Month: October 2014

Latest Real Estate Projects in Kolkata

Uniworld at New Town, Rajarhat spans 100 acres and is expected to be completed by 2010-11. 3 phases of the project have already been launched.

The South City Pinnacle in Salt Lake the other very good option as NRI Commercial Projects serves the growing demand for office space and is equipped with a food court and a gymnasium supported by a multi-level parking facility.

The PS Group has a string of commercial and residential properties under planning and construction in Kolkata, offering the latest comforts in living.

Genexx Valley on Diamond Harbour Road promoted by Paharpur Cooling Towers is one of the large townships coming up in the city, the rates of which have appreciated by almost 75 % in a year’s time. 2000 flats in 33 blocks on 20 acres will enjoy several firsts in community living, with a library, open air amphitheatre, crèche, twin swimming pools, boating facilities and community halls of different capacities within the complex.

Source: NRI Reality News

India’s real estate market: Time for the bubble to burst?

It is a frequent motto used to emphasize the importance that a location has on the value of a real estate property. The heart of the message is clear — if you pick the right spot to invest your property in, you can be rewarded with a handsome return on investment.

The Indian economy is in an interesting stage right now. On one end of the spectrum, signs are pointing towards an economic surge. The Sensex hit an all-time high a week ago, the RBI seems to be making all the right moves to curb inflation and bring stability to the rupee and analysts can be frequently heard commentating that finally it’s a “trading market”. This means the economy is picking up, the share market is ripe for investments and therefore investors and traders can take advantage of the opportunities being presented to earn profits.

However, a quick way to see whether a country’s economy is improving is to simply look at its real estate prices. If real estate sales fall, then real estate prices eventually fall in tandem. This then reduces the value of all homeowners, whether they are looking to actively sell or not. The result is that there is a reduction in home loans granted to those same homeowners. Finally, this reduces consumer spending which results in reduced GDP.

So all in all, real estate prices or sales are a great indicator of a country’s economy.

With the Sensex hitting new highs and RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan promising all sorts of ground-breaking changes to propel the economy (on 6th November, the RBI unleashed a far reaching set of new rules that will allow foreign banks to enter India’s protected domestic environment), you would expect real estate prices to be surging upward. And yet, this is not what is happening.

The RBI has been consistently raising the repo rate, which is the rate that banks are charged to borrow from the RBI- in recent months. These past few days, major banks such as State Bank of India and HDFC Bank raised the rates to obtain loans to purchase houses, and the trend is unlikely to stop as the RBI is expected to continue raising rates to fight inflation.

This all translates to bad news for the real estate market. Home-owners will have a more difficult time obtaining loans to purchase houses. Already, cities such as Mumbai are facing a downturn in the real estate market, despite the mass public perhaps not being aware about it.

Usually, before a bubble “bursts”, price rises begin to slowly drop. This is currently being evidenced across the country. The National Housing Bank’s Residex, which tracks housing prices across 26 prominent cities in India, showed that in the April-June period, 22 cities saw a fall in prices compared to the previous quarter.

Mumbai and Delhi saw prices drop by 0.5 per cent and 1.5 per cent, respectively. While properties in Chennai dropped by 2.3 per cent and properties in Kolkata dropped by 4.1 per cent.

When looking at nominal numbers, which is not comparing to the previous quarter when adjusted for inflation, out of the 15 largest cities in India, house prices actually fell in 11 out of the 15 cities in the second quarter of 2013. This is absolutely alarming. For example, Kolkata saw a dramatic -12.9 per cent drop in prices when adjusted for inflation, and Surat saw a -11.5 per cent drop in prices when adjusted for inflation.

Source: NDTV Profit

Kolkata Govt. Plans to Revamp Suburbs

With beautification plans for the city already in progress, the Mamata Banerjee government now wants to beautify towns on the fringes of the Kolkata Metropolitan Area (KMA). State urban development and municipal affairs minister Firhad Hakim will meet representatives of all municipalities and civic corporations in the KMA area and its surroundings, at Unnayan Bhavan on Monday, to discuss the plan. “We will discuss the beautification plan and allocation of funds for it,” said the minister.
The Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) has been working on the master plan which the civic bodies will be asked to follow. The plan includes proper illumination, beautification of roadsides, pavements and boulevards and setting up street furniture in urban areas like Howrah, Chandernagore, Kalyani and Chinsurah.
Authorities feel that high population in the peri-urban areas is creating pressure not only on land and water supply, but also on basic amenities like sanitation, drainage and transport. This has resulted in uncontrolled land use and environmental degradation. The beautification plan when implemented will help municipalities create an ecofriendly environment. The urban development department also wants to execute canal renovation work with funds of the National Ganga River Basin Authority. Firhad and department officials had a meeting with the Centre last week where they expressed willingness to bring these canals under the scheme.

Source: indian real estate market

Jain group launches affordable housing project in Kolkata

Real estate company, Jain Group, had on Monday launched its affordable homes project – Dream Pratham – in Madhyamgram, a few kilometers north of Kolkata.

The group is likely to invest Rs. 50 crore in the project. It is also eyeing an investment of approximately Rs. 250 crore in similar mass housing projects.

The apartments are priced between Rs. 18 lakh to Rs. 22 lakh, according to a release issued by the company.

In the first phase, the project will have 150 flats with facilities like Wi-Fi enabled in-house library, multi-gym, indoor games arena, children’s playing arena, 24-hours security service, landscaped garden and spa to give a premium experience of living daily life.

Dream Pratham will provide the residents with easy transport in the form of Dream Express Shuttle Service which will drop them to major points from where they will be able to avail themselves of various transport services

Source: Axiomestates

Gurgaon, Mumbai property prices likely to fall

New Delhi/ Mumbai :Gurgaon and Mumbai two of India’s largest real estate markets – are set to witness a correction in property prices, say analysts.

With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerging as the single-largest party in Haryana and Maharashtra, experts say the new governments led by the BJP are likely to push land reforms and expedite various approval processes, bringing down the cost for developers and, ultimately, the end users.

Gurgaon and Mumbai, the richest cities in Haryana and Maharashtra, respectively, have always been the preferred markets for investors. Most parts of these cities are beyond the reach for those looking for affordable homes.

“We are expecting correction in prices as monopoly of certain developers, especially in Gurgaon, is bound to end,” says the top executive with a real estate firm. Single-window clearance, a demand for long, is likely and so are land reforms, he adds.

‘House for all by 2022’ has been a top agenda for the BJP government at the Centre. While there are many developers across the two states, DLF in Gurgaon and the Lodhas and Oberois in Mumbai are among the biggest names.

Most affordable projects are located on the boundaries or suburbs of these cities. Sanjay Dutt, managing director of Cushman & Wakefield, a realty consultant, says: “Mumbai suffered a lot in terms of approvals and costs added up. If a developer bought land for Rs 1,000 crore and paid 30 per cent interest, he had to shell out Rs 300 crore, which was included in the apartment prices.”

When more supply gets released in the market, prices will stabilise and correct eventually, Dutt adds.

Sunil Rohokale, managing director of Mumbai-based ASK group, says: “With a stable government in place, I think the speed with which decisions are taken will increase and if the real estate regulatory Bill, a pragmatic land Bill and fast approvals are introduced, the state (Maharashtra) does not need anything else.”

According to Om Ahuja, CEO (residential services) at JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle), a global property consultancy, if the new government focuses on reducing land costs by increasing floor space index and transferable development rights (TDR), and launching a housing regulator, property prices will become affordable for the common man.

Floor space index means permissible construction allowed on a given piece of land. TDRs are the rights that are granted by the government for undertaking socially-relevant schemes such as slum redevelopment and which can be traded in the market.

“The development control rules of the previous government did not help the common man. They just plugged the revenue losses for the government and local municipality,” says Ahuja.

Source: GharaBari