Tata Realty and Infrastructure (TRIL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons, is foraying into retail and hospitality segments through a new subsidiary, TRIL Hospitality Services. The company, which has about Rs 6,000-crore projects at hand, would also commence work on two more projects, and this would add business of Rs 3,000 crore, said a senior TRIL Infopark executive.
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.
In the coming months, the pressure will be to reduce debt-to-equity ratios. With so many developers in debt already, the industry is trying to come out of the situation and 2012 will not be much different. It won’t be easy and the developers are trying various routes. Selling of developed projects, vacant land is a route taken by many developers. Several developers are now providing attractive terms to PE funds to securing funding.
Ravi Sinha: You mean to suggest the land acquisition bill has not really been deliberated upon and came as a knee jerk reaction?
No wonder, the healthcare sector is being adopted by the developers across the country. Property analysts are of the opinion that proximity to a hospital in an area also impacts the price of real estate and many developers use it as USP to market their projects.
Is the Indian real estate sector the right place to make a serious career in now? Compared to more developed countries, the Indian real estate sector still lacks sophistication and transparency. However, it continues to be in the limelight of domestic and international investments. This has naturally brought on the need for better, more capable human resources.
It is no more portfolio diversification that is driving the real estate developers into medical realty, it is rather a serious business as Track2Realty observes. After all, no other vertical of realty is as resilient to macro economic conditions as healthcare realty and it also needs more space than retail in the year ahead.
What appears to be the bane of retail, whether organised or neighbourhood, has been spotted by some innovative entrepreneurs, of late. They are the tech savvy smart players in the segment who have realised that instead of getting into “dog eats dog” competition, it is better to spot the gaps that the upwardly mobile discerning consumers are finding and bridge the trust deficit in retailing to cater to this segment.
Ravi Sinha: One issue which Sunil raised on funding mechanism that it was a strategic mistake by certain developers to raise money through IPOs. I would like to rake this issue again and seek the panel’s view.
The demand fundamentals of the India story are now focused around all cities that have sufficient economic activity, be it industrial, service sector-driven or incentive-driven programs by the State Government. In Gujarat, which has seen considerable industrial progress, the key cities of Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara come readily to mind.