Track2Realty: In the latest phase of the company’s growth in India, Cushman & Wakefield has expanded operations in Kolkata and acquired the entire team of Lemongrass Advisors, a well-respected real estate consultancy firm in Kolkata and Eastern India.
Track2Realty-Agencies: With real estate in East Africa fast emerging as a big opportunity, Reliance Industries, in a joint venture with Delta Corp, has purchased land worth Rs 200 crore in Kenya for development of housing and office properties and is already making good profits.
Track2Realty: USD 2 Billion (INR 11,854 crores) is available with private equity firms ready to be deployed in real estate, despite a drop in the PE investment in the first half of 2013, says Cushman & Wakefield’s latest report on the private equity (PE) in real estate investment.
Track2Realty Exclusive: The multiplier effect of real estate sector and its capacity for generating employment is well recognized. It is estimated that the sector contributes close to 6 per cent to the gross domestic product (GDP) of India and is estimated to be growing at 20 per cent per annum.
Track2Realty: Cushman & Wakefield has expanded its Greater China operations into Taiwan by opening its first office in Taipei. It has appointed Jack Lin as the Managing Director of Taipei office. Prior to joining Cushman & Wakefield, Jack was the Managing Director of Taiwan Sotheby’s International Realty where he set up the luxury residential brokerage business. Together with Jack, Steven Chen was also appointed as the Director of Agency. Steven has more than 16 years’ experience in the real estate industry and was previously at Savills.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Developers have also been trying to get the government to introduce the concept of single window clearance. It is common knowledge that time taken to grant approvals directly affects property prices. It has been found that delays in approval processes alone increase sale value of houses by 40%.
Track2Realty Exclusive: A marginal rate cut/hike time again evokes reactions across the industries and the blame game continues where the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) defends its balancing act of controlling inflation and the industry captains slam its short term outlook of stop gap arrangement.
Track2Realty-Agencies: Real estate industry and property consultants today hailed the RBI’s decision to cut key policy rates, saying that it is a positive step that would boost housing demand and encourage foreign investment in the sector.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Call it being overt critical on the realty business or my sense of introspection, I maintain that the biggest drawbacks in the sector is we are not sure what precisely we want from the government, nor is there any clarity as to how this will help the sector; whether our demands are feasible from ethical, financial or legislative point of view.
Track2Realty: Real estate sentiment remained fragile through a major part of 2012, as the global economy continued to face strong and persistent headwinds. Economic activity in Europe is seen to be contracting, while growth in the US has been modest.