Category: Bangalore Real Estate

Karnataka governor returns Land Revenue Bill passed during BJP government

BANGALORE: Governor H R Bhardwaj on Wednesday returned the Karnataka Land Revenue (Second Amendment) Bill, 2012 , passed by both the Houses of the legislature in last days of BJP tenure.

The legislation was brought by inserting new section 94CC in the act with the intention of regularizing unauthorized occupation of revenue land belonging to government areas with dwelling houses constructed prior to January 1, 2012 by granting the land to unauthorized occupants after payment of small amount of fee.

Justifying the decision to return the bill, governor has said “The policy of regularization of encroachment of government land directly encourages illegal occupation of government land. This amendment will cause severe inroads into the lofty principles such as rule of law, equality before law, due to process, majesty of law, dignity of courts, inalienable fundamental rights, directive principles etc, which are enshrined in the constitution,” he said. He added that in the larger interest of the public, illegal occupation of government land has to be curbed.

Referring to Task Force for Protection of public lands headed by V Balasubramanian, Joint Legislature Committee constituted to go into the deadline of the problem of land grabbing and encroachments and also Supreme Court judgment in the case of Jaspal Singh Vs State of Punjab in January 2011, Bhardwaj in a strongly worded observation has said the amendment bill does not specifically prohibit grant/regularization of common land. “This amendment does not serve any public good or social cause, on the other hand it may lead to illegal grabbing of government land.”

Governor also observed that similar act was passed in April 1998 of regularizing the unauthorized occupation as a one time measure. “However it is not known why such lands under unauthorized occupation made prior to April 1998 could not be granted till now.”

Source: The Times of India

LinkedIn books office space in Bangalore technology park

BANGALORE: California-based social networking site LinkedIn recently booked 74,341 sq ft of office space in Prestige Technology Park in Bangalore at 43 per sq ft, people familiar with the transaction said, establishing the fact that leading technology firms are investing in additional space in Bangalore.

“The new office space in Bangalore will house employees across functions, including customer service, engineering, sales and marketing,” said LinkedIn India Country Manager Nishant Rao.

The company has taken up space for consolidating its existing offices while the rest will be used for growth. “The new facility can seat 750 people and will be mostly used for expansion. It has also taken into account growth for three years,” said a person having direct knowledge of the transaction. LinkedIn has 150 employees in India as on December 2012.

The transaction was handled by property consultant DTZ.

LinkedIn India is headquartered in Mumbai with two offices in Gurgaon and a technology centre in Bangalore, the first outside the US. Situated at the Bagmane Technology Park, the LinkedIn Technology’s R&D centre is its fourth office in the Indian market. The world’s largest professional networking site, with over 20 million users in India, has added five million more users in the past 12 months ended March 2013.

India, with 100 million Internet users, provides the second largest user base for LinkedIn, after the US, where it has 74 million users.

LinkedIn has launched a series of new products to make things easier for users and its premium offerings in India. ING Vysya, HCL TechnologiesBSE 2.79 % and WABAG are among the companies that are extensively using LinkedIn Talent Solutions to establish an employment brand, develop their career pages and boost their recruiters’ ability to identify and connect with the best talent.

“Having grown by almost 500% since LinkedIn India started operations in November 2009, the 20 million members account for about 9% of LinkedIn’s global members (225+ million),” said Rao.

The 22-acre Prestige Tech Park has three independent towers having two wings each of an average floor plot size of 40, 000 sq ft. It houses some big companies such as JP Morgan, Quintiles, and Adobe. Private Equity fund Red Fort Capital had invested $35 million ( Rs 157.54 crore) in the tech park in January 2007.

Typically, leasing of commercial real estate is a good indicator of a country’s business outlook. According to Cushman & Wakefield, office markets in India registered a downward spiral in absorption in the first three month of the year.

Source: The Economic Times

Mid income homes drive property sale in Bangalore

BANGALORE: Bangalore’s residential real estate market remains resilient despite global turmoil driven by demand for mid-end homes. The city saw 35,500 residential units launched during 2012 and around 8,000 units in Q1 2013.

“The quantum of new launches witnessed by the city in the past two years will restrict substantial upward movement. The year 2012 saw the absorption of approximately 36,000 residential units,” says a recent report by Knight Frank.

South Bangalore witnessed the highest number of new launches in 2012 taking up 48% of the total pie followed by North Bangalore at 33%. “Most of these projects are scheduled to be completed in 2015, thereby denoting the possibility of a glut of ready projects in the market in that period,” said the report.

As per the report, the residential prices in Bangalore moved in narrow ranges during 2012, barring locations like Hebbal, Whitefield, Tumkur Road and Magadi Road which witnessed price appreciation between 10-15% in Q1 2013 over the prices in Q1 2012. “The quantum of new launches witnessed by the city in the past two years will restrict substantial upward movement,” the report mentioned.

According to Knight Frank, during the year north Bangalore will continue to be one of the sought after residential markets owing to the various infrastructure initiatives underway.South Bangalore is also expected to see healthy absorption level owing to the IT/ITeS populace engaged with the office projects along the outer ring road. However, Whitefield, in the east, will continue to attract buyers, owing to its proximity to workplace centres and the presence of retail and social infrastructure.

Source: The Economic Times

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

Average size of Bangalore apartment highest in India

Bangalore tops in many things like weather, good, high-end schools and quality of life notwithstanding the traffic cribs. But there’s one not-so-well-known parameter of which the city can be justifiably proud: large apartments.

On an average, a typical apartment across major metros in the country is roughly 1,100 sqft to 1,200 sqft. In Bangalore, that size is 1,750 sqft making it 45% higher than the national average. The average size of apartments in Bangalore is the highest in India, 60% larger than those in Mumbai and 20% larger than those in the National Capital Region (NCR).

Data shared by global consultancy firm LJ Hooker states that the only other Indian city to match Bangalore in apartment sizes is its old IT rival Hyderabad, which also has apartments measuring approximately 1,750 sqft on an average.

Elaborating on the reasons why Bangalore has large dwellings, Alexander Moore, CEO, LJ Hooker India, says the primary reason is land cost. “The higher the cost of land, the greater efficiency you have to make of it, and that’s by building smaller apartments,” says Moore. Land prices in Mumbai and Delhi, says Moore, are 10 times higher than those in Bangalore.

The demographics of buyers in Silicon Plateau, who are primarily end-users located in tech hubs on the periphery, is another important factor. “This takes pressure off city areas and allows greater size. In Bangalore, you can travel 10kms to get access to land which is not the case in other cities, more so in Mumbai,” adds Moore. Mumbai and NCR have large investor populations who prefer smaller units close to city locations.

In Mumbai, the availability of developable land is so scarce that developers need to go vertical and keep the size of apartments units small to maximize land yield. As per data shared by LJ Hooker, the average apartment size in Mumbai is around 1,100 sqft. While average apartment size in NCR is 1,500 sqft, in Chennai it’s 1,300 sqft. “Affordability is the key to Bangalore’s real estate success,” says Jackbastian K Nazareth, group CEO, Puravankara Projects Ltd. PropEquity, a real estate data analytics and research firm in New Delhi, rated Bangalore as one of the most affordable real estate markets in the country.

Bangalore-based real estate major Sobha Developers sells 3-BHK units ranging from 1,850 sqft to 2,000 sqft, which account for 90% of its total apartment sales. At Puravankara Projects, sales of 3-BHK units contribute approximately 70% of its sales.

Prashanth Sambargi, partner, Mars Realty, points out that the city always had a culture of large bungalows with gardens, which is why people look for large apartments. That buyer mindset is visible in the real estate market as many Bangalore-based developers offer terrace/balcony spaces ranging between 600 sqft and 2,000 sqft per apartment.

Developer speak

Most of the demand for 3-BHK apartmens comes from the migratory population which wants to have one room for kids, one room for parents/in-laws and another for guests.

Source: GharaBari