Homebuyers Road Map – Tips for first-time homebuyers

5 tips for first-time homebuyers if You’ve decided to go for it. Buying a home can be thrilling and nerve-wracking at the same time, especially for a first-time homebuyer. It’s difficult to know exactly what to expect. The learning curve can be steep, but most of the issues can be resolved by doing a little financial homework at the outset.

Take these five steps to help make the process go more smoothly.

Check your credit
The homebuyer’s credit score is among the most important factors when it comes to qualifying for a home loan these days. In addition, the standards are higher in terms of what score you need and how it affects the cost of the loan.

To get a sense of where your credit stands, go to Cibil.com to get your credit report by paying the required fee. Scour the reports for mistakes, unpaid accounts or collection accounts.

Just because you pay everything on time every month doesn’t mean your credit is stellar, however. The amount of credit you’re using relative to your available credit limit, or your credit utilization ratio, can sink a credit score.

The lower the utilization rate, the higher your score will be. Ideally, first-time homebuyers would have a lot of credit available, with less than a third of it used.

Repairing damaged credit takes time and money, if you owe more than lenders would prefer to see relative to your income. Begin the process at least six months before planning to Buy a Home.

Evaluate assets and liabilities
So you don’t owe too much money and your payments are up to date. But how do you spend your money? Do you have piles of money left over every month, or are you on a shoestring budget?

A first-time homebuyer should have a good idea of what is owed and what is coming in.You should understand a little bit about monthly cash flow.

If you were a first-time homebuyer and wanted to do everything right, you would probably try to track your spending for a couple of months to see where your money was going.

Additionally, buyers should have an idea of how lenders will view their income, and that requires becoming familiar with the basics of mortgage lending.

For instance, some professionals, such as the self-employed or straight-commission salesperson, may have a more difficult time getting a loan these days than others.

A stated income loan was available to wage earners in previous years, but today’s standards are much more stringent. Self-employed or independent contractor will need a solid two years’ earnings history to show.

Government to push for passage of GST and Real Estate Bills

India Government will make a fresh bid to pass crucial bills on GST and real estate in the last week of the Winter session amid signs of some thaw with Congress on the key economic reform measure.

The legislative and financial business proposed next week includes a discussion on the issue of price rise in both Houses with emphasis in Rajya Sabha on rising price of essential commodities, including foodgrains in the country.

A discussion is also likely on the issue of “growing intolerance endangering the unity and diversity of the country”.

While six bills each have been passed and introduced in Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha has passed only one bill.

10 Bills passed by Lok Sabha are still to be taken up in Rajya Sabha. In the Lok Sabha, Government has proposed to take up nine items of legislative and financial business during next week, a statement by Parliamentary Affairs Ministry said.

Of these, time has been allotted for seven items. A heavy agenda of 16 items is due to be taken up in Rajya Sabha which lagged behind Lok Sabha in transaction of business this week due to disruptions and forced adjournments.

Four hours have been allotted for the passage of the GST bill, three hours for Real Estate bill and two hours for anti-graft measure, the Whistleblower Bill.

Prospects of a forward movement on GST appeared in sight yesterday with the government giving some proposals to the Congress and expecting a response by Monday when Parliament meets again with just few working days left for the Winter Session to conclude.

A meeting of Congress leaders is being held on Sunday in which the party top brass will take a call on the proposals, which could pave the way for the passage of the GST bill.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who travelled to Pakistan on December 8, is also expected to make a statement on Indo-Pak ties in Parliament on Monday.

“Swaraj will make a statement on her recent visit to Islamabad and developments relating to ties between India and Pakistan in both the Houses of Parliament during the next week of Winter session of Parliament.

“This is one of the major agenda items for this week,” a release by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs said.

The government has put the GST Bill and Real Estate Bill on top of its legislative agenda in next eight days of Winter Session.

5 Simple Things, Other Than Legal Formalities, To Remember Before Buying A Property

Owning a house property is always a top priority task of an Indian household. Before buying a property one never forgets to accomplish legal formalities and arranging papers for loan requirements as well. While talking to property brokers, promoters or re-sellers everybody just looks at the house and validity of its non-encumbrance nature but they should keep in mind some other simple things but very important. Here we will not discuss legality,loan eligibility, capacity to pay EMI, quality of property, reputation of builder, promoters etc. rather we will discuss some basic essential things
1. Train stations and Airports should not be too far even though you have a car. It should be within the periphery of 45 minutes to 1 hour distance. It is seen that due to long distance of residence from Airport, people sometimes miss important task and cannot catch its train and flight. For example : People living in Mira Road , Thane can reach to Airport from Auto or Radio Taxi within 45 minutes to 1 hour in day time and 30 minutes in early morning. Inhabitants of Mira Road may reach CST within one and half hour to catch the train in early morning but during day time it’s a gigantic task to catch the train but still its manageable, however people living in Sanpara ,Airolietc feels hardship to catch train from Bombay Central. People living in suburbs of Kolkata have to come to Kolkata a night before and stay in a hotel or at a relative’s residence before catching a flight in the early morning say 7 AM or before.
2. Nearness to work place is also an important thing. Every day journey for one hour to 2 hours make life miserable and most of the time of the life goes in performing daily train or traffic journey. It forfeits the zeal of life, increase frustration and affects your attention towards wife, children and parents. A person never gets time to do other important tasks for family say excursion with children, visiting school of a child etc.
3. The locality is very vital to consider before buying a property. Visit the prospective locality of your future residence during different times of day , spend sometimes in a coffee shop or tea stall and see what happens there. Which type of people dwell there and what are the routine activities going on. Needless to say , one can imagine the effects of locality on the family. It is important to check if the grocery shops, daily need articles are available there or not
4. Ask property broker or shopkeepers near to property about condition during rainy day. Whether floody situation arises there or not. Whether drainage and sewerage systems are effective there or not and whether garbage are removed at frequent intervals.
5. Nearness to hospitals, schools , doctor clinics , 24 hour medicines shopts, community halls etc. are other important basic things to watch prior to finalise any property

Thanks
Bhaskar Choumal
Chartered Accountant

Tata Housing forms joint venture for 3-acre project in Kolkata

Realty firm Tata Housing today announced a joint venture with Keventer group for a 3-acre luxury residential property in Kolkata.Tata Housing, a subsidiary of Tata Sons Ltd, has 70 million sq ft under various stages of planning and execution and an additional 19 million sq.ft in the pipeline. Keventer group has diverse interests in dairy, beverages, real estate and infrastructure. Tata Housing has enhanced its land bank of premium locations through JV with Keventer group for a 3 acre (approx) land parcel at New Alipore in Kolkata. With realty sector facing slowdown, Tata Housing said it has been utilising this opportunity to strengthen land bank to create ultra-luxury flats in kolkata projects across prime locations in major metros across the country. It has also sought an order declaring the conduct of Ministry of Civil Aviation as “arbitrary, unjust and violative of articles 14 and 19 of the Constitution” for “failing” to decide its application for security clearance to Bhasin till date.
Residential Property in Kolkata. In its plea, Kingfisher has also sought directions to SEBI, NSE and BSE restraining them from taking any action against it under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 and as per SEBI circular.
The airline has contended that it has not been able to constitute a Board of Directors or submit its quarterly financial results for the quarter which ended on March 31, 2014, as its application seeking clearance to Bhasin has been pending and claimed that it should not be punished/penalised for the same.

Residential Property in Kolkata
Source: articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com

Is the Real Estate Bubble Big Enough to Naturally Burst in 2014?

Political uncertainty, liquidity issues, high interest rates and cautious sentiments are expected to underpin the real estate sector during the year.

One of the primary concerns for the real estate sector in the coming year is very clearly this: Will the much talked-about asset bubble inflate further or will it burst?

2013 was mired in existing challenges such as subdued sales, piles of unsold inventory and builders going bankrupt. These problems will continue in 2014 as well, and, given economic instability, matters could become worse. However, it is very difficult to forecast anything in India as the real estate market is not subject to a fixed pattern. A great degree of political uncertainty, liquidity issues, high interest rates and cautious sentiments are expected to underpin the real estate sector in 2014 too. The only positive energy in this sluggish sector springs from the fact that the sales, though slow, are not stagnant.

Residential Flat in Kolkata
Residential Flat in Kolkata
India’s real estate kolkata market has been faltering for quite some time as the economy remains under stress. Realty prices have been surging in an unprecedented manner unlike income levels which are not rising. The price increase is mostly speculative and can be attributed to the predominantly capital-driven nature of the sector.

It is an established fact that the real estate bubble in the developed world is a creation of the central banks strategy of keeping interest rates at a very low level. This excess money has also trickled into the real estate markets of emerging economies as overseas investors began to look for alternate investment avenues.

While the cause might be the same at home, the movement of capital across the various geographies in India needs serious analysis. Let us look at each of the significant markets to understand the creation of the asset bubble.

The MMR (Mumbai Metropolitan Region) market has a characteristic of its own (see MMR graph). There is huge latent demand but exorbitant prices make property unaffordable for most buyers. The price level here is way above the average price level of India but the annual acceleration is not very steep; in fact, it has been almost stagnant for quite some time. The realty cycle in MMR follows a long drawn pattern and has a low theta (angle of correction). The graph illustrates that the annual price growth post the 2008 meltdown touched 48 percent owing to substantial money coming into the MMR markets and then, after peaking at 54 percent in the second quarter of financial year (FY) 2010-11, the bubble started deflating.

After that, the MMR market with sky-high price levels and declining sales velocity was considered an unproductive arena and the funds inflow reduced. By sales velocity, we mean the ratio between monthly sales and total supply. The price rise after this, though persistent, has been comparatively slow. It is also interesting to note that even after a slow growth rate of prices, the pace of offtake has been slowing.

NCR (National Capital Region, which includes New Delhi), on the other hand, is an entirely investor-driven market. A lot of property in kolkata is being sold in sectors which may remain uninhabitable for a long time. The price rise post FY 2010-11 continued to be sharp and persists even today. After touching the threshold of 27 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of FY 2012-13, the growth rate has started to peter out. One can already see the correction in the secondary market in NCR. The situation indicates that the existing bubble in tier-I markets like NCR and MMR are at the threshold of bursting. Owing to the high level of unsold stock in these markets, the prices might soon begin to tip off.

Source: forbesindia.com