How the dream of “Affordable Homes” turned into a nightmare!

Posted on April 16, 2021 by zeeshan

New Delhi: When the National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission (NCDRC) made a unique decision sentencing the CEO and directors of Parsvnath Developers to three years in prison for ignoring his 2019 reimbursement order. To home buyers, it looked like the end of a long, dark tunnel. Dozens of middle-class families have been in trouble since 2007.

Refund amount is to be made with an interest rate of 12% per year from the date of payment, which is equivalent to Rs 1.55 crore rupees per buyer. However, the company appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld the NCDRC’s decision and gave a 3 months of relaxation, starting from 9th February.

The apartments in Parsvnath Privilege, a residential group with a proximity to the future Jewar International Airport, were booked by buyers between 2007 and 2009 at a price of 50 to 65 lakh. Today, 12 years after the last reservation, there are only 3 of the 20 residential towers. Of the promised 958 flats, around 126 have been completed and ready for handover. The company is completely silent about the remaining 832 unfinished apartments.

More than 1 lakh apartments are still pending!

The Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) identified more than 100 builders who have been classified as “defaulters”. Together they owe about Rs 6,000 crore to the authority.

The list of defaulters is big and consists names of well known developers like Amrapali, which owes GNIDA more than Rs 2,700 crore. Unitech owes about Rs 410 crore and Parsvnath owes about Rs 113 crores. The names of other big developers like Panchsheel and Supertech are also in the list.

In 2019, Indian Express reported that the promised 1.06 lakh apartments in Noida and Greater Noida are still pending, and haven’t been transferred to the owners. Around 1.03 lakh apartments in the Greater Noida area didn’t get the completion certificates.

Jaypee Infratech Limited (JIL) has several pending projects and is yet to deliver about 17,756 of 30,000 apartments in the Wish Town project. Recently, several dissatisfied home buyers gathered in Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, to ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene in the JIL case in order to find a sensible solution.

According to some well-known real estate agents, in today’s scenario, builders don’t have enough capital to complete their projects.

A report from property consultant JLL India

In January 2020 JLL India in a report stated, in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Benagluru, Hyderabad and Pune, around 2,18,257 residential units worth Rs 1,55,803 crore were delayed in different phases of construction. The Delhi-NCR had the largest insolvent companies or defaulters, accounting for about 70 percent in terms of volume and about 55 percent in terms of value.

Meanwhile, Parsvnath has been undergoing losses since 2016-17. According to one disappointed home buyer, the company does not seem in a hurry to give the compensation money in order to fulfill NCDRC order.

Rakesh Dhir, a retired army officer, who was one of the six petitioners said. “All my savings have been finished and the company has to pay the compensation till 9 May”. Rakesh Dhir paid EMI for an apartment that he should have owned ten years ago.

Families that have taken possession also suffer different problems. A year ago 12 families had shifted in Parsvnath tower and the developer had given them unfurnished apartments. The buyers not only completed the tiling work on their own cost, but also paid an additional Rs 10 lakh for organizing security and maintenance.

NCDRC strict order to Parsvnath!

Sukham Ahluwalia, homebuyer representative at the NCDRC, was pleased with the petitioner’s progress. He said- “It’s the first time that NCDRC has issued a strict order to Parsvnath.” The NCDRC had been trying to settle the case patiently. But the company denies to accept any terms and conditions. This forced the commission to issue a strict order.

In defense of the company, Manoranjan Sharma, Parsvnath’s lawyer said:- “The 3 month period or deadline has not completed yet.” When asked if the remaining apartments will be completed in the next few months, Sharma said, “This is not the subject the Supreme Court is considering. The company will give the compensation or return the money within the time limit issued by the court.”

It is clear that Parsvnath will comply with the NCDRC’s compensation order upheld by the Supreme Court.

John Lang LaSalle (JLL) in a report states that in the first quarter of 2021, home sales in seven cities, including Delhi-NCR, recovered by about 90% from pre-COVID levels. Out of the seven cities, Mumbai shows the highest sales figure, around 23% of new real estate sales in the first quarter of 2021, Delhi-NCR accounted for 21%. However, it is expected that figures may change till the second quarter of 2021.

Samantak Das, chief economist and head of research at JLL said. “The strong sales growth shows clear signs of demand and renewed consumer confidence in the market.”

Why Greater Noida have more number of defaulters?

So, what is the actual reason behind these pending projects and why there are so many defaulters in the NCR region, especially in Greater Noida? Some local real estate agents and brokers have explained the cause behind this. Most of them believe that builders are spending beyond their capacity.

Over-Investing

Satyapal Verma, an expert in the Greater Noida real estate market, said, “The main issue is that one can easily lease a land in Noida-Greater Noida by paying just 10 percent of the whole land value. Further rest of the money can be paid through EMI. Therefore, builders here started investing too much and also launched so many projects at the same period of time. Soon they were unable to pay their EMI on time and ran out of working capital.

Using bank money to buy more lands-

Another real estate expert said, “When Greater Noida came up, housing projects were advertised as ‘affordable’. At Rs 4,000 to 5,000 per sqft (range was actually “affordable” given the prices prevailing in the overheated Delhi NCR market). In general, these companies easily obtained construction loans from banks on favorable terms and without much difficulty.

If they were careful with their finances, developers can easily benefit from the cost arbitrage and sell homes at the advertised affordable prices.

In this case, the cost arbitrage arises due to the enormous price advantage that the Greater Noida real estate market offers over rest of the NCR region. It didn’t work because a lot of these developers used the bank’s money to buy more new lands without completing the projects they had taken originally.

Soon developers faced liquidity crunch and the overheated market began to cool. Ultimately results in lower property prices and lower builder’s profits. As a result the trend of delayed possession continued to grow and the home buyers did not get their promised dream homes or apartments.

According to people’s opinions, only a government-sponsored rescue package can make Greater Noida’s ongoing projects work. Also Parsvnath’s decision showed that the country’s courts in no mood to tolerate uncooperative developers.

Assotech and Sunapollo to Build Rs 500cr Housing Project in Gurgaon

Posted on May 5, 2012 by skgupta

Real estate Company Assotech and private equity firm Sun-Apollo Friday announced the development of a housing project in Gurgaon at an investment of about Rs 500 crore over the next three years.

Sun-Apollo Real Estate Advisors has invested Rs 75 crore to pick up nearly 50 percent stake in Assotech’s subsidiary firm which would develop this project. Assotech has infused Rs 76 crore for nearly 51 percent stake in the subsidiary. “We are entering into the Gurgaon market by launching a 12-acre housing project in partnership with Sun-Apollo. This is our first project to receive private equity investment,” Assotech Managing Director Sanjeev Srivastava told reporters.

The project, which is located on Dwarka Expressway, has been launched at a price of about Rs 5,000 per square feet. He said the company has bought the licensed land where it would develop about 580 apartments, 23 villas and 102 flats for economically weaker section. “The total investment in this project ‘Assotech Blith’ would be about Rs 500 crore including the land cost over a period of the next three years,” Srivastava said.

The investment would be met through equity contributions from both the partners, bank loans and advances from customers against sales, he added. Sun-Apollo Principal Alok Aggarwal said: “The two partners are committed to invest more if required for construction activities”. The private equity firm has also invested in real estate projects of Parsvnath Developers and Godrej Properties in north India. “We will do more projects with Assotech in future if there is good opportunity,” Aggarwal said.

Assotech is currently developing many housing and hotel projects in the National Capital Region (NCR), Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.

Sahara, ICICI, Bhushan Steel in race to buy Parsvnath’s Connaught Place land.

Posted on April 16, 2012 by skgupta

Sahara Group, ICICI Bank, Bhushan Steel, Bharti Realty, Red Fort Capital and Shri Lal Mahal are understood to be in the race among others to acquire Parsvnath Developers’ 1.18 acre of prime commercial land near Connaught Place in the National Capital.

In January, Parsvnath had announced plans to monetise the KG Marg land, which it had bought for Rs 200 crore in 2008. Parsvnath, which is eyeing about Rs 700 crore from sale of this land, got the building plan approved from local authority last week and potential buyer can start construction on the land immediately after the deal, sources said.

“The first round of bidding and due diligence have been already completed. The process will be expedited now as the company was waiting for the building plans approvals before it starts negotiation with potential buyer,” a source, who is involved in the process, said. Sahara Group, ICICI Bank, Bhushan Steel, Bharti Realty, private equity firm Red Fort Capital, rice company Shri Lal Mahal and one leading realty firm from NCR have shown interest in buying this land, sources said, adding that Parsvnath had got bids up to about Rs 700 crore in the first round of bidding.

When contacted, Parsvnath Developers Chairman Pradeep Jain said: “The process for sale of this land is on. We cannot comment any further.” Property consultant Jones Lang LaSalle India is helping Parsvnath in this deal. The built-up area allowed on this prime land is about 1.5 lakh sq ft with 300 car parking. Realty consultant said that prime office buildings near CP are currently commanding a monthly rental of 350-400 per sq ft.

Although Jain did not give any timeline for completion of this transaction, sources said that the deal could be closed in this quarter. Parsvnath has a net debt of about Rs 1,200 crore and plans to reduce it to about Rs 500 crore by utilising the proceeds from sale of this prime property. The company has two housing projects and several shopping malls at metro stations in the National Capital. It is setting up an office building near Gole Market here with an investment of Rs 300 crore.

That apart, Parsvnath had bought in 2010 a 38 acre of land near Sarai Rohilla from the Railways for Rs 1,651 crore, making it the second biggest land deal in Delhi. The company, in partnership with Red Fort Capital, plans to provide luxury housing and commercial space in this project. Parsvnath, which has a land bank of about 200 million sq ft across the country, had received private equity funding from Sun Apollo and JP Morgan in some other projects in NCR.

ICICI Bank and Sahara eye Parsvnath’s prime land in Delhi.

Posted on April 2, 2012 by skgupta

Real estate major Parsvnath Developers may soon be able to reduce a significant chunk of its debt, thanks to certain corporate giants showing interest in buying a prime piece of property it owns in the national capital.

The Sahara Group is engaged in discussions with Parsvnath to buy its commercial land near Connaught Place in New Delhi, according to sources. ICICI Bank is also among the contenders for the piece of land, it is learnt.

The 1.18-acre plot at Kasturba Gandhi Marg was bought by Parsvnath in 2008 for about Rs 200 crore, with the aim of constructing a retail-cum-office complex. But the realtor is now looking to sell it to cut mounting debt, currently at Rs 1,300 crore.

Although the Parsvnath management is looking for a price of Rs 700 crore, the interested parties are ready to sign a deal at Rs 600 crore, sources said. Property consultant Jones Lang LaSalle is advising Parsvnath on the deal.

Pradeep Jain, chairman, Parsvnath Developers, did not respond to repeated calls and e-mails. Mails to Sahara spokespersons did not elicit any response.

An ICICI Bank spokesperson said, “ICICI Bank has no plans to acquire this property.”

According to sources, ICICI is exploring the possibility of constructing a corporate house in the locality in partnership with Parsvnath, without acquiring the land.

Earlier, as part of its fundraising exercise, the company had entered into various deals with private equity funds.

In January 2011, Parsvnath signed an agreement with SUN-Apollo India Real Estate Fund LLC for an investment of Rs 100 crore in its premium residential project at Ghaziabad—Parsvnath Exotica. SUN-Apollo had acquired 49.9 per cent stake in the project SPV.

Then, the company sold a minority stake in Delhi-based residential project Parsvnath La Tropicana to JP Morgan for about Rs 150 crore. Through the deal, the previous investor, Red Fort Capital, made an exit. The company had plans to construct an office complex at Connaught Place along with the PE firm.

According to realty experts, demand for land at prime localities has risen as corporate houses look to move their headquarters to such locations.

Anuj Nangpal, director-investment advisory, DTZ India, a real estate consultancy, said, “Organisations are increasingly signaling their arrival or resurgence by moving their presence into the centre of metros. The branding benefit of such ownership of prime real estate far outweighs the costs. Further, employees are also increasingly assessing their jobs and future basis of their office infrastructure and the pride in occupying prime real estate clearly impacts long-term retention.”

Earlier, Business Standard had reported on the discussions being held by textiles major Alok Industries with various large corporate groups to sell its property at Peninsula Business Park in central Mumbai. Alok was looking at a deal in the range of Rs 900-1,000 crore.

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