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With the economy giving indications of recovery and real estate companies putting up a brave face, the question as to whether this is the right time to buy property has yet again been raking up. If the industry figure is to be believed, it seems many of the prospective home buyers who had put their plans on shelf due to the threat of job loss & inability to pay the EMIS borne out of recession are back in the property hunt.
With the reasonable expectation of a roof over the head not very long ago, the real estate boom in the last decade has scaled up the liberty of choice for the average home buyers. While the aspirations of even the middle and lower middle income with moderate budgets have gone up, there are very many residential projects launched in recent times that seem to fill the gap with the promise of faster deliveries, hi-tech amenities, luxurious lifestyle, lush green surroundings within the affordable range of 20-40 lakhs.
Kolkata is fundamentally a Tier II city, and its real estate market is not as volatile as those of the primary cities. Because of this, Kolkata’s residential property sector was not as seriously impacted by the nationwide slump in the real estate market as cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Pune or Hyderabad.
With the return of confidence in the sector, Indian real estate players are now once again looking at private equity funding. That said, the industry still depends heavily on bank debt, NBFC funding and end-user advances. This is because bank debt is a cheaper option, and also because it offers flexible tenures.
With the provision of more entertainment options in malls, Indian retailers now have vastly enhanced their ability to increase sales. Until recently, street markets and bazaars were the top performers in the retail space, and they were cornering a huge chunk of the overall sales.
Faced with the prospect of new transactions, corporate real estate (CRE) managers have been analyzing the options of leasing versus buying a real estate space. In the recent slowdown, distinct trends have emerged among industry verticals while strategically choosing either to lease or buy real estate space. While the IT/ITES sector has been the front runner in terms of lease transactions recorded during 2H08-1H10, accounting for 41% of the total lease transactions, BFSI and Manufacturing / Industrial sectors have been dominant purchasers of office space during the same period.
India has 105 operational (21,214 hectares) and another 631 Special Economic Zones (SEZs) under various stages of approval (see DTZ report on ‘SEZs in India’ June 2010). These zones are the only tax havens in India after the likely expiry of STPI/EOU scheme in March 2011 and have seen healthy interest from occupiers as well as developers. The new Direct Taxes Code (DTC 2010) bill, proposes to alter the tax framework of SEZs.
Real estate markets are inherently vulnerable to prolonged periods where prices deviate from their fundamental value. The features that contribute to this deviation are imperfect information, suboptimal financial markets and supply rigidities. Imperfect information causes buyers to either overestimate or underestimate the fundamental value of real estate assets.
Taking action on India’s environmental crisis is no longer an option – it is a necessity. Sustainable real estate presents India with an unique and enormous opportunity to make concrete progress in the country’s effort to improve its environment.
The final 2010 edition of Global Market Perspective provides our view on the likely shape of commercial real estate markets across the globe in 2011. Over the next 12 months we expect to see a much greater divergence in real estate activity and performance.