Realtors upset with the policies of Bhubaneswar Development Authority.

The real estate developers on Thursday reacted sharply to the Bhubaneswar Development Authority’s (BDA) move to change the definition of “apartment” and “group housing.”

Talking to reporters here, Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI) state president D S Tripathy said the new definitions are vague and will result in the harassment of people while constructing houses.

The draft BDA (planning and building standards) amendment regulations-2012 proposes to amend the definition of apartment as building constructed in one block having more than four dwelling units where land is owned jointly and construction is undertaken by one agency. Under the existing BDA regulations 2008, an apartment is defined as a building having six or more dwelling units.

Tripathy said under the new definition houses of joint families may become apartments. As a result, such families would have to meet the required road width of minimum nine metres, he said. Tripathy said certain apartments can never form societies for which at least seven members are required. Similarly, the new definition of ‘group housing,’ building with more than one dwelling unit, where land is owned jointly and the construction is undertaken jointly by one agency, is vague and don’t convey clarity.

CREDAI, which suggested its comment on the draft regulations, open for public suggestions, is of the view that creation of the new “settlement fund” and earmarking of 10% of all housing projects for economically weaker sections is not going to help the poor. “It seems impractical that BDA will construct EWS houses using shelter fund,” the CREDAI chief said.

The CREDAI, Odisha, suggested that the state government should formulate an affordable housing policy on the lines of Rajasthan, which looks more realistic, gives incentives to builders and subsidy to weaker sections.

Realty Big Players Attracted Towards Small Cities for Expansion

NEW DELHI: Growing demand for homes in smaller cities of the country is attracting real estate biggies. Cities like Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore, Indore, Jaipur, Lucknow , Nagpur, Surat , Vadodara and Visakhapatnam are estimated to add 354 million sq ft of residential development in the coming 03 years. According to a research, large builders like DLF , Unitech , Parsvnath , Omaxe , Ansals and Emaar MGF have already diversified into these cities. These cities today show huge potential for growth. These cities are attracting the big developers because of their considerable price stability and growth prospects. With economic activity picking up in these cities, there is a growing migration from smaller areas, which has created a shift towards an apartment culture. This shift will foster volumes for larger developers in the future.

Looking at this new demand, banks and financial institutions are also looking towards these cities to bridge the financial saturation gap.The growth prospects in the smaller cities are fascinating huge developers with multi-city existance.

LIC Housing to Concentrate on Senior Citizen Homes Business

LIC Housing Finance focuses to have a all India-presence for its senior citizens homes business as the rise in demand from senior citizens provokes the company to scale-up presence in other cities across the country. The 4th largest mortgage lender has finished two projects, one in Bangalore and the other in Bhubaneswar, They believe this “futuristic idea” will lead to the home finance company eventually spinning off its care home business into a listed body as early as 2014.

“We expect to make the care homes business a fully listed body in coming three to five years,” CEO of LIC Housing finance said. LIC H.F., promoted by the country’s largest insurer, the LIC of India, is looking for an existence in up to 07 cities, which it says are more “friendly to the senior citizens” and also can get land at discounted rates. The company lately finished a 98-unit project and a bigger 200-unit project in Bangalore and Bhubaneswar respectivly.

Presently the organisation is in the process of acquiring land in Jaipur, Haridwar and Goa. “More cities such as Nagpur and Pune which have historically been friendly to the retired people will be looked at.” India has 65 % of its people aged between 15 and 64 years, so the business model might find many takers. Retirement homes are built in a community format with modern amenities including gymnasium & club houses, music rooms and auditoriums. These projects also come with a house-help which is offered by the developers or owners themselves.

DLF to set up Infopark projects

DLF is India’s biggest real estate developer which has decides to develop Infopark
project worth of Rupees 1000-crore which would be spreaded over 54 acres in all
the phases. Firstly, they intend to develop one-tenth of the plot (5.4 acres) in
first phase, for which they had made the building plan and had forwarded for
the approval of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA). In this context,” DLF has submitted a revised building plan for the Infopark project which is under
scrutiny of BDA”.

After following the de-notification of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ), DLF had
thought to develop the Infopark project under the STPI (Software Technology
Parks of India) scheme.

DLF had made certain changes in its Infopark project which is to be built over 54 acres in the Infocity region of the city. DLF – real estate masters are interested on setting aside a greater area for non-processing facilities like shopping malls and multiplexes. This project which had to come up in three phases, comprises of an IT area, a luxury hotel, a chain of retails, service apartments and recreational facilities with a total built-up space of about 5.5 million sq ft. For  the luxury hotel, DLF had tied up with Hilton which is a famous international hotel chain. For the first phase, DLF had committed an investment of Rupees 300 crores for developing an IT workspace of international standards which would be a built-up area of 5.7 lakh sq ft. This phase is scheduled to be operational within 18 months to 02 years after commencement of construction of work. The Infopark project may generate direct and indirect job opportunities for over 40,000 people in sectors like IT and ITes (IT enabled services), retail and hospitality.

The RBI’s Realty Indices For Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad happens to be one of the 11 countries for which the reserve bank of India would prepare one index for commercial and one for residential properties. This is done to curtail speculations and expected realty bubble burst in the coming years. The RBI report on asset price monitoring system (ASMS) advised to formulate these indices two months back.

Reserve Bank of India, Kolkata
Photo by seaview99

Many different countries such as Canada, France, us refer to these indices for realty prices.

The report says, RBI should start compiling a realty index and update it every quarter. To begin with, the report has proposed Mumbai and Delhi where property prices have skyrocketed to record levels. After these cities RBI would add 10 other cities which include Greater Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bhubaneswar, Pune, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Bangalore and Bhopal.

The real estate price index once devised would become the primary index that could be perused by investors to gauge the performance of companies that are listed in the realty sector. The index can also help the investor analyze how real estate is performed in comparison to stocks and bonds. It can also provide information on the risk involved in a particular investment and returns that can be achieved from it.

The ASMS report has defined the deficiencies this indices would help overcome.

Renaissance of Realty Sector

Delhi Properties - Real Estate India - Unitech Verve 1

In last few months Indian real estate has undergone a reawakening enforced by a noticeable increase in the level of construction activity of low-budget housing coupled with low home loan rates reached an all time low in the last few years.

As researched by Boston Analytics, the Indian realty sector has undergone an increased supply and pace of development activity which brought an improvement in pessimism associated with the realty prices. A low interest rate on home loans driven by Government’s impetus packages have also catalysed the Indian consumers to buy homes.

“Increased supply, improvement in pessimism related to realty sector rates, and low rates of interest on home loans seems to be encouraging Indian consumers to firm up their home purchase decisions” as said by Shirin Bagga, Economist, Boston Analytics.

The data was collected by conducting a monthly survey that targets 10,000 respondents cross 15 Indian cities—Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Nagpur , Ahmedabad , Kochi, Jaipur, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar, Patna, and Vishakhapatnam.

According to the recent reports the conviction concerned to speed of construction activity conveys more anticipation with regards to observed change in construction activity in Tier II and Tier III cities relative to Tier I cities. The real estate projects which are in different phases of completion in all levels of towns and cities appear to be introducing optimism about the expected change in construction activity among respondents across Tiers,” the report said.

As brought into light by Economic Survey of  FY 2009-10, the need of the construction and real estate sector in creation of both financial and physical assets has been amplifying over the years. The construction sector now accounts for 8 percent of GDP at constant prices, hiked from 7.7% in 2004-05.Equivalently, the share of real estate ownership of dwelling and business services in overall GDP as hiked to 9.2 percent in FY 2008-09 from 8.9 percent in 2004-05.