Tag: Properties in India

Builders may have to register with Pune Municipal Corporation

PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is planning to start a mandatory registration process for builders so that they can be held accountable for constructions carried out within the PMC limits. No construction projects will be allowed without registration.

“The administration has taken the decision to avoid cases of building and wall collapse. If the builders are registered with the civic body then they can be held accountable for any mishaps. At present, there is no provision where the builders can be held responsible for accidents or poor quality work,” said Mahesh Pathak, municipal commissioner while speaking to TOI on Friday.

It’s only the structural auditors and architects who are registered with the civic administration so that they can be questioned and held responsible for any mishap. The same process will now be introduced to the builders.

“The officials at PMC’s building department are working on the legal process related to the registration, which will be completed soon. The actual registration process will start in one month’s time,” he said.

Pathak said the registration system will be set up along the lines of the Union government’s real estate bill. The bill has proposed that the each project should be registered with the local body.

However, the civic administration’s registration process will not be confined to registration for a particular project. There will be no separate registration for projects but the builder will have to register. It will be a one-time registration no matter how many projects he undertakes.

If the registered builder is found involved in wrong practices, he may be banned from working within the PMC limits, said Pathak. “After any complaints, the builders will be called for a hearing. If the complaints are found true and the builder is found to have made serious lapses in work, then his registration will be cancelled. The option to suspend the license during the inquiry period is also available,” he said.

The city has registered four major accidents of wall / toilet/ wada collapse in the last two months where seven people lost their lives. Last year, an illegal building in Taljai area had collapsed killing 11 people.

Currently, the city has around 7.5 lakh properties including commercial and residential. Each year PMC gets around 4,500 proposals seeking building permissions.

Source: The Times of India

Unsold houses pile up as sales slump

CHENNAI: Builders across the country have been worried as unsold housing stock have been piling up in the recent months.

Chennai’s unsold housing stock, for instance, has risen from 20,000 units a year ago to 45,000 units now as per a study conducted by international realty consultant Jones Lang LaSalle. Sales have dipped across seven major markets in India in the first quarter of 2013, said JLL chairman and country head Anuj Puri. As against 80,000 apartments sold in the last quarter of 2012, only 65,000 units were sold between January and March this year. A sizeable portion, about 39% of these sales happened in the National Capital Region (NCR). Mumbai accounts for 18%, Bangalore 15%, Chennai 13% and Pune 8%.

The waiting period for unsold inventory in Chennai is the lowest among seven major Indian cities, said Puri. While the average waiting period for a completed apartment to get sold in the country is 15 months, in Chennai it is only 10 months. Hyderabad and Kolkata have a slightly higher waiting period of 12 months, Pune and Gurgaon 14 months and Bangalore 23 months. An average apartment in Mumbai, which has the highest waiting period, gets sold after 34 months of completion. It is this comparatively higher demand for residential apartments that helped Chennai rebound soon after the 2008-09 realty slump, noted Puri.

Differentiating between Chennai city and outlying areas, JLL MD Badal Yagnik said, “While the demand for housing in the core city is quite high even now, it has slowed down in the suburbs.” He attributes the slump in the suburbs partly to an unprecedented glut in supplies and partly to a steep hike in prices, especially on the Old Mahabalipuram Road in a short span of six to nine months. “Until a year ago, apartment price on the OMR was in the region of Rs 4,000 per sq ft. It suddenly went up to Rs 5,500 per sq ft in areas like Sholinganallur and Thoraipakkam, which still lag in good social infrastructure. Naturally, sales dipped”.

About 35% of Chennai suburbs unsold housing stock is on the OMR, said India Property CEO Ganesh Vasudevan. “If investors who have funded the projects find it difficult to exit, the market may crash as it happened in the case of NCR,” he said. Too much concentration by builders on OMR is the bane of Chennai, noted Arun Excello CMD P Suresh. “When so much of development is happening on the OMR, transportation facility and social infrastructure need to be improved manifold.”

Source: The Times of India

Homebuyers fear anti-forces may weaken bill

NOIDA: Even though homebuyers in GautamBudhNagar district have hailed the passing of the Real Estate Regulatory Bill by the Union Cabinet, they are sceptical and fear that some ‘anti-forces’ may weaken the proposal.

Buyers have planned to meet the Union housing and poverty alleviation minister Ajay Maken after studying the bill. They have also threatened that if the bill is not passed in the monsoon session, they will intensify their agitation and even stage a protest outside Parliament.

Buyers have demanded a proper implementation of the bill which is set to bring transparency in the real estate sector, while helping homebuyers in redressal of their grievances. Since a regulatory authority will enforce fair practice and accountability norms, buyers feel that there will be a decline in cases of property fraud which are rampant in Gautam Budh Nagar.

The investors have raised a suspicion that the lobby of real estate firms, in which money of politicians and bureaucrats is invested, may pose a problem in passage of the bill. “Except a few developers, even the big names in the real estate industry are habitual of cheating innocent investors. With the passing of the real estate regulatory bill, we hope that things will change,” alleged an office bearer of Noida Extension buyers’ association.

Developers on their part have welcomed the move of the Centre. “The real estate regulatory bill will even benefit the real estate players as it will develop professionalism and transparency. Even developers want a single window system as it will help in getting fast clearances of project plans. Apart from that, environment-related issues also need to be addressed,” said Amit Gupta, member Assocham and MD Orris Infrastructure.

“Implementation of this bill would definitely bring vigilance and accountability in the process and further bolster the real estate sector at large. This will result in a win-win situation for every stakeholder,” said Brijesh Bhanote, director (sales and marketing), The 3C Company.

Source: The Times of India