Most of the analysts who track the local property market maintain that the emerging market realities and the economy of the region has changed the way people look at the housing. This change has been pretty fast in the last over a decade. It is a paradigm shift in the housing market of the city.
The company plans to increase its team strength in the Gulf to 500 and is targeting a Gross Transaction Value of $600 mn. from its international business in 2019. It also plans to set up operations in Saudi Arabia in this calendar year.
There is a public perception that what has transformed this once non-descript city into thriving metro city is the gulf money since a large number of Kochi residents are working in the gulf region. However, Kochi property market is not being driven by gulf money alone; this could be only a reality in the luxury segment.
I am also conscious of the fact that no one would dare to file a case. It will only make them a laughing stock and force me to further expose their fault lines and consumer grievances/backlash in the public domain. This is one business where there is always more to conceal than reveal.
While crossing through the MG Road of Bengaluru, I accidentally came across a project by Bhadra Landmark called Bhadra Legacy. MG Road, as we all know, is the Pin Code Number 1 of the city. It is the heart of the city and the first choice of the business travellers, celebrities of the city, NRIs & HNIs and the skylines of the place is dotted with the top-end hotels. The strategic importance of the place can’t be debated.
About 40% of all the new launches in 2018 were under the affordable segment. Cities such as Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and NCR witnessed maximum launches in the affordable segment that is below INR5 million. Mumbai on the other hand witnessed more launches in the mid segment housing, in the range of INR 5-10 million.
The greener pastures are mostly defined with numbers and not execution capabilities or business model. For example, the absorption of office space has been upwards of 40 million square feet per annum for the last 3 years. The overall sentiments in this segment look bullish with PE investors also putting in money. As a matter of fact, even in retail real estate the PE investors are bullish and exploring even the Tier II cities having malls with good footfalls, brand mix and strong sales. This is what is enticing the residential developers looking for both the buyers as well as the capital investments.
The listing of India’s first REIT by Blackstone-backed Embassy Group has been in the offing for quite some time, but it now finally appears that it will be listed within the first half of 2019. As REITs await their official deployment in India, investors hoping to cash on this new avenue for generous ROI growth seek to understand what exactly is in store for them – and for the real estate market.
Dubai led the pack of international cities that contributed significantly to the GTV of the company followed by Toronto and Melbourne. Square Yards has built up significant NRI operations in 13 international cities namely Abu Dhabi, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait, Sharjah, Hong Kong, Muscat, Melbourne, Singapore, Sharjah, Sydney and Toronto.
The low consumer confidence has been linked as much to peoples’ lack of confidence in their own ability to pay as with the employment uncertainties. Collectively, the buyers’ risk aversion in today’s economy as well as the developers’ unfair business practices have eclipsed real estate like never before.