Tag: Residential Apartments

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

Land deals push up real estate prices in Kolkata

Defying the overall slowdown in the real estate sector, exorbitant land prices are pushing housing prices in Kolkata.

Land prices have gone up by more than 50 per cent in many plush localities, as demand remains steady and hardly any new townships have come up in urban and semi-urban areas in city fringes.

The recent land auction by government bodies like Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and Housing Infrastructure and Development Corporation (Hidco) give a fair idea of the burgeoning land prices in the city. In June this year, KMC sold a 2-acre plot on EM Bypass for Rs 115 crore, making it the biggest land deal in the city so far. The last big land deal was in 2009, when a 3.35-acre plot on EM Bypass sold for Rs 135 crore. More recently, in the IT township of Rajarhat, a 2.5-acre plot for a retail-cum-office complex fetched Rs 51.13 crore for Hidco.

“The value of land has gone up by around 50 per cent in Kolkata, the impact of which will be reflected in the upcoming project. The land supply is reducing, but the demand remains steady and there are hardly any new townships coming up to meet the demand,” said Santosh Rungta, a city-based realtor.

The abysmal rise in land prices in West Bengal is not new. Around 2009, in the earlier Left Front regime, government agencies made windfall gains by selling land in prime locations.

For example, three prominent government agencies involved in land deals in and around Kolkata · The Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), Kolkata Municipal Corporation and West Bengal Housing Board· signed deals worth more thanRs 18,000 crore, for over 5,250 acres of land during the period in little over two years. In fact, KMDA was credited with signing deals, worth more thanRs 800 crore with real estate developers on a single day.

One of the biggest hurdles in developing new townships in West Bengal is the the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act (ULCA), 1976. According to the Act, the ceiling limit on vacant land in a category ‘A’ city like Kolkata is 7.5 cottah or about 500 square meters.

West Bengal is one of the few states in the country to have a legislation like the ULCA. The move is in sync with the apprehensions of the chief minister. After all, Banerjee had once wondered, “What will happen if someone wants to buy the city?”

The demand for repealing the ULCA was raised for the first time by Godrej Properties chairman Adi Godrej, at an industry meet within the first month of Banerjee taking over the chief minister’s office.

However, much to the disappointment of the developers, urban development minister Firhad Hakim has recently ruled out the possibility of repealing the Act. “We are not going to abolish the Land Ceiling Act,” he said. “Instead, we will give permission to developers for purchase of land beyond ceiling, provided they reserve 30 per cent housing for low-income housing segment.”

“In Kolkata, the real estate prices have not gone down, and the market is steady. Prices have gone up by around 15 per cent in some localities,” said Pradip Chopra, chairman and managing dierctor, PS Group.

Notably, unlike the real estate market in Delhi and Mumbai, in Kolkata the real estate sector is driven by consumers, rather than investors. As a result, the prices generally remain steady in times of boom or slowdown.

Thus, even as the housing market in the city has been insulated to recession, the commercial real estate market has been facing a slowdown.

“The occupancy rate office space is low and there are lot of vacant spaces in Sector V and Rajarhat,” said Chopra.

The growth of commercial real estate market is slow in Kolkata, even as the housing market has been growing. In some cases the office rentals have also corrected, but prices have not gone down,” said Pradeep Sureka, Managing Director of the Sureka Group.

Source: The Business Standard

Noida land prices may zoom

NOIDA: Buying a house or land in Noida, Greater Noida and along the Yamuna Expressway has become costlier. At a board meeting on Monday, three development authorities for these areas announced a substantial rise in allotment prices across all categories of land.

The revision comes into effect later this week, after the authorities publish a formal notification. The Greater Noida and the Yamuna Expressway authorities have also increased the compensation rate to be offered to farmers for acquisitions, besides providing a host of benefits to them.

In Noida, the allotment rates of group housing, residential and institutional properties have been hiked by 15%, commercial and industrial land rates have gone up by 30% and 11.25%. In Greater Noida, the allotment rate for land across all categories, except industrial, has been uniformly revised by 8.53%. The Yamuna Expressway area has also seen a hike in allotment rates of all categories of land by about 15%. The allotment rate for industrial properties remains the same as last year.

The authorities last hiked the rates between 7.5 and 40% in July 2012. “The increase in prices is a carried out each year. It should have happened in March, but got delayed,” said Rama Raman, chairman & CEO of Noida, Greater Noida and chairman of Yamuna Expressway authorities. “The hike in allotment rates is vital considering the rise in land costs, etc,” he said.

The hike is especially important for the Greater Noida Authority that is reeling under a major cash crunch. “The hike in rates was essential considering our current funds shortage. The more than two year-old land row has imposed an extra burden on the Authority in the form of enhanced compensation and rehabilitation packages for the farmers. Besides, many development projects have remained stalled for months,” Raman said.

The allotment rate rise means that residential properties in Noida have become dearer by at least Rs 8,115 per sqm in A Category sectors such as 14,14A, 15A, 17 and 44 and by Rs 2,950 per sqm in E Category sectors like 102,115 and 158. Group housing flats in Noida have are costlier by almost Rs 11,065 per sqm in A category areas and by Rs 4,180 per sqm in E category zones. In the institutional category for IT/ITES properties, Noida buyers will have to shell out Rs 33,940 per sqm now. For plots in Phase I and III industrial areas of Noida, the allotment rates are Rs 20,990 and Rs 7,740per sqm.

Raman said residential plots in Greater Noida will be dearer by almost Rs 1,592 per sqm while for commercial an extra Rs 3,155 will be charged. “Allotment rates in Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority have also been increased between 14 to 18%,” Raman said. Developers put up a brave face as future booking would cost more. “The hike is steep. This means Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna e-way will no longer be affordable,” said Getamber Anand, President Elect, National, CREDAI. “With floor-area ratio so expensive, it’ll be difficult to sell property. This will be detrimental to real estate business,” Anand said.

Source: The Times of India

Housing Prices Rise by Around 1 Percent in 20 Major Cities: NHB

New Delhi: Housing prices have increased marginally by an average 1.1 per cent in 20 major cities, including Delhi and Mumbai, in January-March 2013 over the previous quarter due to slowdown in demand, National Housing Bank said.

Residential housing prices in 12 cities have shown increase in prices in this quarter ended March, 2013 over the previous quarter (October-December, 2012), quarterly update of NHB Residex said.

On the contrary, eight cities have shown decline in prices over the previous quarter with maximum fall observed in Guwahati (-7.84 per cent) followed by Ludhiana (-6.71 per cent), Surat (-6.67 per cent).

Besides, price correction was witnessed in Kolkata by 5.75 per cent, Lucknow by 3.18 per cent, Hyderabad 2.23 per cent and Chennai 1.28 per cent.

“Property prices in majority of the cities are witnessing marginal upward trend,” NHB said in a statement.

Price increase was witnessed in Jaipur (28.74 per cent) followed by Bhubneshwar (14.54 per cent), Pune (7.81 per cent), Bhopal (6.49 per cent), Delhi (3.59 per cent), Bengaluru (2.83 per cent), Mumbai (2.31 per cent), Kochi (2.30 per cent) and Faridabad (0.98 per cent).

NHB RESIDEX tracks the movement in prices of residential properties on a quarterly basis since 2007. The index for Delhi includes property transactions in Gurgaon, Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad.

NHB RESIDEX has been expanded to include six new cities namely Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Meerut, Nagpur and Raipur from this quarter, it said.

Source: Press Trust of India

West Bengal received zero investment in realty in FY’13: Report

KOLKATA: West Bengal did not receive any investment, either foreign or domestic, in the real estate sector in the financial year 2012-13, according to a report by industry body Assocham.

“The state of West Bengal has absolutely no share in the total value of new investment commitments worth over Rs 42,000 crore made by the domestic and foreign private sources in the real estate sector across India in the last fiscal,” the report which a real estate sector specific analysis and released today, said.

“Although total outstanding investments in the real estate sector in West Bengal is worth over Rs 37,000 crore as of March 2013, the state has registered a 100 per cent decline vis-a-vis new investment commitments attracted by the realty sector between 2011-12 and 2012-13,” it said.

In 2011-12, the state attracted new investment commitments in the real estate sector worth over Rs 1,200 crore.

The body said while most of the states have seen a decline in attracting new investment commitments in the realty sector, Gujarat has seen a surge of over 700 per cent as the state has attracted investments worth over Rs 17,000 crore in 2012-13 from just over Rs 2,000 crore a year ago.

Source: The Economic Times