Category: Real Estate News

Realty firm alleges fraud, police hunt for developer

BASED on reports by experts in forgery cases, Mahim police are tracing Jitendra Jain, a developer in the western suburbs who, as per a complaint by Vighnaharta Builders, allegedly duped several flat buyers by posing as director of the company.

Vighnaharta Builders had registered a police complaint three months ago that Jain, director of Kamla Landmarc Construction, had duped several people by selling flats at a major project they had begun in central Mumbai.

To lend credibility to his claims, Jain had allegedly forged various documents, including the letterhead of Vighnaharta Builders and duped prospective flat buyers of crores of rupees. “The forgery has been corroborated by experts. A case report has been submitted to the Zonal DCP,” said senior inspector Dashrath Patil.

Police said Jain was aware that Vighnaharta Builders were on the verge of completing legal formalities before starting the project in central Mumbai. Jain allegedly announced the pre-launch booking of the flats at a rate cheaper than actual rates in the area.

“A statement made by Vignaharta Builders says the cheaper rates attracted prospective flat buyers, mostly rich investors, who immediately booked some flats in the two saleable towers that are supposed to be constructed,” said investigating officer Ritesh Aher.

Jain posted the details of the redevelopment project on the website of Kamla Landmarc Construction, naming the project ‘Trident’. “Santosh Mane, director of Vighnaharta Builders, saw the website and approached police,” said Aher.

Jain told Newsline, “I’m totally unaware of any such complaint filed against me.”

When asked about the delay in arresting Jain, DCP (Zone 5) Dhananjay Kulkarni said, “The investigation is in progress.”

Source: The Indian Express

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

Housing Prices Rise by Around 1 Percent in 20 Major Cities: NHB

New Delhi: Housing prices have increased marginally by an average 1.1 per cent in 20 major cities, including Delhi and Mumbai, in January-March 2013 over the previous quarter due to slowdown in demand, National Housing Bank said.

Residential housing prices in 12 cities have shown increase in prices in this quarter ended March, 2013 over the previous quarter (October-December, 2012), quarterly update of NHB Residex said.

On the contrary, eight cities have shown decline in prices over the previous quarter with maximum fall observed in Guwahati (-7.84 per cent) followed by Ludhiana (-6.71 per cent), Surat (-6.67 per cent).

Besides, price correction was witnessed in Kolkata by 5.75 per cent, Lucknow by 3.18 per cent, Hyderabad 2.23 per cent and Chennai 1.28 per cent.

“Property prices in majority of the cities are witnessing marginal upward trend,” NHB said in a statement.

Price increase was witnessed in Jaipur (28.74 per cent) followed by Bhubneshwar (14.54 per cent), Pune (7.81 per cent), Bhopal (6.49 per cent), Delhi (3.59 per cent), Bengaluru (2.83 per cent), Mumbai (2.31 per cent), Kochi (2.30 per cent) and Faridabad (0.98 per cent).

NHB RESIDEX tracks the movement in prices of residential properties on a quarterly basis since 2007. The index for Delhi includes property transactions in Gurgaon, Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad.

NHB RESIDEX has been expanded to include six new cities namely Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Meerut, Nagpur and Raipur from this quarter, it said.

Source: Press Trust of India

Delhi realtor buys 20 acres in Kolkata

Alchemist Township India, a Delhi-based real estate developer, has bought 20 acres of prime land in the Aerotropolis being developed by Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd (BAPL) at Durgapur, 180 kilometres from Kolkata.

This project envisages developing 2.4 million sq. ft. for housing. The company has set a target to develop 10 million sq. ft. for affordable homes in Eastern India, which will include Bengal, Orrisa, Assam, Bihar and Jharkhand.

International property consultants Jones Lang LaSalle India were the transaction mediators for this deal, which is West Bengal’s largest land transaction in 2013 to date.

Source: Business Standard

All land-related info of Bengal will now be a click away

Banglar Bhumi, a portal on land records of West Bengal, is ready to provide all land related information to people, particularly entrepreneurs, sources in the Land and Land Reforms department said.

The land have been divided into various zones like agricultural zone, industrial zone and tourism zone for easy spotting of target lands.

“The basic idea behind marking the zones is that industrial and other big projects of the state government and the Centre will be located in the appropriate zones without disturbing food security in the state,” sources said.

The block-wise land use maps show single, double and multi crops land, dry and barren land, forest land, metal roads, national highway, state highway, railway network, industrial area, area under infrastructural development and water bodies etc.

“This will help the entrepreneurs intending to set up industries know the actual infrastructure available at the proposed sites,” sources said.

However, the concept of zoning in block-wise maps of the districts was introduced in May 2011 to identify agricultural zone, industrial zone and tourism zone, townships and wetlands.

The block-wise land use maps of five districts — West Midnapore, Bankura, Purulia, Burdwan and Birbhum — have been prepared and formally published in March 2010.

Source: The Indian Express