Track2Realty: Smart Cities: The New Age Concept: The smart cities concept may not be a novel one, but in the Indian context it is definitely an idea whose relevance couldn’t have been better timed. The government has provided the thrust towards development of such cities, and needs to be now backed by a holistic concept.
Track2Realty: A decade ago, an Indian woman independent and capable enough to buy her own home was a rare case. However, things have changed today. Latter-day Indian women are very well educated, have good jobs with excellent career growth prospects, and even hold important government or corporate leadership posts.
Track2Realty: International expansion remains high on the agenda for retailers in 2015, in spite of uncertain economic prospects and cost escalation. CBRE’s research report, How Active are Retailers Globally?, has several interesting implications for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, with some 85% of luxury and business fashion retailers looking at the region, and 67% of coffee and restaurant retailers doing the same.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Sales model in commercial office spaces that was only recently seen as an indicator of distress on part of the developers has, of late, turned out to be a smart business model by the MNCs. These multinational companies seem to have confidence in the Indian growth story and with long term plan they are investing into the purchase of these properties. Track2Realty Focus 2015 finds that it is not a distress sale of developers since the capital values and rental yields have both appreciated sharply in the last three years despite of impending slowdown. The shift of these commercial spaces beyond the IT/ITeS is the most significant trend.
Track2Realty: As e-commerce attains new heights and presents a number of opportunities for the real estate sector in general—and the warehousing segment in particular—CBRE recommends strategies for landlords and e-retailers for attaining a win-win scenario.
Track2Realty: India’s retail market value was estimated at $520 billion in 2013, and is expected to grow to $950 billion by 2018. With a CAGR currently pegged at 13%, the Indian e-commerce market is expected to grow the fastest within the Asia-Pacific Region – with its market size doubling every 2-2.5 years. This certainly gives us reason for deep introspection. While the global growth rate of online shoppers is estimated at 8-10%, India currently has more than 10 million online shoppers.
Track2Realty: Residential sales declined by approximately 30% y-o-y by the end of 2014 in the seven leading cities of the country, largely due to high price points, sticky interest rates and cautious buyer sentiments. The decline, which was noted across all major cities, was particularly steep in the DelhiNCR (National Capital Region).The slowdown was reported in the premium/luxury as well as the high-end/mid-end housing segments.
Track2Realty: Real estate stakeholders in every Indian city are looking forward to the upcoming financial budget 2015 to see whether it will provide any relief to the sector. Developers have their own expectations, because positive announcements for real estate buyers made during the budget will help increase the market sentiment, and therefore sales. The general hope is that the budget will provide cheer to intending home buyers who have been deterred for various reasons.
Track2Realty: Even in these times of gradual revival, many developers continue to battle the problems of curtailed liquidity. Many developers with large land holdings are not able to launch projects on these land parcels solely with their own capital, and therefore look to either partner with better-capitalized developers or those looking for development opportunities in an asset-light model by giving them development rights in such projects.
Track2Realty: Knight Frank India in association with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) has released the fifth set of findings of its flagship report – The Real Estate Sentiment Index for Q4 2014 October – December). The latest edition has captured the current sentiments of the supply side stakeholders, six months after the new government being elected to power.