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.
Beyond what is happening in the strategic board room meetings of realty companies, market is cautiously optimistic that with the inventories piling up, developers will sooner or later be forced to blink. A look at the recent developments in the sector does indicate that prices can come down, but it all depends on the builders holding power.
Growth in the property business in Asia Pacific this year will be driven by many countries and not just China as in the recent past, according to DTZ survey. The region’s solid performance will be supported by strong growth in the use of equity for investment as opposed to debt, intra-regional investment, and increasing willingness of banks to lend, the company says in its research report Money into Property 2012.
Lanco Infratech Ltd, the power producer, is reportedly seeking buyers for a real estate business it values at 27 billion rupees ($483 million). According to the sources close to the development the company has asked investment banks to submit proposals to manage the sale.
More than 30% of retail mall space against the projected supply for the first half of the year were deferred, says Cushman & Wakefield report on the retail real estate market. A fresh mall supply for H1 2012 stood at 2.27 million sq. ft. (msf). Approximately one million sq.ft. of expected mall supply was deferred to second half of the year or next year. The overall vacancy rate for the major cities as of H1 2012 stood at 19.6% marginally higher than the previous quarter.
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.
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.
Does it reflect a disconnect in the luxury housing where demand of high-end units is 16% but supply is as high as 80%? “Not Really.” says Anmol Haval DGM, Sales & Marketing of City Corporation Limited (CCL) which has launched ‘Sweet Water Villas’, an exclusive project of limited edition villas at ‘Amanora’, the first integrated township being developed under the special township policy of Government of Maharashtra.
Indian realty firm Synergy Property Development Services Ltd bagged, through international bidding, a $153-million township development project in the central African country of Rwanda.
The new concept of integrated townships is now more about a single developer taking over a large tract of land. There are benefits too. “The infrastructure is under the developers’ control,” explains Anuj Puri, Chairman and Country Head, JLLI, adding that the developer can plan and use the FSI better, and long-term maintenance is a possibility.