The Haryana state information commission has directed industry regulatory body the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) to make public its list of plot-owners in Gurgaon registered as NRIs.

A notice signed by the chief information commissioner of Haryana, Naresh Gulati, asked the HSIIDC to upload its details of all allotments made under the NRI quota on its official portal and submit a compliance report to the Chandigarh headquarters of the commission.

 The order comes in the wake of a number of RTI applications filed by a Gurgaon-based activist seeking information on allocation of plots under the NRI category.

The responses filed by the information official appointed by HSIIDC were unsatisfactory first by the applicant and later by the information commission itself. The commission has considered the matter carefully and the case file has also been scrutinized. The information sought by the appellant is required to be uploaded on the portal of the public authority to facilitate the information seeker and citizens which is mandatory.

The first RTI application in this case was filed by an industrialist, in March. The govt officials responded saying they don’t have the data ready. Then the applicant filed four different RTI applications, and couldn’t get HSIIDC to respond appropriately. Later, he appealed to the state information commission for the data.

In its 2011 estate management policy – still a subject of widespread criticism – HSIIDC reserved 12 pc of industrial plots under its NRI quota. An NRI plot allotment panel was created as was a foreign investment and NRI cell for prospective applicants. But there was no clarity on what the policy points for selecting NRI candidates for the allotments.

According to a survey, country’s emerging real estate market Bangalore, received the maximum private equity (PE) investment of nearly Rs 2,000 crore during the first half with better demand for leased office assets from investors.

The PE investment in Bangalore rose by 80 pc to Rs 1,990 cr during the first three quarters of 2013 as compared to Rs 1,106 cr last year. This only due to a promise by a free fund into platform focused on leased office assets.

Bangalore is an IT hub and capital for southern India and the profile of the developers are very good in the city, are the main reasons behind Bangalore emerging on top in PE infusion.

The higher PE infusion in Bangalore also added advantage of availability of properties across all the segments at reasonable valuations.

Sobha Developers, Puravankara Projects, Prestige Estates and Brigade group are the major developers operating in the IT city. According to a report, PE investment in Pune jumped more than three-fold to Rs 800 crore during January-September period against Rs 256 crore in the same period last year.

National Capital Region’s property market got Rs 650 crore as PE investment, up 22 per cent from Rs 550 crore during the period under review. In NCR, all the investments were made in the residential asset.

Mumbai, which traditionally attracted the maximum investments, has witness a dip of 45 per cent in PE investments this year. The financial capital received Rs 730 crore during the first three quarters of 2013 compared with Rs 1,269 crore in the year ago period.

Overall, PE investment in the real estate sector grew by 27 per cent to Rs 4,779 crore in the first nine months of this year despite the slowdown witnessed in the realty market.

According to a survey, the on-line real estate portals have able to gather around four per cent of the total industry transactions and eastern region was fast catching the trend in recent past.

The market share for web portal real estate market was 0.6 per cent 2-3 years back and now it has grown to 4 per cent which is a delightful thing for the web portals operating in the realty market.

The eastern India share on the on-line medium for property dealings are very low compared to west, north and south. The dealings are low but the pace is growing well to catch up with other regions.

The sector was under stress such events bringing both buyers and developers helped in decision making by potential buyers.

The share of on-line in the total real-estate market was small, but the market is hopeful that it will grow sharply with the awareness.

According to sources Realty firm Godrej Properties has bought back Private Equity(PE) firm Red Fort Capital’s 49 per cent stake that is developing an IT Park in Kolkata, for an undisclosed amount. In 2008, Red Fort had picked up 49 per cent stake in the IT Park project Godrej Genesis from the firm.

In terms of the deed with Red Fort India Real Estate Babur (Red Fort) for Project Godrej, the realty major has given exit to Red Fort by acquiring its 49 per cent stake in the equity share capital of its subsidiary Godrej Developers Pvt Ltd (GDPL).

After the deed the realty giant has become wholly-owned subsidiary of the firm with effect from December, but never discloses the amount it paid to Red Fort for acquiring back its stake.

Earlier this year in July, the Godrej had bought HDFC Asset Management Company Ltd’s nearly 50 per cent stake each in the realty firm’s two projects at Chandigarh and Chennai.

HDFC PMS a Portfolio Management Services had infused about Rs 150 crore to pick up stakes in Godrej Properties’ two subsidiaries, which are developing residential projects in Chennai and Chandigarh.

Godrej Properties has presence in 12 cities with about 90 million sq ft of potential developable area across the country.

The realty giant reported 49 per cent surge in net during first half of this fiscal at Rs 75.7 crore, while total income grew by 22 per cent to Rs 570.6 crore during the period.

The Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (Credai) of Maharashtra expressed concerns over the plunging sales in the realty sector due to market recession. The property sector has faced over 22 pc dip in sales due to slow down. The problems like inflation demand supply gap, higher interest rates and liquidity have badly affected the sector.

The realty sector is contributing 6.5 pc to national GDP. Most of the realtors’ time wasted to get regulatory approvals. Due to the recent scams in the sector, the government is very cautious and hence it has resulted into delaying the projects. The sector needs more transparency. Over 40 pc amount spend on approvals, 37 pc on taxes and rest on development cost.

In India, projects will also delay due to policy paralysis. The risk level in the sector has enlarged.  But there is no policy for the high-rise structures. The development cost has also gone up by 22 pc.

In Pune, new budget-to-mid income housing projects are coming up in many places like Dhanori, Nighdi, Kondhwa Khurd, Dighi, Manjri, Mundhwa, Undri, Warje, Ambegaon and parts of Hadapsar. Many of these locations have premium and semi-premium options, which are largely defined by larger floor spaces and better amenities.

The main destinations are no longer affordable from a mid-income buyer’s perspective as prices have being surging drastically with the lowering in supply.

However developers have refused to cut prices. The input prices have been going upwards. The demand is adversely impacted by the slowdown.

However, the Pune real estate has performed better than most of the other metros, with supply overhang in the city being among the lowest among the seven major cities

The confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (Credai) said the reforms in the property industry is bringing in more transparency and setting up a govt body would boost FDI by at least 22 times in this sector.

The new laws shown in the upcoming Bill would be acceptable to all the global investors. The inflow of funds which is more than $230 million every year can surge to 20-25 times every year.

The infusion is mainly from the US, Europe and Gulf countries for setting up of large residential complexes across India.

The forum is conducting a Conclave to sort out various issues and problems in the realty sector. The policy makers and firms from this sector have been invited to the meeting, where new norms will be framed to overcome the problems.

The Real Estate Bill, 2013, seeks to set up a governing body to protect the buyers and promote the sector. The Bill was tabled in the Monsoon Session of the Lower House and has been sent to a standing panel for further proposals.

The formation of a governing body will address the disputes and renovate the image of the sector, which has taken a blow in the past few years amid reports of counterfeit and delays in property transfer by the builders.

About $45 billion infusion is required for the realty sector. The support from the govt is not sufficient; India needs huge foreign investment for better growth.

The public Housing Finance firm has taken action against two developers one from Mumbai known as Orbit Corporation and the other one is Unitech a Delhi-based developer for defaulting on loans.

The public sector firm has taken control of a Mumbai property of Orbit Corporation for not repaying and issued notices to Unitech for breaking its deed.

The Mumbai-based developer has an outstanding of Rs 96 cr including interest, expenses and other charges. The public firm has taken possession of its Residency Park project in Andheri, excluding the 155 apartments in the residential complex.

Orbit is trying to negotiating and understandings to repay the loans. They are taking all the measures to safeguard the interest of the company.

Earlier this year, Orbit had defaulted on interest and principal dues of Rs 96.50crore to it and declared the account as non-performing assets.

The Unitech has taken a loan of Rs 300 cr in 2007. The realty firm has repaid Rs 100 cr so far. The payment for this year was delayed but the firm has reached a deed with the LIC for repayment, accodig to sources.

Unitech had received a notice for default in payment in November. The firm is gearing to repay all its loans in the current quarter. This year, a number of Mumbai developers defaulted on loans as they struggled to repay loans in the backdrop of falling sales.

Early this year, rating agencies demoted Mumbai-based Hubtown for defaulting on repayment of interest and principal on Rs 100 crore of non-convertible debentures.

The rise is PE investments have increased the institutional investors towards leasing activity increasing income from office buildings.

Rise in PE infusion was observed despite slow pace in the realty market with net absorption is offices dipped by 16 pc.

There are various factors affecting the growth in the property market such as slower GDP growth, inflationary pressure, upcoming polls, volatility in forex and stock markets, and regulatory impact.

Apart from the offshore funds, domestic capital allocated for income producing office properties also raised and deployed.

About 68% of the overall PE investment this year was seen in 3rd quarter at Rs 4,058 crore.

However, the PE infusion in office sectors saw more than double jump at Rs 3,476 crore ($397 million) in first three quarters of 2013 against year-ago period, the housing segment faced plummet of 12% at Rs 2,340 crore ($359 million).

Investors are more interested in the leased office buildings which have been increased over the past few years with sector adding 55 pc of the overall investments in 2013 compared to 37 pc and 31 pc in 2012 and 2011, respectively.

The total numbers of deals in the first three quarters of 2013 dropped to 22 down from 28 compared to the same period in 2012 showing a surge in average deal size by nearly 63 pc to Rs 227 crore.

Bangalore observed the largest PE infusion at Rs 1,979 crore, an up gradation of 80pc compared with the same period last year.

Apart from housing and office segments, the other asset classes such as retail and hospitality are witnessing weak investor interests as both are currently overwhelmed by high inventories and sluggish demand.

A global investment firm, Xander Group focused is gearing up to invest Rs 300 crore into a project being developed by Bangalore-based publicly held realtor Nitesh Estates. The group focused on infrastructure, hospitality, retail and real estate markets sectors.

As part of its development plans in the commercial property space, Nitesh Estates is constructing a project focused on the retail segment across a prime 8-acre land in Koramangala, a retail and commercial hub in Bangalore.

The land for the project was acquired for close to Rs 380 crore.

Xander’s move to hike its exposure to the real estate market in Bangalore comes at a time when it has already invested over $2 billion in the Indian market.

The global firm announced an investment in Bangalore-based realtor Century Real Estate as well as an promise to invest upto $120 million in Mantri Real Estaterecently.

It is understood that Xander is in the final stages of finalising the $115 million investment in Shriram Projects’ SEZ project in Chennai.

Nitesh Estates has so far developed 22 million square feet of space over the last nine years.

It has a pipeline of about 14 projects with 10.90 million square feet of area under development with an addition 9.12 million square feet of area planned for future development.

The realtor which derives as much as 90 per cent of its revenues from the residential segment is aggressively pushing up its presence in the commercial segment and had recently launched India’s first Ritz-Carlton in Bangalore.

Larsen and Toubro (L&T), one of the major firm in the Indian industry, a $15-billion technology, engineering, construction, manufacturing and financial services conglomerate, said that its construction division has won new orders worth Rs 1,485 crore across various business segments in December 2013.

In the power transmission and distribution business, orders valued at Rs 670 crore have been received in both domestic and international markets. These include an order bagged by L&T Saudi Arabia LLC, its full-owned subsidiary, for construction of a 132-kV transmission line and connection of Al-Dawadmi sub-station to the 132-kV Riyadh network.

According to industry sources, a turnkey order was bagged from the Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradesh Limited for setting up a 450 kV double-circuit transmission line from Veltoor to Yemmiganoor.

L&T Construction also held an order from Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation Limited for establishing a 230/110/33kV GIS sub-station in Chennai on a total turnkey basis that is meant for transmitting power to the prestigious Chennai Metro Rail Project.

Order was received for construction of a cement plant in Chittapur in Karnataka. The scope includes plant’s structural fabrication and erection works along with its associated activities.

In an event, the Hero MotoCorp Joint MD Sunil Munjal said the country’s economy will surge over 6 pc in current fiscal though not many infra projects getting off the ground which still remained a major concern.

The Country’s economic growth in second quarter marginally grew by 5 per cent in the current fiscal. Which indicates a major concern for the country.

The Government has taken several steps to contain CAD and the government will manage that number. But the major concern remains lack of getting a large number of infrastructure projects off the ground.

Though the Central Government had given green signal to several large infrastructure projects yet there were still such projects where other clearances were required from state governments for implementation.

The govt needs to create a framework to get decision implemented at faster pace and its implementation for wooing foreign investments.

Uncertainty make people nervous and they hold back their investments…the govt need to create certainty of policy framework and ability for us not to take only decision but get it those implemented.

The worst has gone behind but the level of confidence is still low.

High cost of lending was also turning out to be a hesitant block in attracting investment, he said.

Land ownership, environment are credible and important issues.The way the govt have handled them they have ended up delaying projects. Higher cost of land, will mean higher cost of products and services and for those where land cost is major portion than it will b a major issue for them.

In recent past, the National Capital Region (NCR) has seen a swing of luxury apartment launches in the region. A number of such high-end projects with world-class specifications were launched in the last one-year; these come with the promise of high-quality after-sale services and, in some cases, with an assured provision of 5-star living experience.

Developers are binding up with 5-star hotels and renowned brands, which are laced with luxury in the world, to provide 5-star room services to their customers after the delivery of the apartments.

The major players who have already launched such projects are Supertech, Ireo, and 3C with Four Seasons. In all these projects, room services will be provided by the hotel group in the tie-up to the occupants of the apartments.

Supertech has also launched super high-end projects with global luxury brands like Armani, Swarovski, and Disney.

The super-premium apartments in the NCR come with a price tag that is upwards of Rs 17,000 per sq ft.

Most of these super-luxury condominiums like Aralias and Magnolia, which are currently quoting at Rs 22,000 per sq ft to Rs 31,000 per sq ft, are by DLF. But the company, which is the largest real estate firm in the country, is not following the latest trend of launching superluxury projects in collaboration with global luxury brands.

Some of the developers have indicated that the price of their projects will be upwards of Rs 26,000 per sq ft. At the same time, as the size of luxury apartments varies between 5,000 sq ft and 9,000 sq ft, their net cost, too, varies in the range of Rs 7 crore to Rs 22 crore.

Godrej Properties’-Mumbai based realty firm net debt has dipped by 24 pc to Rs 1,470 crore during the second quarter of this current fiscal, mainly with the help of funds raised through rights issue.

Net debt of Godrej Properties, the realty arm of Godrej Group, stood at Rs 1,650 crore at the end of the first quarter.

The net debt of Rs 1,260 crore stands at the lowest level it has been in the past 2 years and the borrowing cost has dropped both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter to approximately 11.8pc.

The company’s debt-to-equity ratio that stood at 2:1 at the end of 2011 calendar year and was 1.1:1 at the end of the first quarter of this financial year has come down to a little over 0.5:1, according to transcript of Godrej’s conference call with analysts.

In the rights issue, which was oversubscribed, the firm raised Rs 720 crore which made it India’s largest rights issue in the first half of the current financial year. This capital has strengthened the balance sheet and has increased the ability to continue to add value accretive new projects in key markets.

According to sources, the part of funds raised would also be utilised to add new projects.

Stating that 75 pc of the rights issue capital came from the promoters, Godrej termed it as a strong signal of their confidence in Godrej Properties growth prospects.

Godrej Properties has presence in 12 cities across India with about 90 million sq ft of potential developable area.

The West Bengal Assembly approved the Land Reforms (Amendment) Bill, 2013 which would prevent use of land, reserved for township development, in excess of the prescribed ceiling for real estate purpose.

The Bill was passed in the absence of the opposition Left Front and the Congress in the assembly after both the parties walk out.

Moving the bill in the House, Minister of State for Land and Land Reforms Department Swapan Debnath said that the amendment of Section 14Z of the Act would reject the provision for holding of land in excess of the prescribed ceiling for township development from the purview of the section.

The minister said during the erstwhile Left Front regime, excess land holding was used for building real estate in the state which was a curse for the poor people.

Now any surplus land could be used for poultry or dairy farming or any farming for the benefit of rural people and boost rural economy.

Extending full support to the bill, the lone SUCI member in the House,lauded the state government for its initiative to prevent misuse of surplus land.

Section 50 of the Act has also been amended for presenting digital signature in agreement with the provision for Section 3 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 to ensure a more scientific authentication of all ‘Records of Rights’.

 A week after the Supreme Court of India barred Sahara chief Subrata Roy from leaving the country for failing to furnish proper title deeds worth Rs 20000 crore to Sebi, now; Sahara would seek the court’s approval to deposit the deeds to a nationalized bank instead.

In an order dated October 28, the court had asked Sahara to deposit imaginative title deeds of their assets worth Rs 20,000 crore as an assurance against deposits raised by the firm through OFCD (Optionally Fully Convertible Debentures). The market regulator found some of the deeds unacceptable in the absence of original deeds and overhaul of valuations.

Sahara has identified fresh title deeds out of its total immovable assets worth nearly Rs 1,20000 crore, and will comply with the apex court ordered.

Meanwhile, the deposit taking business of Sahara has not been affected by the Sebi order. The company has outstanding public deposits worth Rs 35,000 crore at present.

Also, Sahara is thinking of expansion plans and to hire nearly 48,000 mid level executives in the next nine to 10 months and about 250,000 lower level employees in the next two-and-a-half years. Revenue from new investments by the company in the next eight to ten years would touch Rs 18,00,000 crore, according to a source.

The company’s investments include a mega township project over 500 acre a 500 bed hospitality project in West Bengal, and a dairy project in Madhya Pradesh.

Sahara also accused Sebi of underrating Sahara’s property deeds, which were submitted earlier. Properties for which the government circle rate was Rs 5 crore per acre and market price of Rs 9.5 crore and acre, Sebi could manage to get the valuations at Rs 54 lakh per acre. Today the fair value of all the assets of Sahara Group is Rs 1,20,000 crore, according to the firm.

Sahara had already deposited nearly Rs 22,000 crore with Sebi so far.

In 2012, Sahara acquired two iconic New York hotels-New York Plaza and Dream New York-both based near Manhattan’s Central Park, while in 2010, it had had acquired Grosvenor House in London in 2010.

The government is focused on developing infra in the country and it cannot be done without the help of private players in the market, Montek Singh Ahluwalia said.

The Government doesn’t refute that this is a complex area. Infrastructure is the key thing the government should be focusing on. In the 11th Five-Year Plan, it is very clear that infrastructure is very important.

Given the limited resources offered with the government, the kind of infra the government need cannot be delivered if the govt rely on the public sector alone.

In the infrastructure sector some very important things have been done and there have been some major success too.

The Cabinet Committee on Investment which was set up last year has the objective of giving speedy clearances to infrastructure projects.

“There was a need for special problem solving mechanism and it was recognized last year and the government set up the Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI)…Out of 330 projects, at least 150 projects has got these regulatory clearances,” he said.

But when the financial system has chocked up, not just globally…People over invested and many of them are finding themselves now constrained…But with these clearances other things would stabilize.

This is a time of financial challenge and investors are forced to invest in projects but things would improve.

The final drafted norms on the proposed real estate investment trusts (REITS), which help the fund- starved realty sector with long-term funds, will be out soon.

The government is looking at announcing the final guidelines for REITs.There is now a integrated effort on the part of the government and the regulators and it is believe that in this rapidly changing environment, credit rating agencies will have to play an important role.

About five years after issuing the first draft regulations for REITs, the markets regulator Sebi on October 10 this year had issued the draft guidelines to allow REITs for the infra sector.

REITs are a novel investment instrument expected by the Sebi, which are expected to pep up the cash-strapped realty sector with capital infusion.

For REITs to be successful, they have to be tax efficient. The Sebi will ask the tax authorities to consider some incentives for REITs.

These trusts are proposed to be permitted to list on exchanges through IPOs and through follow-on offers and raise funds. Sebi has also said REIT would invest mainly in completed revenue generating properties.

The move of the market watchdog is aimed at providing investment avenues for investors by way of trading units of REITs, similar to mutual fund and other exchange-traded funds for stocks, bonds and other securities.

In its draft guidelines relating to REITs, the market regulator has broadly applied a framework similar to that of an initial public offers, requiring listing of units issued by REITs. Sebi has also prescribed various norms, including those related to minimum offer size, public float, and size of assets.