Real Estate Township Projects Sees Light Again in W.B.

townships see light again

townships see light again after 6 months in W.B.

West Bengal government plans to allow the real estate builders to resume their construction works which have been barred for last six months. Earlier the West Bengal government had prevented West Bengal real estate builders from building townships in West Bengal. Continue reading

Growing Service Sector Enhances Commercial Real Estate

Commercial Sector Boom

Commercial Sector Booms with Service Sector Growth

Growing service sector of India drive the demand for commercial real estate. Real estate research firms reported that Service sector of India showed a greater pace of growth rate of 8.5%. This will result in the increased demand for more commercial real estate space.  In 2011 service sector occupied 70 % of office space and this is likely to be increased this year. Continue reading

US Ratings Downgrade, Will Interest Rates Come Down.

How will the US rating downgrading from AAA to AA+ impact the real estate sector? Will it have a long-term or an immediate impact? What’s going to be hit, residential or commercial real estate sector?

The good news is that the interest rates might come down in residential segment whereas commercial real estate sector will be hit and the reduction will take place in office space. This is the first time something like this had happened and it is difficult to predict the consequences. It has created uncertainty in the global market and extreme instability across asset classes.

There could be some positives for emerging markets such as India, with the cut of prices of oil and other commodities, inflation too can be controlled adding to it interest rate should come down. Overall, impact on real estate in India could be positive.

The money that pours in will be further used to further for residential development as we already have reasonable capacity for commercial development that still needs to be absorbed. However, in the long run, the commercial property sector take-up maybe an issue, from the demand side from IT/ITeS sector which are closely linked with the USA.

Increasing demand of commercial real estate projects

As the phase of recession is towards its end, an increase in demand of commercial real estate projects, including both office and retail space has been witnessed by firms and retailers.

The executive director for development services at consultants Cushman and Wakefield India, Ravi Ahuja said that in many cities including Mumbai and Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR), the commercial space leased out or sold by the firms is about 9.2 million sq. ft within just a time span of three months, while the space leased and sold during April-June 2009 was just 5.8 million sq. ft.

Last year, the retail space available was 6.3 million sq. ft. However, this year,  some 16.4 million sq. ft of retail space is expected to be available. Consultant Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. has predicted 8.9 million sq. ft will be absorbed this year, compared with 4 million sq. ft in 2009.

Developer such as Assotech Ltd, Wave Inc. Anant Raj Industries Ltd and BPTP India Ltd and have also reported improving property demand.

Indian Commercial Realty Market Achieving Stability

Pinecrest Real Estate Market Report 2009
Real Estate Intelligence Services (REIS) which is a division of Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj released a report which said that stability in the commercial real estate market of India is observed with the economic recovery of India.

According to the report, although in 2010, the landscape will be beneficial for tenents, but in 2011, influence of landlords will be higher. It implies that since the office rents are beginning to hit the ground, in the coming term, they should be proactively looking to lock in attractive leases.

Abhishek Kiran Gupta, the Associate Director JLLM said in the report that the Indian commercial realty market is about to attain stability with the well going economic recovery of India.

Sheth Developers concentrating again on Vivacity Mall

250 Bishopsgate, London, E1
Since the demand of commercial real estate is increasing due to the increase in retail activity, Sheth Developers, a property firm tied up approximately half the space at its upcoming 1 million sq ft mall in India’s financial capital.

Sheth developers are Mumbai based developers. They have lined up retailers Hypercity and Shopper’s Stop. Also Cinepolis, which is a Mexico-based multiplex chain, is lined up as tenants for the ‘Vivacity’ mall at Thane which is currently under-construction. All this information was gathered by some reporters on Monday from the vice-president for marketing & leasing of Sheth developers.

He also admitted that although the firm had slowed down construction work due to the market slump, they are now back into operation since their leasing team is getting tremendous response now.

This mall has a total of 670,000 sq ft area as the saleable area and it scheduled to start operations by August 2011.

India’s Silicon Valley- Bangalore


Photo by dno1967
Bangaluru has over the years gained immense popularity as the hub for IT industries in India. With great opportunities like world class education, working environment, living standards it is not wrong to mention it as the “The Silicon Valley of India”.

Many non-Bangaloreans now call the city their home. It is interesting to note that over 10,000 dollar millionaires and about 60,000 super rich people are currently living in the city with huge investments to make. All these have made Bangalore a hot spot for Real Estate Market, both Residential and Commercial.

Residential market has seen some significant action with many developers like Prestige and Sunil Mantri, Sobha, rolling out new projects in micro market segment. Some of the key areas in Bangalore, where the residential demand has picked up, are Sarjapur Road and Whitefield, Doddakanenahalli and, Jayanagar.

The supply is growing in line with the revived commercial real estate demand. Latest report from Cushman & Wakefield implores that the total projected supply for the current year is 12.42 million square feet of office space, more than twice the supply delivered in the year 2009.

Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB) conducted a survey among 5 cities, amongst individuals aged between 25-39 yrs, stated that Mumbai and Bangalore are the most preferred places to live as the cities provide the best quality of life as well as the most courteous people. Bangalore is also identified as a city which is in the process of development on multiple counters – numerous projects have been initiated in areas of Infrastructure, Power, Water, and Sanitation.

All this indicates that this will be a good investment destination, hence attracting FDIs and NRIs fund flows as time goes.

RBI Restricts UCB’s

The Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday clamped restrictions on Urban Co-operative Banks (UCBs) to exposure on realty sector up to 15% of their total deposits.

Gift House Loans
Photo by jeremy screen name
Specified in the circular issued by the Reserve Bank of India , it said the total exposure of UCBs to realty sector, including individual housing loans and commercial real estate, should be restricted to 15% of total deposit resources of any bank.

It further mentioned that the loans granted against the security of any immovable property should be classified as Real Estate Loans. The source of repayment will determine whether the exposure is against commercial real estate. Moreover, the ceiling of 15% is to be reckoned on total deposits of a bank based on the audited balance sheet as on March 31 of the fiscal year 2009-10.

RBI’s latest move will benefit the real estate sector or not is only to be told by time.

Loans set to get costlier

The Reserve Bank of India may step up its efforts to pre-empt another bubble in the local property market by increasing the cost of funds for the commercial real estate sector by up to 200 basis points.
According to an RBI official, “We are looking at a hike in the risk weight to the commercial real estate segment to 125% as a measure to ward off another bubble in the real estate segment and to ensure high credit quality”.
These days interest rates on most of the loans are between 7.5% and 12.5%, depending on the credit rating of the borrowing company. The current move will make loans to this segment costlier by 75-200 basis points.
Bank finance for land development is classified as CRE if the source of repayment would be lease rentals. The segment has started showing signs of revival after an earlier-than-expected recovery of the country’s economy from a demand slump.
The measure could affect the financial health of some of the largest real estate firms of the country, which were forced to sell land banks and projects to meet their cash requirements. A similar move by the RBI in 2007 had resulted in a crash in property prices. Though the central bank was criticised for the measure, the global financial crisis in 2008 proved that it was a step in the right direction.
Till mid-November last year, the risk weight to loans secured by commercial real estate was 150%, which was brought down to 100% by the banking regulator to facilitate credit flow to the sector that was reeling under a demand slump.
High exposure of some banks in the segment may have prompted RBI to consider such a measure, said the chairman of a government-run bank. “A major chunk of the non-food credit off-take in the recent months went to the real estate segment,” he said, requesting anonymity. However, an increase in risk weight by 25% points will have only limited impact, he added.

RBI Revised Guidelines

The Reserve Bank of India has issued revised guidelines on banks’ exposure to commercial real estate. The strategies say about the property where repayment of loans solely depends on the property itself and not on its expected profits.
Where repayment mainly depends on other factors such as operating profit from business operations, quality of goods and services, tourist arrivals etc, the exposure would not be counted as Commercial Real Estate.
Banks may extend funds to public agencies for acquirement and development of land, provided it is a part of the complete project. Where land is obtained and developed by state housing boards and other public agencies, banks may extend credit to private builders on commercial terms by the way of loans linked to each specific project. Banks have no right to extend facilities to private builders for purchase of land even as part of a housing project.
Bank finance can also be approved to individuals for purchase of plot, in such case a declaration is needed from the borrower that he intends to construct a house on the said plot.

Upward move in commercial realty

The commercial real estate market is slowly reviving as higher government incomes and an improving economy are prompting customers to invest. Developers say that there are more enquiries from investors.

Many developers, instead of selling their properties, are signing rental deals. In one recent deal, global consultant KPMG signed a deal with Lodha Developers for renting out a 130,000 square feet property at Mahalaxmi in central Mumbai, for a monthly rental of Rs 160 per square feet.

The company has 5commercial projects in Mumbai, in areas such as Parel, Worli and Thane. Recently, Lodha also bid Rs 710 crore for NTC’s 10.3-acre Finlay Mill land in central Mumbai.

Similarly, in a recent transaction in the commercial property space, investor C Sivasankaran acquired a 66% stake in a commercial property SPV from DLF for Rs 310 crore. Akruti City is the other investor in the SPV.