Track2Realty Roundtable Panelists—Dr Anil Sharma, CMD, Amrapali Group
Sunil Dahiya—Sr Vice President, NAREDCO & MD Vigneshwara Developers
Harmit Chawla—MD, HCorp Realty
PK Tripathi—President, Unitech
Moderator—Ravi Sinha, CEO & Managing Editor, Track2Realty
Ravi Sinha: Would any of you agree that the pipeline visibility and land bank suddenly has turned out to be a land liability?
Track2Realty-Agencies: Vibgyor Real Estate, a part of the Rs. 800 crore Vibgyor Group, has signed in leading Bengali actress Rituparna Sengupta as its brand ambassador, a company official said.
Track2Realty Roundtable
Panelists—Dr Anil Sharma, CMD, Amrapali Group
Sunil Dahiya—Sr Vice President, NAREDCO & MD Vigneshwara Developers
Harmit Chawla—MD, HCorp Realty
PK Tripathi—President, Unitech
Moderator—Ravi Sinha, CEO & Managing Editor, Track2Realty
Ravi Sinha: Many of the developers have realised that focus on execution and not the land bank is the key. Companies which overleveraged their balance sheets or branched out into non-core areas have failed. Developers have also learnt it the hard way that real estate is a micro market business and fancy expectations of going pan-India can boomerang. Are not these tough lessons?
Track2Realty Exclusive: IT/ITeS and BFSI firms continue to be among the largest occupiers taking up spaces in excess of 200,000 sf each across Gurgaon and Noida. Close to 7.8 msf of under construction developments are expected to get completed in the fourth quarter, of which 70% comprise of IT SEZ developments across Gurgaon and Noida.
Track2Realty Exclusive: India Outlook remains positive
Though the Indian economy recorded one of the lowest growth rates in recent years in 2012, indications are that the economic growth rate may have bottomed out and is likely to improve from the current levels over the next six months or so.
Ravi Sinha: In 2013 when most of the PE Funds are maturing, they may not be investing again in the real estate. So, from where will you generate the funds?
Track2Realty-Agencies: IDFC Alternatives, real estate arm of Infrastructure Development Finance Corp. Ltd (IDFC) has bought assets worth about Rs. 250 crore in Pune’s real estate developer Paranjape Schemes (Construction) Ltd’s Hinjewadi Special Economic Zone (SEZ) for information technology (IT) and information technology-enabled services (ITeS) firms and luxury residential space.
Ravi Sinha: I have a question here, and I will be very frank with Mr Tripathi. Any journalist who writes on real estate finds it very amusing that the sector has always tried to put the ball in the government’s court. Since you have been part of the government, how far will you agree to this?
Track2Realty: Walking on a tight rope of fiscal management, the Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram did his best to bring smiles on the faces of home buyers. Something that should cheer up the real estate sector looking left, right and centre for buyers with piling inventory. Still, a section of real estate is sulking. Why so? Track2Realty tries to understand the grey zones where for the realtors it was a case of “ye did maange more.”
Track2Realty Exclusive: The Indian real sector has evoked mixed response to the Union Budget 2013-14, though by and large there is optimism within the sector. Here are some of the responses—