Track2Realty Exclusive: Prayag Damodar returned to the home town Ahmedabad after having spent 14 long years in the Gulf region where the only option of living has been high rises and skyscrapers. He had developed the liking for such vertical living so much that he had a feeling of missing that sky high living back home as the prevailing housing culture has been standalone residential units when he left the city.
Track2Realty-Agencies: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has ordered an Income Tax department investigation against a number of real estate developers who were recently shown by an investigative portal to be willing to accept alleged black money in property transactions.
Track2Realty: Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ announcement of his intention to make Pune the IT capital of India has brought mixed reactions. However, this is not a Utopian dream but in fact becoming a reality even as we speak. Pune and information technology are already inseparable concepts today, and all it will take is a decisive push by the BJP government to establish it as the country’s foremost IT hub.
Track2Realty: The completion of several large transactions—including a couple of deals worth overUS$ 500 million each—pushed up the total real estate investment volume in the Asia Pacific region in the June–September period to US$ 35 billion, a quarter-on-quarter increase of about 40% (as per the CBRE APAC Capital Markets MarketView Q3 2014 report).
Track2Realty: The Indian monsoon months are synonymous with low activity in real estate, but this year witnessed considerable amount of activity in the office sector. Compared with last year’s monsoon months of July, August and September (3Q CY 2013), this period in 2014 showed 58% growth in office space demand.
Track2Realty: India’s economic growth accelerated to 5.7 per cent in the April–June quarter, a figure that is much better than the 4.7 per cent in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year. According to various international agencies like International Monetary Fund (IMF), Asian Development Bank and Moody, 2014 is expected to record an economic growth of 5.2% to 5.6% in 2014.
Track2Realty: Despite overall retailer demand remaining generally subdued for retail real estate space in the Asia Pacific region during the July–September period of the year (Q3 2014)—major global mass market fashion brands continued with steady space transactions in India and emerging markets of Southeast Asia.
Track2Realty-Agencies: The Supreme Court has directed the Centre to ensure that all real estate projects launched in the country prominently display the earthquake-resistant category in which they fall and also explain the connotations of the category as defined by the government.
Track2Realty: The daily papers are replete with complaints by buyers who had been led astray or otherwise victimized by fly-by-night developers who specialize in launching small one-off projects and then wash their hands off the project. In a market environment where the exists a high degree of customer awareness with regards to most products, how can this continue to happen?
Track2Realty-Agencies: In a boost to realty-related investment in the state, West Bengal Government has decided to grant an exemption under section 14Y of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act for township projects enabling them to acquire land more than the ceiling limit of 24 acres.