Tag: Real Estate Market

Cabinet approves Real Estate Regulatory Bill: All you need to know

The Union Cabinet approved the bill to set up a regulator for the real estate sector with provisions for jail term for the developer for putting out misleading advertisements about projects.

Here are 10 things you need to know about the bill:

1.The Real Estate (Regulation and Development), Bill 2013, seeks to make it mandatory for developers to launch projects only after acquiring all the statutory clearances from relevant authorities.

2.It also has provisions under which all relevant clearances for real estate projects would have to be submitted to the regulator and also displayed on a website before starting the construction.

3.The proposed legislation has certain tough provisions to deter builders from putting out misleading advertisements related to the projects carrying photographs of actual site. Failure to do so for the first time would attract a penalty which may be up to 10 percent of the project cost and a repeat offence could land the developer in jail. Moreover, any false advertising implies that buyers will get full refund of the money deposited with interest.

4. The bill also seeks to make it mandatory for a developer to maintain a separate bank account for every project to ensure that the money raised for a particular project is not diverted elsewhere. According to a CNBC-TV18 report, developers have to keep aside 70 percent of the buyers’ funds in a separate bank account to ensure timely completion of projects. The buyers are entitled to full refund with interest in case of delay in projects.

5. The proposed legislation provides for clear definition of the ‘carpet area’ and would prohibit private developers from selling houses or flats on the basis of ambiguous ‘super area’.

6. Under the proposed new law, builders will be able to sell property only after getting all necessary clearances. Registrations of projects with the regulatory authority is a must. This means developers cannot offer any pre-launch sales without the regulatory approvals. Moreover the authority must approve or reject projects within 15 days.

7. Developers will also be barred from collecting any money from buyers before completing all necessary permits to start construction on the project.

8. Builders cannot take more than 10 percent of the advance from buyers without a written agreement.
9. The bill also seeks setting up of a real estate appellate tribunal for adjudicating disputes. The tribunal will be headed either by a sitting or a retired judge.

10. It also suggests setting up of a national advisory council to be headed by housing minister Ajay Maken to suggest ways to advise the regulator on crucial matters.

Source: Property News India

Alchemist Township India Ltd buys 20 acres in Aerotropolis Projects in WB

KOLKATA: Alchemist Township India Ltd, 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. Leading 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.

“This acquisition marks Alchemist’s formal entry into the east India residential real estate space,” said a company spokesperson. “We are on an aggressive expansion and diversification drive, and the Durgapur Aerotropolis undertaking will be the first in several forays into the residential real estate domain. At Durgapur, we will be focusing on the budget homes segment.”

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. BAPL’s Aerotropolis (or Airport City) is a massive project in Durgapur which is poised to reshape the aviation and industrial map of eastern India. With Changi Airports International – one of the world’s largest airport management companies – as a 26% equity stakeholder, the Durgapur Aerotropolis will have the country’s first privately-owned and operated airport.

The Aerotropolis is a unique urban development model that places the airport at its core, to act as a major economic growth driver for areas surrounding it. Mayank Saksena, Managing Director – Land Services, Jones Lang LaSalle India says, “We have already seen the Aerotropolis model successfully implemented in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai. The Durgapur Aerotropolis is definitely going to change the socio-economic profile of the Durgapur-Asansol region, and is all set to become a major game-changer for West Bengal. Alchemist Group’s acquisition of this massive land parcel for residential development is important not only because it the largest in West Bengal this year, but because it will be a vital chapter of real estate history in the making. The Durgapur Aerotropolis is going to be one of the most dynamic employment generators in the region – and indeed in India.”

Partha Ghosh, Promoter Director – Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd said, “This acquisition is a significant milestone for BAPL as well as the Alchemist Group. We are talking about the formation of a new metropolitan destination in Eastern India, which will rival Kolkata. The Durgapur Aerotropolis is already attracting substantial investments into industries, services and associated sectors – not only from organisations in Bengal but from across India as well as globally.”

Source: The Economic Times

Pune Municipal Corporation to evacuate residents from 274 ‘highly dangerous’ buildings

PUNE: The civic body has identified 274 buildings in the city as “highly dangerous” that can come crashing down anytime. Officials said most of the buildings identified are old and that they have now prepared a plan to evacuate residents from these buildings before the monsoon.

“Of the old properties identified, a majority are old wadas. There are 55 buildings that cannot be repaired and we have no option but to demolish them. There are 219 buildings that can be strengthened with major repairs,” said Sudhir Kadam, executive engineer of building department of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), while speaking to TOI.

Kadam said the PMC had served notices to residents of these buildings. Some of them have been shifted to transit camps. The civic body has already demolished 25 “extremely dangerous” buildings, while another 30 will be razed before the monsoon. The PMC is also helping out in the repair works of 219 high-risk buildings. The repair works will continue for nearly four months.

Among the buildings demolished so far is the Lakadi Ganpati building in Shukrawar Peth, which was razed last week. “Many old buildings in the area are risky. So its demolition was necessary. The Lakadi Ganpati building was more than 100-years-old and there was a short circuit here a couple of years ago that had made the building even more hazardous,” said Datta Pardeshi, a trustee of the Lakadi Ganpati temple. Pardeshi said the trustees and workers of the temple cooperated with the PMC and allowed the demolition, since the building was a threat to nearby residents.

The move to demolish dangerous buildings has come in a tad late. The municipal corporation had appointed a private agency to conduct a survey of dilapidated structures in the city in 2008. The survey report had said that over 1,186 old properties – majority of them in old wadas – were in a poor shape. Most of the identified buildings were located in Kasba Peth, Budhwar Peth, Shaniwar Peth, Nana Peth, Bhavani Peth and Narayan Peth. Once the report was ready, the civic body and the private agency had categorized the identified buildings in different categories, based on their structural stability. The civic body then prioritized work on the 274 buildings that were identified as highly dangerous.

Activists said the civic administration should have a long-term plan in place as against carrying out demolition drives before the monsoon. “There is no system in place in PMC to carry out structural stability checks of old buildings routinely. A mechanism for year-long structural audits should be developed,” said Maj Gen S C N Jatar (retd), founder of Nagari Chetana Manch, a citizen’s group. He added that not just old buildings but buildings built 30 or 40 years ago should also be checked on a regular basis. After all, degradation of the structure is a continuous process, he said.

Redevelopment of old properties in Pune has remained entangled in legal and policy matters for several decades. As per the PMC Development Plan (DP) of 1987, it was decided that wada-dwellers would be rehabilitated within the old city limits. But things never moved beyond the planning stage. In 2005-06, the civic standing committee made a budgetary provision of Rs 1 crore to repair dilapidated wadas, but these funds were hardly utilized. The PMC took an initiative in 2007, when the CIC drafted a policy which is still awaiting the government’s nod.

The PMC has come with an option of cluster development of the old wadas in the new draft development plan (2007 to 2027) for old city areas. More than two wadas can be considered as the cluster and redeveloped simultaneously.

The state legislature in 2011 had passed a bill to amend the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation (BPMC) Act, 1949, to make structural audits compulsory all over the state. It is now mandatory for occupants of 30-year-old buildings to submit a structural stability certificate.

Source: The Times of India