Tag: best property in kolkata

Land and property prices skyrocket in Howrah, Hoogly; Kolkata

Land prices have skyrocketed on Kona Expressway and stretches of National Highway-2 and National Highway-6. Call it the Singur ripple effect or impact of other projects like the DLF township project in Dankuni and logistic hub on Kona Expressway, land prices have risen at least six fold in the past four years.
Many brokers had even purchased land in the area hoping for the price to shoot up further. An acre of land which cost Rs 24 lakh even five years ago, fetches around Rs 2 crore today.

Property prices have shot up even further on Kona Expressway that serves as a gateway to Singur from Kolkata. Even in 2001, the price per acre there stood at Rs 12 lakh per acre.

“With projects like the Tata Motors small car plant in Singur, the DLF township in Dankuni, Kolkata West International City and the logistic hub on Kona Expressway coming up, it is obvious that property prices would soar. But the delay in these projects and the Singur stalemate are a matter of concern for many,” said Ram Ratan Chowdhury, managing director of Panchadeep Constructions Ltd (PCL). He has been a pioneer in bringing mega projects to Howrah.

If poor infrastructure and lack of development held back real estate prices on the western front of the Hooghly even a few years ago, the upcoming projects are changing the industrial landscape in the Howrah-Hooghly belt, thus pushing up property prices.

Less commuting time, excellent connectivity and ventures by big houses like the Tatas, DLF and the Salim-Ciputra group have made realtors make a beeline for land in the area. The Singur plant is just around 10 kilometre from the point where the Kona Expressway meets NH-6 and NH-2.

Real estate developers and brokers, who have invested in the stretch, are keeping their fingers crossed. For, they feel that the growth of price in real estate will be at a much slower pace if the Tata project shifts from Singur to an alternative location.

“The price of real estate does not change overnight, though there will be an impact on the price of land in that belt in case the Tatas leave. We hope that the Singur stalemate will be solved in a week or so at the most. If the Tatas stay, the price of land is bound to shoot up. Even if they leave, real estate prices will still go up but at a slower pace and rate,” said real estate developer Sumit Dabriwala, managing director of Riverbank Holdings Private Ltd.

Source: re-it.blogspot.in

Realty feels slowdown pinch

The economic slowdown, inflation and steep interest rates have been dampeners for the real estate sector. But if these conditions persist, they can work to the advantage of home buyers — especially in the National Capital Region and Mumbai where property prices have soared unreasonably high. A price correction is highly probable.

“Developers with large unsold inventories of high-end and luxury units will have to lower prices as the current run of sales through innovative marketing and offers such as the 20:80 schemes are coming to an end,” Shweta Jain, executive director of real estate consultancy Cushman and Wakefield, says. Despite lobbying with the government for incentives, developers say there isn’t much hope of these coming, at least not until the elections due next year.

As the worsening economic conditions dampened sentiments, sales of residential and commercial assets hit a slowdown resulting in unsold inventories, choking builders’ cash flows. Premium segment sales crawled. In 2012-13 things worsened. Launches and absorption of residential properties in the top seven cities plunged by 37% and 23% during FY11-FY13, aggravating the sector’s structural problems, a Knight Frank report says. “Developers were caught in a trap — of ambitious expansion, decelerating sale, hardening interest rates, and weakening cash flows,” it says. Their capacity to service debts further worsened. Fund inflow through FDI too dried up.

All this piled pressure on developers to cut prices. “There’s an undercurrent to cut prices to push sales. Developers are short of cash. But this isn’t yet visible on the ground,” CB Richard Ellis MD Anshuman Magazine explains. There’s a demand for residential property. But, other than the poor sentiments, sky-high prices are slowing sales.

A developer explains: The problem lies with the fact that only parts of projects launched in the last three to six months are sold. The remaining inventory in the same project is unsold. The developer can’t slash rates for the unsold units. If he does so, earlier buyers who purchased when the project was launched, too will ask for reduced rates.

Jain says despite poor sales, many developers are still holding on to their quoted rates and the declines over the past quarters are marginal, But “there are expectations that prices would be lowered given the mounting cash-flow problem resulting from low off-takes, mounting input costs and debt servicing.”

She says the scenario is especially true in the NCR and Mumbai where developers have launched major high-end and luxury projects. End-user driven markets in cities such as Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata are still recording reasonably healthy transactions as projects are priced more reasonably.

The market rates are likely to be first cut by investors who buy projects for the short term. Most of them bought around one to two years ago. Since then rates have appreciated by around 20% to 30% in the NCR and Mumbai. Now, with interest rates rising and prices stagnating for at least three months, many are tempted to sell and exit.

An investor says there’s little hope of prices going up in the next one year. At the same time, he has to pay 11% interest on investment, that’s if he borrowed money or lose a like amount in opportunity cost. Prices have appreciated since he bought the property and buyers are a lot fewer. So, the only way out is in cutting price and pulling out. Even then, Magazine says, this will take a while to happen because investors are still hoping that prices will appreciate.

Builders are putting up a brave face and saying there’s no scope of a major price slash yet. “Input costs have skyrocketed in the last year and we work on low margins,” Vineet Gupta, ED, Ajanara group, says. If prices have to be shaved, there’ll be no new launches, which will affect supply and in the long term, because demand is perennial, rates will rise. Ultimately, realtors won’t be able to build by cutting losses.

Source: The Time of India

Investment Windfall in Asansol-Durgapur belt

DURGAPUR/ASANSOL: At a time when the Rupee has taken a beating and the economy is floundering, the Asansol-Durgapur belt, also referred to as the Rurh of India, seems to have bucked the trend.

Be it central public sector or private sector projects, they are all progressing at a decent clip notwithstanding the minor time and cost overruns.

The Rs 5,000-crore 1,000 mw greenfield thermal power plant of Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) at Andal has already commenced commercial generation and secured the energy needs of this rapidly industrializing belt.

The Rs 17,000-crore greenfield 2.5 million tonne integrated Iisco Steel Plant of SAIL is set to start commercial production in months. Once operational, it will mark the revival of a steel plant that everyone, including its employees, had given up on till a few years ago.

Construction of the Rs 5,000-crore Matix Fertiliser Plant of the Essar Group at Panagarh is progressing steadily. The NHDP of the Centre has sanctioned the six-lane conversion of NH-2 connecting New Delhi with Kolkata, expanding what is already the lifeline of the area.

The first phase of the Rs 10,000-crore airport city project is nearing completion. When it does take off in the first half of next year, it will shrink the world for those living in the region. Agriculture minister Moloy Ghatak is confident that the airport city will completely transform the socio-economic scenario of south Bengal.

Essar Oil & Gas Ltd is setting up the Rs 3,000-crore coal bed methane gas extraction project in Durgapur that will open new vistas in alternative fuel and green energy in the region. The pipeline network has already been laid.

Several companies like HR Johnson (ceramic unit at Panagarh) and Jayashree Tea (fertilizer plant at Panagarh) have evinced interest. DVC chairman RN Sen has also announced that the company will develop an unused 250-acre plot at Panagarh to set up an industrial park. The biggest paper unit in the east — Ballavpur Paper Mill — is planning to expand the Raniganj unit.

Pramod Srivastava, director of Allied ICD Services, eastern India’s only operational dry port at the Export Promotion Industrial Park (EPIP) in Durgapur, is extremely upbeat about the future. While the ICD handles 1,200 containers per month at present, he is confident that the figure will shoot up to 2,500 containers by next March.

P&H Joy Mining, the Indian subsidiary of US based Joy Global Inc, has purchased 25 acres in Andal to set up a manufacturing unit. Ardex Endura and Shyam Agro Foods have also taken land at the airport city as has Mission Hospital.

With industries pouring in, real estate sector is also abuzz with activity as some of the leading groups in the realty sector line up projects. Consumer goods firms and auto companies are also making a beeline to tap customers.

“The Asansol-Durgapur belt is attracting the biggest investment in the state at present and the Andal airport city is poised to play a bigger role in its further development,” said Burdwan district magistrate Saumitra Mohan.

Asansol Chamber of Commerce secretary and Ficci member Subrata Dutta is delighted at the strong showing by both central public sector undertakings and private companies.

“Kobe Steel of Japan is setting up a Rs 5,000-crore steel unit in Durgapur.

Source: The Time of India

Land sharks taking over farmland in Singur, Govt looks the other way

SINGUR: If an alleged sell-off started a historic revolution in Singur, a sell-out now mocks it. Land sharks allegedly protected by two Trinamool Congress leaders are gobbling up large patches of fertile land near the abandoned Tata Nano site.

Driving down Durgapur Expressway these days, you can see these patches of walled-off land. They tell a story no less coercive than the disputed acquisition during the Left Front government. Only this time, it’s worse because the Mamata Banerjee government claims not to see. And unlike the Nano project, where the government is giving a dole to even land labourers, farmers who are being lured/coerced into selling off their land have no one to turn to.

More than a hundred acres have already changed hands between Dankuni and Singur. And this may just be the tip of the iceberg.

The land sharks are breaking every law in the rulebook — and every resistance on the ground. Farmers who refuse to fall for their offers (that never materialize) suddenly see the plots around their farmland being taken up and walled off. Fly ash is dumped on the other plots, which is washed away by rain to adjoining plots, turning them infertile and leaving the farmer with no option but to accept the offer.

Commerce and industries minister Partha Chatterjee claimed innocence. “I am not aware of any such effort in Singur. However, my department will ascertain whether the land has been purchased for industry. In that case, the government won’t allow conversion of multi-crop land,” he said.

Becharam Manna, once a firebrand leader against the acquisition by the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government, now sees good reason in the sale of land by poor farmers “for a better price”. Junior agriculture minister in the Mamata cabinet, Becharam says: “All these plots come under the low mono-crop category, fetching little for the owners. As far as I know they yield boro crop only. This could be a reason for the sellout. No one has complained against the purchase.” He insists he “won’t allow anything illegal.” “Land developers have to take permission from authorities before they use it for infrastructure or industry,” he says.

So what is the price on offer? “It’s Rs 40 lakh an acre,” says Sushil Kharkia, spokesman of Shyam Industrial Park, who admits fencing off 50 acres. But farmers have a different story. Primary schoolteacher-cum-farmer Swaraj Ghosh said: “I had five bighas in the fenced area. They gave me Rs 8 lakh for an acre. I had no choice. The land sharks used to come to our place and dictate prices. When some farmers refused to sell their land they dumped fly ash on their land,” said Ghosh.

Compare this with the offer of the Left Front government for the Singur land that Mamata called “forcible acquisition”: Rs 8.9 lakh-Rs 12 lakh compensation per acre, an add-on 50% of the compensation price, plus a government job to each landloser family.

Primary schoolteacher-cum-farmer Swaraj Ghosh said, “The new buyers also promised a job in the warehouses, godowns and the mineral water plant to come up on our land. That was three months ago. They didn’t keep their word.”

The owners of these plots have not even taken permission for conversion in the nature of the agricultural land, which is a must under the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955.

“This is a blatant violation of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act. How could land developers fence the land without taking permission when the Mamata Banerjee government is opposed to illegal conversion of farmland?” said environment activist Kunal Guha Ray. She complained to the Hooghly land and land reforms officer on July 2 that Shyam Industrial Park and SKM Housing Pvt Ltd have gathered 117 acres in five mouzas under Singur and Chanditala police stations. She has mentioned the dag numbers.

“We won’t allow the conversion in the nature of land,” said Hooghly district magistrate Manmit Nanda. Sushil Kharkia is at a loss. “We gathered the land to set up small and medium industry units that the chief minister is harping on. We have built the boundary wall only after registration. Some farmers are unwilling to part with their land that comes within our project area,” he said.

Alarmed by the complaint, police rounded up two land agents from Dankuni and eight persons from Chanditala. “We are investigating the complaints as and when we are getting them and taking steps immediately,” said SP Tanmoy Roy Chowdhury.

Private buyout of land in Singur-Chanditala

1. Two firms have allegedly purchased 117 acres (350 bighas) of agricultural land and wetland

2. Roads have been constructed by filling up wetland with flyash

3. Permission has not been taken for conversion of land

4. Price on offer: Rs 40 lakh an acre, but farmers say it is Rs 8-10 lakh an acre

Acquisition by the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government in Singur

1. 997 acres spread over six mouzas in Singur

2. The purpose was to facilitate the setting up of the Tata Nano unit

3. Compensation: Rs 8.9 lakh-Rs 12 lakh per acre, plus 50% of compensation price and a job to each landloser family

Source: The Times of India

More people to get homes under revised scheme

KOLKATA: With the task force on affordable housing suggesting revisions in the eligibility criteria for affordable housing schemes, Bengal is likely to witness a huge growth in demand for such residential units. Already the state has an estimated shortage of 12 lakh residential units for economically weaker section and medium income group.

The task force has suggested an upward revision of the income ceilings to Rs 8,000 per month against Rs 5,000 per month earlier. Since many residents belonging to the economically weaker section do not have regular income, the task force also proposed to consider those with an annual income of Rs 1 lakh in that case.

For the low income group, the task force recommended a revision in the ceiling from Rs 5,000-10,000 to Rs 8,000-10,000 per month, translating into an annual income of around Rs 2 lakh. It said that for cities and urban centres having a population of more than a million, state governments could consider an increase of up to a maximum of 25% on the recommended household income levels.

The estimates with the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation show that West Bengal had a shortage of more than 12 lakh units in 2012. Apart from the 5% demand coming from medium income group, rest of the demand for housing is from economically weaker section and middle income group.

According to Debashis Sen, secretary of the state’s urban development department, “We have been seeing huge demand for affordable housing across the state. Recently we invited applications for residential units in Rajarhat for the economically weaker section and have received more than 3,000 applications for 297 units.”

So far the state government has completed 74,000 dwelling units under JNNURM — the highest in the region. The state government has asked the central ministry of urban development for a permission to revise the project cost to prevailing market prices.

In a recent report, global real estate consultant Jones Lang LaSalle mentioned that if land is acquired at a cost of Rs 150-250 per sq ft, an affordable housing project with basic amenities (with construction cost of Rs 800-1,000 per sq ft) would result in a minimum selling price of Rs 1,400-1,700 per sq ft. The construction cost forms nearly 50-60% of the total selling price for affordable housing.

Source: The Times of India