At about US$151 per sq. ft. per annum, Delhi’s Central Business District (CBD) of Connaught Place was ranked as the sixth most expensive prime office market in the world, according to CBRE Research’s semi-annual Global Prime Office Occupancy Costs survey.
Despite slowdown, Mumbai remains the most lucrative investment destination in India, says the second edition of Knight Frank India Residential Investment Advisory Report 2016.
Today, the world sees India as a land of opportunity for business and investment. RBI head Raghuram Rajan said in mid-September that while fellow BRICs have deep problems, India appears to be an island of relative calm in an ocean of turmoil.
Private Equity funds, famously known as PEs are invested heavily in the Indian real estate. Even though the sector is emerging only gradually from its slowdown, this could be the golden period of PE investments to invest further, as the opportunities being offered are humungous.
When the Government of India was announcing relaxation with FDI norms a day ahead of Diwali, many analysts thought it to be a Diwali gift for 15 core sectors that could also prolong the festive spirit for the real estate sector.
The year 2015 should have been the year of realization that the days of creating ghost cities with inventory for investors is over. The greedy investor is no more interested in blocking his money with a business where the returns in any of India’s major housing market is not more than six per cent today.
A few may have succeeded but most of the developers have failed to position themselves right during the slowdown. In the process Track2Realty finds that the brand realty has taken a severe beating, losing the trust of both the end-users and the investors. The brand positioning that differentiates between the two different realty companies is today negligible with developers’ focus to sell. That, unfortunately, is not working for them and commanding premium over the brand reputation today is a far cry. Our team speaks to a cross section of developers, analysts and brand experts who may differ with each other but nearly all agree that sector has to come out of the Catch 22 situation.
From being the governance wild child to maturing into a market influencer, India’s real-estate sector has transformed in the past decade, with a paradigm shift from family owned businesses to corporates along with a few companies listing on stock exchanges. The change began with the government opening doors to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in 2005 and then welcoming the next wave of stability as corporate houses brought image restoration for the sector. Led by corporate entities, realty companies soon adopted corporate governance wherein transparency began to trickle down into the system as a norm slowly.
“How long can a sector survive which is borrowing at 48 per cent from private lenders to serve the interest of previous debt raised at much lower rate,” asks a banker. His concern is not without valid reasons. Developers experimented with all funding options but still many of them are now being forced to seek other sources of funding which not only comes at a significantly higher cost but also where the source of fund is unregulated.
In the evaluation of sustainability of a housing market, the absorption of office space is the prime indicator across the world. After all, it is the economic activity and the job magnet that fuels the demand for new houses. The city of Mumbai has always been blessed on that count due to demand and supply dynamics.