Sahara buys controlling stake in New York’s Plaza Hotel
Sahara Group has agreed buy a controlling stake in the city’s iconic Plaza Hotel for USD 570 million from the Israeli-owned real estate company Elad Properties.
Sahara Group has agreed buy a controlling stake in the city’s iconic Plaza Hotel for USD 570 million from the Israeli-owned real estate company Elad Properties.
The RBI, on Tuesday, July 31, kept the repo rate or the rate at which banks borrow from RBI unchanged at 8% and also the reverse repo rate at which, the banks lend to RBI unchanged at 7%. However, it has lowered the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) to 23% from 24% earlier. The realty sector, reeling under liquidity pressure and low demand due to high interest rate, has reacted sharply over this status quo.
According to the latest RICS India Commercial Property Survey, sentiment in the Indian real estate market has been adversely affected in the second quarter, as the economic picture in the country continues to remain bleak with the declining value of the rupee and growth forecasts being revised lower, along with a deteriorating global climate.
Red Fort Capital Advisors, a real estate private equity fund that manages more than $1 billion of Indian assets, plans to raise $500 million next year to invest in homes and offices in Asia’s third-largest economy.
The Hinduja Group, with a global presence in core sectors such as oil and gas, automotive, power, IT, banking and finance, today announced a major foray into the real estate sector in India involving an investment of up to $15 billion.
The economy is facing difficulties on several fronts, including declining GDP growth, high inflation, high fiscal and current account deficits and depreciation of the rupee. The poor performance of the stock market has attracted a lot of negative press in recent months and this was reflected in the commercial real estate market which remained tepid in Q2 2012, says a DTZ research.
Industry experts assert it is difficult to put a time frame on certain requirements like getting over a 100 Government permits from the time of starting construction to completion. Historically, hotel construction in India has been somewhat cumbersome owing to the multiple clearances/approvals required from Central and State Government agencies.
The Bangalore-based publicly-held Sobha Developers has said its sales realisation has gone up 26 per cent on a year-on-year basis while the sales volumes have gone up 25 per cent. On a sequential basis, the realisation is up 7 per cent while the sales being marginally down.
The Indian strategy in the hospitality segment seems to be borne out of the demand-supply market dynamics. An industry survey estimates that the three major Indian metropolitan areas—Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi—command some of the highest hotel rentals in the world.
Realty sector may appear to be bullish and project that downside is over with rosy forecast ahead, yet the decline in fortune is far from being over. As a matter of fact, the learning in the last four years has made most of the leading players to restructure their project portfolio and shed the flab.