Tag: Real Estate News

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

Brokers turn developers as realty business booms

BANGALORE/ MUMBAI: PrashanthSambargi, partner at Bangalore-based real estate brokerage firm Mars Realty, is these days busy designing residential projects for two land parcels he owns in the IT capital of India. “I am now looking at smaller size projects with 18-40 units with 20 months’ turnaround time… big builders do not enter this segment,” he says.

Sambargi is among a growing group of property brokers turning builders, armed with huge savings from their booming business and a ground-level understanding of what homebuyers want as well as the issues faced by developers.

Like Sambargi, who plans to float a separate company for real estate venture while continuing with his brokerage business, many brokers are opting for smaller projects of 10-30 units in relatively cheaper locations to get into the capital-intensive business. Many are entering into joint development pacts with landlords or developers.

Silverline Realty, another Bangalore brokerage, has already floated a real estate arm. “We are looking at growing slow and not taking huge projects as the business is at nascent stage and there are many establish name in the market,” its director Zahed Mahmood says.

Started by Farooq Mahmood who earned a brokerage of 8,000 for his first deal, Silverline today owns large land parcel across Bangalore and has five residential projects with an average price of 7,000-10,000 per sft in the development stage.

It is entering into joint development with builders like Prestige Estate Projects to penetrate deeper in the market. “Our brokerage business is growing at 20-25% quarter-on-quarter and helps us channelise our resources into the new business venture,” Mahmood says.

According to property research firm PropEquity, 13,797 residential units were sold in Bangalore in the first quarter of the current fiscal, up from 9,742 units absorbed in the year-earlier quarter. “Bangalore has been performing well with a 58% increase in new launches and 42% increase in absorption in the first quarter,” Samir Jasuja, Founder and CEO of PropEquity, says.

Bigger markets of Mumbai Metropolitan Region and National Capital Region (NCR) saw absorption of 15,501 and 26,798 residential units, respectively, in the first quarter. Property business has been booming across Indian cities, helping brokers increase their business manifold both in terms of the deal value and the number of transactions. And most tend to park their money in a market they best know-property.

“Project delay hits your clientele. There are many projects, which have been delayed for years. My focus is on-time delivery and doing projects in smaller towns where land prices had not shot up,” says Deepak Kohli, director of Deep Realtors in Delhi, who has launched a real estate firm, Abode. Kohli, who started his real estate brokerage and consultancy business 15 years ago, now has three residential projects and one four-star hotel project in Vrindavan at different stages of planning and construction stages under Abode.

“Brokerage is still a lucrative business with raw income, but I do not focus on it anymore and has put it on the backburner,” he says. Another Delhi-based mortgaged professional Mrityunjay Kumar has started a 700-unit group housing project at Noida Extension in a joint venture last year.

“I had worked with builders for mortgage and knew the business well. However technical know-how and competing with big brand in the market continues to be a challenge as I have to depend on my colleague for it,” says Kumar, who has worked with Reliance capital as branch area manager and ICICI Bank, decided to foray into real estate seeing demand for low income homes.

Two decades-old broking firm Realistic Realtor is setting up a million sq ft mixed used commercial property in Gurgaon with investment from high net worth individual and small investors. The ground-level experience helps many broker-turned-realtors to deal with regulatory and financing hurdles that challenge new entrants.

Manoj Nihalani, MD at Mumbai-based Pacific Landmarks, says, “The ground-level experience we had as a broker helped us in overcoming these as we were aware how funding management and other things could be resolved through stock selling, incentivising customers and contractors.” New launches driven by higher sales across some of the major markets have made property brokers in big cities turn to real estate development business to tap the market.

Organised developers launched around 38,000 residential units in the first quarter of 2013 in major cities with mid-range segment constituting 60% of the total. Bangalore contributed 31% of the overall new supply in the top eight cities followed by NCR and Mumbai, according to real estate consultants Cushman & Wakefield.

Source: The Economic Times

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

CREDAI for maintaining equilibrium between public and realtor

CHENNAI: Proposed Real Estate Regulatory Bill should maintain “equilibrium” between the realtor and the public besides regulating the entire industry, industry body CREDAI said today.

“..from industry perspective it is important that the Bill maintains equilibrium between the developer’s community and end users,” Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI) National President C Shekar Reddy said in a statement.

However, he cautioned some provisions in the Bill were required to be modified otherwise it would result in “substantial increase” in the cost to buyers and shatter the dream of ‘housing for all”. “It will also impact the affordable housing initiative”, he said.

To make the regulation effective, the Bill should regulate the entire real estate industry covering all its stake holders, he noted.

A Bill providing for setting up a regulator for the real estate sector and having provisions like a jail term of up to three years for developers who make offences like putting up misleading advertisements about projects repeatedly was approved by the government recently.

Source: The Economic Times

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