Track2Realty: With economy witnessing a downturn, interest rates and inflation reaching all-time highs, 2013 has been one of the most eventful years for Real Estate in India. While introduction of Real Estate Regulatory Bill and Land Acquisitions Bills in the Parliament was positive for the real estate industry, end users sitting on the fence expecting a fall in prices lead to a contraction of demand in the past few quarters.
Track2Realty Exclusive: While the Indian real estate has been on a copy & paste mode in the last three years where not much support has been extended by the market or the policy makers, there is a strong optimism within the built environment that 2014 would be a turnaround year. Though nothing much has changed in terms of issues & concerns of the sector as another year comes to the end, some of the policy decisions in the last six months indicate the sector is finally on the road to recovery.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Real estate gains are not always short-term but often long-term from investment point of view. The same can be said about 2013 where despite of an outside view dismissing the year 2013 for low sales velocity, piling inventory, liquidity crunch and policy ambiguity, added to the country moving to the General Elections in 2014, the sector has managed to pave the way for long term reforms.
Track2Realty Exclusive: The Coimbatore real estate has by and large outperformed the rest of the country. This better-than-national average performance during the year 2013 has been remarkable at a time when some of the matured property markets were witness to sales plummeting with stress both at the buyers’ as well as developers’ level.
Track2Realty: India continued to feature on the list of the world’s most expensive office markets, with New Delhi (Connaught Place – CBD) ranking at the 7th position, according to CBRE Global Research and Consulting’s semi-annual Prime Office Occupancy Costs survey. Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) bagged the 15th position, while Nariman Point stood at the 32nd position. The latest CBRE survey provides data on office rents and occupancy costs as of September 2013.
Track2Realty: India’s hospitality real estate space has probably come of age; and has reached a critical threshold in its learning as well as business development curves. Although the ongoing economic slowdown and uncertainty have caused hotel rates to decrease marginally in the last couple of years, India now stands at the cusp of a hotel building and rebranding boom, which should help keep rates competitive in 2013.
Track2Realty: Emerging markets are offering interesting investment opportunities in terms of shopping center development, according to the latest Asia Pacific Retail Trends and Retail Hotspots reports released by CBRE. The Asia Pacific market in particular continued to see a steady flow of new retailer openings in 2013, amid steady economic growth and generally positive consumer sentiment.
Track2Realty Exclusive: To say that the year 2013 has been stressful for the Indian real estate would be like stating the obvious. A major reason why the sector could not perform up to its true potential this year is the negative market sentiments.
Track2Realty: The economic downturn has subdued office and retail markets, resulting in a sales slowdown as well as pressurized capital values across leading cities—according to CBRE Research’s year-to-date coverage of trends in India’s real estate sector.
Track2Realty Exclusive: If you think Coimbatore is a typical Tier II city with no lifestyle that can match a hip and happening city like Bangalore, then probably you have not been to Kalapatti in the city. In over a decade this location has transformed into a property paradise where lifestyle galore and is too cosmopolitan as per the standards of not just Tamil Nadu but entire South India.