, chairman & CEO of Noida, Greater Noida and chairman of Yamuna Expressway authorities. “The hike in allotment rates is vital considering the rise in land costs, etc,” he said.

The hike is especially important for the Greater Noida Authority that is reeling under a major cash crunch. “The hike in rates was essential considering our current funds shortage. The more than two year-old land row has imposed an extra burden on the Authority in the form of enhanced compensation and rehabilitation packages for the farmers. Besides, many development projects have remained stalled for months,” Raman said.

The allotment rate rise means that residential properties in Noida have become dearer by at least Rs 8,115 per sqm in A Category sectors such as 14,14A, 15A, 17 and 44 and by Rs 2,950 per sqm in E Category sectors like 102,115 and 158. Group housing flats in Noida have are costlier by almost Rs 11,065 per sqm in A category areas and by Rs 4,180 per sqm in E category zones. In the institutional category for IT/ITES properties, Noida buyers will have to shell out Rs 33,940 per sqm now. For plots in Phase I and III industrial areas of Noida, the allotment rates are Rs 20,990 and Rs 7,740per sqm.

Raman said residential plots in Greater Noida will be dearer by almost Rs 1,592 per sqm while for commercial an extra Rs 3,155 will be charged. “Allotment rates in Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority have also been increased between 14 to 18%,” Raman said. Developers put up a brave face as future booking would cost more. “The hike is steep. This means Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna e-way will no longer be affordable,” said Getamber Anand, President Elect, National, CREDAI. “With floor-area ratio so expensive, it’ll be difficult to sell property. This will be detrimental to real estate business,” Anand said.

Source: The Times of India

Pune Municipal Corporation to evacuate residents from 274 ‘highly dangerous’ buildings

PUNE: The civic body has identified 274 buildings in the city as “highly dangerous” that can come crashing down anytime. Officials said most of the buildings identified are old and that they have now prepared a plan to evacuate residents from these buildings before the monsoon.

“Of the old properties identified, a majority are old wadas. There are 55 buildings that cannot be repaired and we have no option but to demolish them. There are 219 buildings that can be strengthened with major repairs,” said Sudhir Kadam, executive engineer of building department of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), while speaking to TOI.

Kadam said the PMC had served notices to residents of these buildings. Some of them have been shifted to transit camps. The civic body has already demolished 25 “extremely dangerous” buildings, while another 30 will be razed before the monsoon. The PMC is also helping out in the repair works of 219 high-risk buildings. The repair works will continue for nearly four months.

Among the buildings demolished so far is the Lakadi Ganpati building in Shukrawar Peth, which was razed last week. “Many old buildings in the area are risky. So its demolition was necessary. The Lakadi Ganpati building was more than 100-years-old and there was a short circuit here a couple of years ago that had made the building even more hazardous,” said Datta Pardeshi, a trustee of the Lakadi Ganpati temple. Pardeshi said the trustees and workers of the temple cooperated with the PMC and allowed the demolition, since the building was a threat to nearby residents.

The move to demolish dangerous buildings has come in a tad late. The municipal corporation had appointed a private agency to conduct a survey of dilapidated structures in the city in 2008. The survey report had said that over 1,186 old properties – majority of them in old wadas – were in a poor shape. Most of the identified buildings were located in Kasba Peth, Budhwar Peth, Shaniwar Peth, Nana Peth, Bhavani Peth and Narayan Peth. Once the report was ready, the civic body and the private agency had categorized the identified buildings in different categories, based on their structural stability. The civic body then prioritized work on the 274 buildings that were identified as highly dangerous.

Activists said the civic administration should have a long-term plan in place as against carrying out demolition drives before the monsoon. “There is no system in place in PMC to carry out structural stability checks of old buildings routinely. A mechanism for year-long structural audits should be developed,” said Maj Gen S C N Jatar (retd), founder of Nagari Chetana Manch, a citizen’s group. He added that not just old buildings but buildings built 30 or 40 years ago should also be checked on a regular basis. After all, degradation of the structure is a continuous process, he said.

Redevelopment of old properties in Pune has remained entangled in legal and policy matters for several decades. As per the PMC Development Plan (DP) of 1987, it was decided that wada-dwellers would be rehabilitated within the old city limits. But things never moved beyond the planning stage. In 2005-06, the civic standing committee made a budgetary provision of Rs 1 crore to repair dilapidated wadas, but these funds were hardly utilized. The PMC took an initiative in 2007, when the CIC drafted a policy which is still awaiting the government’s nod.

The PMC has come with an option of cluster development of the old wadas in the new draft development plan (2007 to 2027) for old city areas. More than two wadas can be considered as the cluster and redeveloped simultaneously.

The state legislature in 2011 had passed a bill to amend the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation (BPMC) Act, 1949, to make structural audits compulsory all over the state. It is now mandatory for occupants of 30-year-old buildings to submit a structural stability certificate.

Source: The Times of India

Bangalore realty market more positive

BANGALORE: With a new stable government looking to address some problems of the previous one, and with interest rates falling, Bangalore’s real estate market is looking more positive for buyers and investors than it has been in a while. Given that property prices here have been relatively stable in the past few years also makes it quite attractive.

Irfan Razack, chairman and managing director, Prestige Group, says the mood among investors is positive. “What really matters for building Brand Bangalore is good governance and good infrastructure. The ongoing projects should be completed and delivered on time and quality is likely to be maintained,” he says.

Irshad Ahmed, president, Bangalore Realtors Association – India (BRAI), echoes the same sentiment. However, he says infrastructure needs to be improved significantly and the Metro rail work needs to be speeded up.

Builders say Bangalore is also attracting a lot of foreign buyers on account of the weakening of the Indian rupee. A weaker rupee makes Indian goods cheaper in terms of foreign currency. “It makes this the ideal time for foreign investment and Bangalore seems to be the most preferred city (for foreign buyers),” says Rajashekar, proprietor, Elegant Properties.

Home loan interest rates that had gone up to 11% and higher are now down to about 10%. Bankers expect the trend to continue given that the inflation rate is dropping. Interest rates play a big role in real estate because most buyers take large loans to finance their property purchases.

Zahed Mahmood, director in property brokerage firm Silverline Realty, notes that schemes such as where the builder bears the customer’s EMI till the project is complete, is helping to bring buyers into the market.

“Bangalore is more an end-user market rather than speculative. So it’s helping to keep prices stable,” says Mahmood.

There are concerns about the job market though. IT companies are no longer creating as many jobs as they once were. But Irshad Ahmed says this is not an immediate concern.

Realtors are looking forward to the latter half of 2013 when the Real Estate Regulatory Bill and the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill are expected to be passed. “The Real Estate Regulatory Bill, if passed, will help the growth of India’s realty sector. It will root out all the unethical and fly-by-night operators and enable a healthy business to emerge,” says Zahed Mahmood.

Source: The Times of India

Buyers protest delay in possession

As many as 50 irked home buyers on Saturday staged a sit-in outside the office of Unitech Limited Group to protest delay in possession of their flats.

The buyers were supposed to get possession of their flats in Uniworld Gardens II by 2011. But four years after the project was launched in Sector 47, the construction work is still far from over.

The housing society is supposed to have 500 flats spread over four towers.

The buyers, living across the country, connected through Facebook and planned to raise voice against the developer.

“We are fighting for our right to get our dream home on time, as was assured by the developer. We do not see getting the possession for at least the next two years as the construction is still not over,” said Pankaj Kalra, a buyer.

The buyers protested outside the realtor’s office in South City 1 after their representatives were not allowed inside the office for a meeting with Unitech executives.

“The Unitech executives had originally agreed to hold a meeting on May 11, but they postponed it to May 25. They have adopted the tactic of delaying or postponing meetings, unmindful of our plight. We are paying rent, EMIs and interest to banks,” said Anil Kumar, another buyer.

Kumar also alleged that the developer had stationed bouncers outside the office.

“Some Unitech bouncers were present there. They didn’t allow us to go inside and meet the senior executives,” he said.

The two-hour protest ended up blocking roads and creating traffic chaos in the area. The aggrieved buyers finally called off the protest after police intervened.

Source: Hindustan Times