THE CBI interrogation of DB Realty’s MD, Shahid Balwa, in connection with the 2G spectrum scam has thrown up the possibility of the real estate magnate having links with India’s most wanted man, Dawood Ibrahim. According to senior CBI officials, Dawood invested large sums of money in Balwa’s firm, which was used by him to finance many of his business deals.
As real estate prices shoot up and interest rates, the outlook for the sector does not look too bright. In its year-end report, Knight Frank has stated that new home sales in India have fallen by 25 per cent due to soaring prices. With the Reserve Bank of India tightening lending norms to developers and raising interest rates, the property market is likely to plumb new lows in 2011 as buyers disappear.
If you are living as a tenant in Mumbai and seeking to buy a house this year, there seem to be quite a few confusions going around. While some of the reports and projected forecasts may give you a ray of hope, it would rather mislead you and your wait for a cheaper home may actually cost you to pay more in future.
IT major Cognizant today announced its intention to pump in more than $500 million in the next four years in real estate development as part of its expansion program.
The outlook for Chennai’s residential property market remains positive in 2011. This is a stable market, and the prices have risen rationally in tandem with normal market trends. With the IT sector on the upswing and job security once again strong, Chennai’s residential real estate market will see accelerated demand in 2011.
The RBI and market regulator SEBI have enhanced their vigil on funds coming from Mauritius, suspecting round-tripping or routing of illicit money back through the island nation.
Real estate developers have called for focussed support in the Budget for the first-time home buyer and measures to augment supply of housing for affordable and low income groups. Industry representatives have also called for a simplification of systems and tax reliefs as a step to bringing down costs and catalyse developments.
The RICS, an international, self regulatory professional body relating to real estate, has called for a mechanism for consumer protection and fair practices in real estate transactions. This will also help increase domestic and foreign investments in this sector.
I am relatively dissatisfied with the budget focus on the sector as no efforts made to the growth of the sector. My wish list to the Finance Minister is to relax the provisioning norms of banks for Real Estate loans, sector status to real estate, clarity on service tax & VAT, with some relaxation and to increase the interest exemption on Housing loan. But then the Finance Minister has not consulted the industry representatives in the last few years.
Value and Affordable housing remains a segment where government should definitely continue to provide developers with tax free status which was available earlier. Rather than restricting it to unit sizes as in the past of 1,000 / 1,500 sft per housing unit, the government could instead have a maximum per unit value of say Rs. 15 lakhs for units near Tier I Cities, Rs. 10 lakhs for Tier II Cities.