Real Estate; the Best Investment Option


Ground Floor - Going Up? 2

The realty prices in cities like Delhi, Mumbai or even some of the smaller tier II cities, like Jaipur or Coimbatore, have shown a remarkable increase over the past few years. This growth has proved the advice of Mark Twain, an American author, that ‘Buy land, they are not making it any more’.
There is no paucity of multibaggers in Real estate. Many cases have been observed in which the property brought in 1986 for just Rs. 1 Lakh is now valued at Rs. 1 cr. or even more.
Thus, it can be inferred that prices are multiplying a whopping 100 times in approximately 25 years at an annual return of 20 percent per annum. For example, in 1977, Mr. N Mehta, a retired professional had bought a 1 BHK house in Andheri, Mumbai, for Rs. 70,000 and the price of this BHK now is Rs. 70 Lakh.
According to the head (real estate investment advisory) of Birla Sun Life AMC, Mr. Sashi Kumar, In today’s scenario, each one should hold realty in the portfolio, although the ratio of how much he/ she should hold could depend on the individual.

BOP launches Real Estate Boutiques

The new Metro City for the price of an ordinary car, £3,250.
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A very ambitious and unique project has been announced by a Better Option Propmart(BOP) a Delhi based Real Estate Management and Advisory firm. They are set to launch 15 Real Estate ‘boutique’ across the Northern India.

These will be first of its kind boutiques and will be known as ‘BOP Studio’. The idea is based on the model of any walk-in-store for property consultancy and purchase. It will have sit –in-consultants who will provide detailed and free counseling to every customer. The ambience will be of any high class store and will have the database of various projects in North India.

The Managing Director of the company, Mr. Amit Mavi said on the occasion, “You could walk-in, avail yourself of our free real estate consultancy and still not buy any property being showcased. Our aim is to bring the ‘consumer durable shopping experience’ to real estate buyers. We expect people to perceive BOP as a real estate advisory service provider rather than a mere property seller.”

The initial investment in the project is said to be huge that of at least 60 lacs per studio on the infrastructure alone. The firm plans to open 2,000 square feet street outlets at most of the hot spot destinations for Real Estate like Agra, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kanpur, Noida,  Meerut and others.

The studios will yield profit if they handle at least 10 projects every year and achieve sales of Rs. 150 cr per city. The financial engagement looks tough more so for Tier II cities as the average realization from residential projects there is lower than that in metro cities.

Will this idea become successful, only time will tell?

Andhra’s Realty Sector Grows

Delhi Properties - Real Estate India - Unitech Location
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The state of Southern India has shown a demand in Real Estate properties over the last few months which is a good news for the people of the trade.

The Realty Sector in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh has shown sudden upsurge after the recent political turmoil it went through. The demand for both, commercial and residential properties have registered an increase.

The trend is more evident in Tier I and tier II areas specifically; making them high demand markets.

Prabhakar, a Real Estate Sales Officer had this to say on the topic, “Market is improving as of now because of these developments happening in the Hyderabad areas like outer ring road area, Infosys campus and many other areas, so this is the right time to invest and to buy a customer.”

Even the prices of the realty sector have improved as the customers feel Hyderabad is the right place for investment thus increasing the sales.

Raj Kumar, Marketing Manager in a Real Estate firm puts forth, “NRIs, Doctors and Information Technology (IT) people are coming forward for the investment and even some of the central government employees are also coming forward. As you know, now a days comparing with the facilities what we are giving on what rates we are giving, people are seeing benefits and on these bases they are coming forward for investments and showing interest.”

The sector is one of the biggest in terms of number of employees working in the country. It is anticipated that in the next decade the realty sector will grow at a rate of 30% every year. This is bound to attract foreign investors with as many as 30 billion US dollars along with a number of IT parks as well as residential townships being constructed across our country.

Sunil Mantri Group Announces The Square

The textile capital of India Sholapur has a reason to rejoice. Sunil Mantri Group, a leading real estate development company with pan-India presence in association with Kumar Yashraj Group, a leading Sholapur-based developer, has announced its new project “The Square” with an aim to set new bench marks in the western zone.

Week 04 - Lomond Shores - 0075 HDR
Photo by Alan Caldwell
The project will incorporate top of the line amenities, security and design aspects and is the first of its type in Sholapur that will encompass residential, commercial and retail real estate segments creating a unique neighborhood in the center of the city where residents of the city can relax, shop, and enjoy fine dining in a modern setting. The Square will be spread across 27,000 sq. meters.

The Square, a juxtaposition of Residential & Retail, constitutes  flats of 2 , 2.5 and 3 bedroom configuration and more than 180 shops, a major anchor retail outlet, and a hyper mart on a total area of 2,81,000 sq feet. Situated on the main road, it gives easy accessibility, luring consumers to the premises. The Square also introduces a modern food court with fine dine facilities and a shopping arcade for a totally relaxing environment to chill out in.

Mr. Sunil Mantri, Chairman, Sunil Mantri Group said on the occasion, “Tier II and Tier III cities in India have tremendous potential. We see great opportunity in smaller cities and we are confident about the success of our Sholapur project. At The Square, we look forward to making available premium lifestyle offerings in southern Maharashtra. Our experience has lead to a greater understanding of the demands of ultra-modern living and we are committed towards creating landmarks of exemplary design, comfort and quality that benchmark the highest standards of urban living.”

The plush arrangements for the club house and modern gymnasium, box cricket, children’s play area, swimming pool and landscape grounds studded across The Square creates a self-contained world of extravagance and indulgence for all its residents and offers them all the amenities and facilities of modern living within its premises.

The Square promises to be a combination wherein nature and urban living co-exist with modern and premium amenities in the center of the city.

Indian Hospitality Industry, an Appealing Investment Area

Raffles Hotel
March 23, 2010

Now-a-days, an interesting investment area for the global hospitality companies is the Indian hospitality industry. Many global hotel chains are now moving towards India for expanding their domain. The limited number of hotel rooms in the country is giving opportunity to these companies for big betting.

Some of the companies that plan to enter India include Thailand’s Amari, Fairmont Raffles Hotels, US-based MGM Mirage Hospitality, Golden Tulip Hotels, Europe’s Corinthia Hotels group, Movenpick Hotels and Resorts etc.

As estimated by industries, approximately 40 international hotels are there, which are likely to be operational in the country in the next 3 years. The entrance points include all the upper scale, middle-scale, economy and budget.

Amari, the Thailand based Hotels, to launch Amari India, has signed up a joint venture with Mandeep S Lamba. It plans to expand into India with the confirmation of its first property deal in Delhi by April 2010, which will be usable in 2011. Amari takes Indian metro and tier-II cities as expansion opportunities and plans to build up seven hotels and resorts within the next 5-7 years. Locations and developers have also been pinpointed in Delhi, Mumbai and Goa.

MGM is also looking ahead to launch many hotels in Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kerala, Kolkata, NCR, Rajasthan and Goa. Bringing in Bellagio, Skylofts brands and MGM Grand out of its global portfolio is also one the plan.

Accor and Four Seasons, the existing ones are also upholding presence in the Indian subcontinent. The holder of five hotels already, Accor, is now aggrandizing its network to 50 with 10,000 rooms in 15 cities by 2012.

The Indian Hospitality Industry-An overview

Indian hospitality industry has emerged as a hotspot destination for investment for the global hospitality companies in the last few years. Many leading global hotel chains aim to enter India in the near future and the ones that are already present in the country as of now are eager to expand. The companies are betting big on dearth of hotel rooms in the nation.

ATTARD - Hôtel Corinthia Palace
Photo by Michel27
Industry estimates say, in the next 3 years there will be about 40 international hotels operational in the country. These global chains plan on catering to all the classes—the upper scale, mid-scale, the economy and the budget.

Some of the chains that are set to come to India are MGM Mirage Hospitality a US-based firm, Amari from Thailand, Fairmont Raffles Hotels, Golden Tulip Hotels, Movenpick Hotels and Resorts, Corinthia Hotel group from Europe, Carlson, Starwood, Choice, Marriott, Accor, Hyatt, Intercontinental and Hilton.

Amari Hotels is set to launch Amari India and is searching for expansion opportunities in the Indian metro and tier-II cities to open seven hotels and resorts within the next 5-7 yrs. Likewise, MGM Mirage Hospitality aims to sign management contracts with realty sector developers as joint venture initiatives with local companies to set up hotel properties in the country.

Kaushik Vardharajan of HVS Hospitality Services said that, “India is more profitable for global hospitality firms than the international market. There is huge demand-supply gap which offers opportunities for international firms”. Data gathered by the firm shows that the international and domestic hotel chains had announced in August to build at least 9400 rooms in the country but the actual construction is underway for 3,840 rooms only.

Another hotel chain, Fairmont Raffles Hotels International is in advanced stage of discussions for properties in Delhi, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Goa and Chennai.
Golden Tulip is looking to add 10 properties which totals to 800 keys across tier-II towns by the end of the next financial year.

Four Seasons, a luxury hotel brand is in various stages of discussions with developers for constructing properties in Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune and Goa. “There is enough room for several players to enter the market. India will become a major market for our company,” said Director Marketing Four Seasons, Sanjiv Shukla.

Accor, which has five hotels at present, will expand its network to 50 with 10,000 rooms in 15 cities by 2012.

ITC Welcomgroup plans to add 40 hotels to its 113 under four brands out Of which 25 are under the Fortune brand of business hotels. Senior Executive Vice-President at ITC, Pawan Verma said that “We are attached to the ground unlike them (international chains). We excel in Indian hospitality”.

The Taj Group is growing furiously both in the country and abroad. It is looking to roll more than 70 new hotels in 4 categories including its budget brand Ginger to add to the 105 hotels out of which 17 will be abroad.

However, falling rates of up to 18 per cent over last year has become a cause of concern for these hospitality chains. In 2008-09, the average room rate was Rupees 7,800 which has now reduced to Rupees 6,396 per night.

Still it will not be wrong to say that Indian hospitality is in a state of war where hotel rooms are being built like army barracks.

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.