Monthly Archives: July 2010

Points to Remember while Designing a Real Estate Website

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The Home Church
Now days, internet is so much in trend that even for realty business, website seems to be must. According to a survey, every two out of three buyers surf the web to search their dream home. Therefore, if a firm wants to be recognized in the realty world, being online is the best lifeline.

The best way to launch oneself on the web is to hire a professional real estate website designer. While hiring one, you must keep in mind to check the previous records of the designer. This is an important aspect since experience matters more than anything else.

Some factors that make a real estate website cheap and best are:

Interactive flash maps which display the currently selling properties across your operational area. Interactive maps can be developed for different locations as per your need.

After the looks comes the user interface of the website. The site must have an interactive interface with an ease for the buyer to send his query.

Next, the site content must have good content. There must be exact information displayed on the site without any redundancy.

Finally, the site must have the capability to catch leads and track backs.

With all these points, one major issue that must be dealt by the site is the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) integrated within the site.

A good website serves you as a 24*7 sales person with very little investment.

After Affordable housing, it’s Luxurious housing’s turn

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Luxurious house in Port Douglas
Photo by Saga A’xeronAfter the success of ‘Affordable homes’, realtors are now moving towards the launch of luxurious housing. The demand for luxurious houses indicates that there is big scope for realtors there.

With this increase in demand, many developers including Ansal API, Unitech, DLF, Emaar MGF etc are jumping into this business and plan to launch huge number of housing projects within next six months, where the cost of each single unit will be over Rs. 2 cr.

According to the executive vice-chairman and managing director at Emaar MGF, Shravan Gupta, since the recession period is over and job market is looking up, there are chances of realty boom too.

Within six months, cities like Punjab, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kerala will be overloaded with such projects.

New Plots Launched in Jaypee Sports City Country Homes

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PLOTS

Size-153 sq. yd.

Rate- 16,200 per sq yd. (after disc @ Rs. 1800 per sq yd.)

Additional Charges – as it is

Plots available on :

  • Down Payment Plan – Disc 10% on BSP
  • Partial Down Payment Plan – Disc 6.5% on BSP

Earlier it was known as JPSK (Jai Prakash Sports Komplex)

Now it is known as JPSI (Jai Prakash Sports International)

Inventory Limited

Visit jaypeegreenssportscity.propertywala.com for more information and booking.

Part of Dubai World to be bought by DLF

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Sunrise - Building 65 Kodak Park
The stake owned by Limitless Group, part of Dubai World, in Bidadi Knowledge City in southern Karnataka state will be bought by a unit of DLF.

Currently, a restructuring worth 23.5 billion dollar is going on in the Dubai World.

In April 2009, Limitless said that since authorities there have not bought the required land, so it was looking a 12 billion dollar project; both residential and commercial in India.

In October 2007, India’s DLF and Limitless first time went into the construction of Bidadi city on the outskirts of Bangalore.

When is the right time to Invest?

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invest
When the right time to enter into realty is is a kind of intuitive decision and can’t actually be described in words- it is more or less based on judgment considering the past facts. As per the present scenario, it would be good for the small investors to wait for around 8 to 1o months if they plan to invest in certain areas within larger cities like Mumbai since a correction is expected there in the midterm.

However, if planning to invest in other cities, the right time would probably be now. Since this view is always subjective, one must study the local market and inquire into the expected dynamics and prevalent there.

A proper measure is affordability. Since realty is not a one day investment, one should plan well his wealth and then invest into the market. Also, taking a back seat and using the policy of ‘wait and watch’ should be a game of experts, who on one hand hope for the profit, do have the bravery to bear loss, if any.

Brigade Enterprises planning to raise fund of Rs. 750 cr.

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SGX Building 2
Brigade Enterprises, a Bangalore-based real estate company is planning to raise an additional fund of Rs. 750 cr. Foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs)American depository receipts (ADRs), global depository receipts (GDRs) or placement with qualified institutional investors will be the key instruments for raising the fund.

After the meeting yesterday, the company said to the shareholders that the funds will be used for acquisition of land, infrastructure cost of current and upcoming projects, clearance of debts, investment opportunities, augmentation of working capital and other general purposes.

Brigade originally focuses on developing residential units in South India, however, is now seeking shareholder approval to list its stock on Luxembourg, London, New York and Singapore Stock Exchanges.

On Thursday, the shares of Brigade closed at 1.07% higher to Rs. 137.35.

Accor and InterGlobe entered a Joint Venture

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Dubai, UAE | Emirates Towers ¦ Two Sisters
Last Wednesday one of the leading hotel operators, Accor and InterGlobe, a travel corporation announced that they are establishing an investment fund for a chain of hotel assets.

In the fund, both InterGlobe and Accor would hold 32% equity share.

Also, according to a press statement, an affiliate of Pacifica Partners (Pacifica) will have 36% equity share.

Currently, InterGlobe and Accord own seven hotels in India which would contain 1,750 rooms in all. An approximate amount of 325 million dollars is expected to be the cost of these hotels infrastructure.
It is expected that between 2011 and 2013, all the seven hotels would start operating.

Protest March took place in Ghaziabad against Increased House Tax

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Dealers of Ghaziabad city came together and presented a protest march for opposition of the proposed increase in house tax. Mahanagar Udyog Vyapar Mandal was the organizer of this march. The participants gave a huge dharna in front of the gate of municipal office.

Dr HS Saharia was given a written memorandum by these traders. According to this memorandum, the taxation policies should fall into one of the two categories only; either in the residential or in commercial one. However, if the government wants to impose higher taxes, then they should do so in a proper order. It must remain in limits.

The president of the district Vyapar Mandal, Gopi Chand said that government should realize that traders are already going through tough phase of inflation. Higher taxation would make their survival tougher.

The main participants of this rally were Ram Kishor Aggarwal, Sunil Goel, Rajiv Aggarwal, Dhanesh Singhal, Shiv Shankar Rathi, Rajdev Tyagi, Shanti Swarup Sharma, Pawan Sharma and Ashok Chawla.

Godrej Properties have debt equity ratio of 0.5: 1

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Dubai skyline, Emirates
Last Monday, Adi Godrej, Group Chairman of the realty developer Godrej Properties admitted that on June 30, their net debt was reduced to Rs. 4 billion. He added that the balance sheet is really comfortable with the debt equity ratio of 0.5: 1.

As per the data revealed by Managing Director of Godrej Properties, Milind Korde, there was a net debt of Rs 4.50 billion on the company in the end of the financial year 2009.

In December, Godrej Properties which is a unit of Godrej Industries was able to raise around 100 million dollar through its Initial Public Offering (IPO).The share of firm closed at Rs 690.40 per share which is a decline of 1.69%.

Lutron India To Foray Realty Sector

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Living Area
erAs the Real Estate Industry of the country gains pace after the slowdown, many different firms plan to foray into the sector. One among them is the Global Lighting Controls Major LUTRON.

Lutron which is present in the country for more than 10 years is likely to enter into the residential apartment space. Till now they have been focusing only on the hospitality sector and high end residential projects.

Lutron’s Country Manager-India, Mr. Manjul Trehan said, “This is a very nascent market, and we have not touched residential apartments yet. But looking ahead, this would be the volume business. We are in talks with a few real estate companies.” Further he added that the company will mainly concentrate on projects where the expenditure on lighting will be more than one lakh.

The company is looking at 2-3 players in the eastern part of the country but the region is likely to contribute very minimally to the firm’s earnings. Mr. Trehan hoped to double the figures in the next few years.

Even though the company was not badly affected by the slowdown in the market the present and the coming year look challenging for the company.

Prospectus for 513 million dollars filed by Realty Firms

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250 Million Dollars
Last Monday, prospectus was filed according to which the Embassy Property Developers, an Indian real estate firm is planning to raise an amount of 513 million dollars through an IPO (Initial Public Offering) of shares.

As per the prospectus, a pre-IPO placement of around 57.5 million shares for up to 11.75 billion rupees is being considered by Embassy Property. However, it is expected that they will provide a discount of 5% to the retail investors.

The IPO time line is not yet set.

According to the data collected by Thomson Reuters, in 2009, there was a raise of $16 billion from 87 offerings, while in mid June of this year; a total raise of about $11 billion from 56 issues took place.

‘Affordable Housing’ a Pillar of Residential Realty Market

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Halifax's Version Of 'Repent Sinner' and 'Riot 2010'
Affordable housing is an unquestionable concept. The buyers and their service providers learnt a lot from the sudden growth of Indian economy and the recession which followed it.

It was a miserable condition for buyers when the annual GDP growth rate hit double digits. Be it be a vehicle or a house, an essential or a non essential product, everything was quoted at a big price. But, thanks to the banks which offered every kind of loans to the investors and brought them out of their miseries. However, the recession is over now.

After this recession, the affordable housing emerged as a new as well as interesting concept which became the ray of hope for all. Due to these affordable houses only, the realty market could recover so early. Thus, it would be nowhere wrong to call ‘Affordable Housing’ a pillar of residential realty market in this scenario.

Shapoorji Pallonji Group Lays Focus On Infrastructure

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3D Realty Handshake
tThe multi million Shapoorji Pallonji Group, India’s one of the oldest and biggest industrial house, is putting major focus on “owned” infrastructure as far as the roads, ports and power are concerned. This has been done as the company approaches 150th year of operations.

Mr. Shapoor Mistry, Group MD said during a function in Mumbai, “We have done a lot of projects under our company Afcons as contractors; now we will give a greater push for ownership-based infrastructure projects. We have already done some work in these areas, but owing projects would be our key focus.”

The group’s interests lie majorly in Real Estate, Construction, Textiles, Apparels, Shipping and Water Purification Appliances.

Shapoor’s father, Mr. Pallonji Mistry, Chairman, Shapoorji Pallonji Group is reportedly one of the largest shareholders in Tata Sons with 18.5% stake in the salt-software corp. house.

Pre-Slowdown Observed in Realty Prices

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Residential Property Goa | Royal Heritage - Axiom Estates
HDFC, one of the leading home-loans lenders has observed that the prices of residential realty which were hitting the peak levels are now undergoing pre-slowdown.

Deepak Parekh, the Chairman of HDFC said that there is an improvement in the economic condition and therefore, developers have started charging premiums. Due to the land prices touching sky, the realty prices also shot up.

As per the report, there was a downfall of 25% in residential real estate prices in October 2009, but now it’s steeping upwards again.

Parekh observe this change in the most active markets of India, for instance, suburbs of Mumbai, NOIDA in the NCR, a Bangalore suburb etc which all are experiencing price hike.

Also, he plans for having a real estate regulator in place.

Real Estate Firm To Raise Funds

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Feeling Rich
Photo by Trilok RanganA Real Estate firm Embassy Developers is expected to generate over 513 million US Dollars as said by their Prospectus which was filed today. This will be done through an initial public offering of shares.

The draft is available on the Edelweiss website. The lead running managers for the issue are Nomura, UBS, Local Investment Bank and Citi.

The prospectus included that Embassy property is looking at pre-IPO placement of around 57 million shares for up to 11.75 billion rupees with certain investors. The retail investors may be offered a 5% discount on the issue price.

Though the time line is not yet been set.

The Indian companies have raised a lot of money through share sales by mid-June of FY10 from 56 issues which is higher than last year, as shown by the data collected by Thomson Reuters.

India has also asked bids to appoint 4 banks for managing a follow-on public offering in state-run Power grid Corp of India.

Real Estate Prices To Increase

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Sansad Bhavan
Photo by It is very likely that the Real Estate prices in the country will shoot up further with the Finance Ministry’s decision of not withdrawing 2.5% service tax. This move was proposed by the Urban Development Ministry in the budget of FY10-11.

The budget had earlier proposed this tax on all under-construction projects. And it is common knowledge that eventually the customers will have to bear the burden and not the developers.

The declination came as no less than a shock to the Urban Development Ministry. Its Minister Mr. S Jaipal Reddy argued with the Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee in the favor of the move in April this year but it could yield no results evidently.

The ultimate sufferers will be the Indian middle class who already has to bear the burden of inflation in almost all other spheres but also dreams of owing a home of their own!

June quarter not good for Realty Firms

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Hyderabad Properties - Real Estate India - Vertex Lake View 2
Since the sales of residential realty are diminishing gradually these days, it is expected that the real estate companies will experience decline in the first quarter of financial year 2010-11. However, it cannot be ignored that the office market is picking up with the economy.

As per the data collected by leading stock brokerages show, it is expected that in the June quarter, the realty companies will undergo around a 20% growth in the net profit and a growth of 38-40% in net sales. As per the data of last year, there had been a net profit of over 80% which certainly brings the conclusion that market has experienced a decline in sales and profit.

A stock analyst with a Mumbai-based brokerage said that as compared to the June quarter of financial year 2010, the numbers look somewhat flat in this financial year.

For instance, the gross margins of DLF were 49% and had a growth of only 4%. Similarly, Unitech’s net profits had a growth of just 1%.

Gitanjali Gems Ltd developing Residential Project

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Residential tower above Harvey Nichols, Bristol
Borivli, in Mumbai’s western suburb is to be gifted with a residential project brought by Gitanjali Gems Ltd who is the leading diamond jewelery manufacturer and retailer.

The project is spread over an area of 400,000 sq ft. the project consists of two similar wings residential towers having 28 stories each with ultra modern amenities and two podiums. It is oriented in the direction facing Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Gitanjali Infratech Ltd which is a 100% subsidiary of the Gitanjali Group is going to develop this project.

The developers will offer possession in somewhere mid of 2013 while the bool=kings will be open from September. The expected revenue Gitanjali would be able to fetch is around 400 cr.

Along with this project, two more projects are on the list of Gitanjali Infratech.

Residential Project in Gurgaon by GPL

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Lloyds Building - RRP
Godrej Properties are entering NCR with their first residential project in Gurgaon.  The project will be developed in partnership with Frontier Home Developers on an area of 1.05 million sq. ft. on nine acres of land.

Pirojsha Godrej, the Director of Godrej Properties Ltd. said on Wednesday that GPL is now operating in 11 cities including NCR.  The project is a residential one which includes flats and penthouses. The best features of this project are its flexibility with respect to various configurations, extensive green and open areas and cherry on the cake is that it faces a 36-meter wide green belt.

The project is located in NCR’s growth corridor and near NH-8. Some of the landmarks are the industrial township of Manesar, 20km from the Indira Gandhi International Airport, near Metro station.

Flourishing Indian Realty Sector

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Canal Tours / Singel Canal / Amsterdam /September, 2007
India no more lacks in the race of real estate market. Although many developers are nurturing this fact, but its high time now and they should come out of their shell to realize the boom of realty market.

Due to the rise of upper middle class in India, a sense of better lifestyle and good living has made home in the heart of society. Now days, people believe in spending and enjoying rather than saving and worrying. Easy living is the demand of the time.

People now do not compromise on their comfort level. When one comes back home after a day’s work, he just want an ambiance that helps him to unwind. And this statement has proved itself as a boom for the developers since they now provide facilities and get customers as soon as the project launches. The demand in the residential sector is increasing day by day. Also, due to globalization, demand for office spaces has also grown. Thus, it can be easily concluded that realty sector is flourishing to the fullest.

RBI Changes Norms Regarding ECBs

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contact: rajkamal.aich@gmail.com
PIn a recent development the Reserve Bank of India along with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion are working to streamline and regulate the access and use of Real Estate Firms regarding the External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs). This will be done through a monitoring mechanism which will ensure stricter norms from now on.

RBI took this step in lieu of Real Estate Companies planning to raise ECBs worth Rs.4000 cr in the future and using this money for activities that cannot be funded through ECBs which will eventually adversely affect our economy.

Presently, Real Estate Companies that are only into developing integrated townships of various sizes are allowed to make use of these ECBs provided it is being used only for activities that are related to the construction of the townships. Now even this window will not be available by the end of this year.

CREDAI Report on Application of Service Tax

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Tax Service
According to CREDAI, the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India, due to the application of service tax as per the union budget 2010, the property prices will experience an increase.

All of us are aware of the fact that this service tax has come into effect since July 1. For those who don’t, a quick recap says that an introduction of “deeming provision” took place in Union Budget 2010 which brought realty within the horizon of service tax.

According to the president of CREDAI, Mr Chitty Babu, there will be an increase of around 2.5% in property prices on account of the levy. Additional to this, in locations like Tamil Nadu where land registration and sale of building are done separately, a hiatus of 66.3% has been granted, thus, service tax will be applicable on the balance.

Finally, this whole tax would come just on the shoulders of buyers. This fact has even been admitted by some developers that they would charge extra from the buyers themselves to pay this tax.

Indian Real Estate And It’s Future

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Shanghai World Expo 2010 Opening
PIndian Real Estate Market has grown with time. The main reason for the accelerated growth can be contributed to the fact that the industry is very flexible in nature.

The development has caused higher aspirations for better standards of living and a good quality of life.

The rapid increase has been because of the relaxed policies of our government regarding Foreign Direct Investment which favors economic development of the country as well as easy Home Loan terms and conditions with an increase in the income of people, degree of urbanization, and their purchasing power. All this has helped shape up the Indian realty sector.

Some of the factors that have given a boost to the Indian Real Estate Market are the FDI policies have increased the amount of Foreign Investment in India. Owing to this our country ranks second most preferred location for Real Estate Investment in the world.

After Agriculture Industry, Real Estate has become the second highest employer.

Real estate whether Residential, Commercial, Retail is being developed on full scale in many different cities of the country.

The large number of people getting education in India will demand over 100 million sq feet of office and industrial spaces.

More so, India has been a host to Fortune 500 companies which in turn attract more companies to make this country their operational base which will also require more office space in future.

Thus it is evident that the Real estate Industry in India will see a lot of work in the years to come.

Indian Realty has Bright Future

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The Future is Bright
The future of Indian Realty market seems to be brighter than ever. Following are the major reasons for the growth of Indian Realty:

  • The policies made by government for the Foreign Direct Investment have brought quite a large number of foreign investors into the Indian real estate market. India now ranks second in the list of most preferred location for real estate investment. In fiscal 2005-06, the FDI turned thrice to that in 2004-05, i.e., it turned from 2.38 billion USD to 7.96 USD.
  • Another reason for the growth of Indian realty sector is the positive reform implemented by the government. The growth of this sector is also evident by the fact that this sector is the largest sector after agriculture providing employment.
  • The education system also has impact on the realty sector. It is estimated that in next 2 or 3 years, there will be around 2 million graduates who would create a demand for 100 million sq ft of industrial space and office.
  • Lastly, the existence of world renowned Fortune 500 companies also other large companies to start operations in India, which in turn would generate huge demand for corporate hubs.