Track2Realty: Indian real estate market witnessed a significant change in the last decade mainly backed by opening up of FDI in the sector and shift in preference to high-rises over traditional low-rise structures, according to a report.
Track2Realty: India’s economy grew 5.7% y-o-y in Q1 2014 (April–June) beating market consensus forecasts of 5.3%, and showing signs of recovery following annual growth numbers of between 4.4% and 5.2% in each quarter between Q1 2012 and Q4 2013.
Track2Realty: The residential real estate market across leading cities of the country is unlikely to see any traction before the upcoming festive season, when demand is expected to improve. While buyers have held off purchase decisions in anticipation of lowering interest rates, developers have been waiting for the festive season before launching special schemes and discounts to boost housing sales.
Track2Realty: With the liberalisation of the FDI policy, evolving consumer preferences and entry of global retail brands in India, mall developers are busy adapting their retail developments to the changing requirements and trends. Indeed, one of the most imperative transformations is the increasing focus on planning and optimisation of retail spaces so as to extract their highest potential.
Track2Realty: The overall mall vacancy levels across the top eight India cities remained stagnant at 14.47% in Q2 2014, which was recorded around 0.4 percentage points lower compared to Q1 2014. Amongst the top eight cities, Pune witnessed sharpest decline of 2.5 percentage points due to healthy leasing activity and no new mall supply. These are the findings of Cushman & Wakefield latest report.
Track2Realty: According to recent CBRE report—How Global is the Business of Retail?—new trends identified in the global retail market saw retailers focusing on larger markets in 2013, with 83% of the survey cities witnessing at least one new entrant in the year (compared to 81% in 2012), while the top target markets saw a 28% rise in new entrants.
Track2Realty: The Grade A commercial office market in the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) attracted an increase in demand for office space, with rental values rising across select established micro-markets during the quarter ended June 2014.
Track2Realty Exclusive: It has often been argued that Indian realty needs to adopt best practices and improve brand image as the sector defends its rough ride on the learning curves. If adopting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), retaining employees, inculcating brand loyalty and earning buyers’ trust are some of the best practices that can address the perception issues of Indian real estate, then the sector has to walk a long road ahead.
Track2Realty Exclusive: There is no denying that the Union Budget 2014-15 has incentivised the eco system of the Indian real estate both for the developers as well as the buyers. Many of the announcements by the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley may not have any direct bearing on the fortunes of the real estate developers in this fiscal year, yet the symbolic sops are enough to silence the otherwise overtly critical sector for some time now.
Track2Realty Exclusive: IT driven locations across the country has been witness to the migration of large educated workforce, be it Bangalore, Gurgaon or Pune. This upwardly mobile, well-earning and lifestyle driven class hence becomes a key demand driver of property in the given city. In Pune the expat Indians have thus emerged as the key demand driver of property.