Shahid Balwa, a key figure in the telecom scandal that has shaken the government, has resigned as the head of his flagship real estate company, DB Realty. Balwa is vice-chairman of Gulf group Etisalat’s joint venture in the country and at 36 was the youngest billionaire on last year’s Forbes India rich list.
Shares in developer DB Realty hit a record low on Monday after its Managing Director Shahid Balwa, embroiled in a widening telecom corruption investigation, resigned from his position.
DB Realty Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company on March 05, 2011 has noted and accepted the resignations of Mr. Shahid Balwa, as Managing Director and also as Director of the Company with effect from February 09, 2011 in view of his preoccupation relating to certain investigations.
Tata Realty Initiatives Fund-I, managed by Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd, has bought over Kotak India Real Estate Fund-I, a $100 million (Rs.450 crore) fund managed by Kotak Realty Fund in Peepul Tree Properties Pvt. Ltd for Rs.385 crore.
With only $400-500 million of foreign funds flowed into the Indian real estate sector in 2009-10, the outlook ahead seems to be far from being rosy.
For the Union Budget 2011-12, rising inflation, tight liquidity, high interest rate, industrial slowdown, delayed reforms and negative market sentiment were some of the key concerns to address.
We are happy with the governments focus on affordable housing. Loan amount that qualifies under priority sector lending. Now, a home loan of Rs. 25 lakh would qualify as priority sector lending.
Even as Lower Parel and BKC vie with each other for pre-eminence as Mumbai’s commercial real estate hotspots, Dadar – Mumbai’s oldest and most established locations – stands in a class uniquely its own by virtue of its extremely favourable geographical placement and connectivity. For this reason – and for all practical purposes – Dadar is the heart of Mumbai.
In a change of stance, the state home department has decided to look into its own move to shift out the Yerawada police station on the Pune-Ahmednagar road and allow commercial exploitation of the three-acre plot on which it stands.
The cash strapped realty companies can have a breather in budget for 2011-12 as the Finance Minister is expected to make announcement of a guarantee corpus for banks on realty lending. Track2Realty has learnt that the banks will get this guarantee corpus of Rs. 1000 crore to lend for housing projects.