Sunil Dahiya: When the meltdown of 2008 and the aftereffects of 2009 rolled in, see the amount of letters sent by developers to the customers and the customer calling back and telling that ‘sorry boss, I am on the verge of losing my job, I don’t have the money’. Not a single developer went to any court or had any power in this judicial system to recover any payment from the consumer, there is no law.
The much-awaited regulatory Bill for the real estate sector will not be tabled during the current session of Parliament, a senior official in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation has confirmed to Track2Realty. The draft Real Estate Regulation Bill is still in the consultative process and the government is apprehensive that the states may block it the NCTC way.
A 16-lane dedicated corridor in Gurgaon will link DLF’s Gateway Tower in Cyber City to the Golf Course Road, offering some relief from crumbling infrastructure in Delhi’s suburb.
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) published the FSB Principles for Sound Residential Mortgage Underwriting Practices that aim to provide a framework for different countries to set minimum acceptable loan underwriting standards so as to limit the risks that mortgage markets pose to financial stability and to better safeguard borrowers and investors.
India-Sri Lanka bilateral trade has increased by over 65% last year, close to U.S. $5 billion, Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Ashok K. Kantha, has said.
Chicago-headquartered Hyatt Hotels Group is betting big on the upper-midscale segment in India. Its growth in India is going to be driven by three of its brands — Hyatt Place, Hyatt House and Hyatt Regency. It has already firmed up plans for the first Hyatt Place in the country, likely to be launched at Hampi in Karnataka in June.
Over the last few years, the number of HNI investors and corporates who are seriously looking at investing into Indian office space has increased manifold. Mumbai continues to hold its own as India’s numero uno office space investment destination, with companies from all over the world unerringly zeroing in on the financial capital.
The retail real estate market received a fresh mall supply of approximately 1.94 million sq. ft. (msf) in Q1 2012 (quarter ending March 2012). Many of the expected mall projects were differed on account of delay in construction, leading to a deficit of close to 50% from the estimated supply (3.37 msf) for the quarter, says Cushman & Wakefield in its latest report.
Ravi Sinha: I welcome all the panelists in this roundtable discussion. We are organizing the brain storming session for our inaugural yearly Handbook Focus 2012. This is the second of the series after the 1st discussion in Mumbai on “Funding Gap in Real Estate.”
Leasing and buying activity in the commercial real estate market in India remained sluggish for the first quarter ended March 31 of calendar year (CY) 2012. The total absorption of office space declined 12% in Q1 compared to the Q4 of CY 2011.