Track2Realty: Bangalore has consistently remained the preferred destination for corporate real estate occupiers in the country over the last couple of years. More recently though, our IT City outperformed itself by catapulting into the league of the top performing office markets of the Asia Pacific region during 2014—in the company of Tokyo and Shanghai.
Track2Realty: Residential sales declined by approximately 30% y-o-y by the end of 2014 in the seven leading cities of the country, largely due to high price points, sticky interest rates and cautious buyer sentiments. The decline, which was noted across all major cities, was particularly steep in the DelhiNCR (National Capital Region).The slowdown was reported in the premium/luxury as well as the high-end/mid-end housing segments.
Track2Realty: In a market still defined by significant lack of transparency, real estate consultancies play a complex and responsibility-driven role in all real estate transactions, especially in the case of high-value property assets. In large ticket sized transactions such as those involved in Grade A office spaces, there can be no margin for error. Transparency, ethics and accurate market information play an inalienable role in closing such deals.
Track2Realty Exclusive: It has indeed been a busy year and 2014 can well be described as the year of roller coaster emotions where the business confidence index was exposed to two extreme ends of swing. In an otherwise flat year, the real estate sector may not have been witness to transactions on ground but the poetic engagement has definitely been at the emotional level.
Track2Realty Exclusive: 2014 was an eventful year for the commercial real estate market in India. The economic outlook in the first half of the year was uninspiring. Coupled with political uncertainty this resulted in investors and occupiers stalled making any real estate decisions. Business confidence was at its lowest. The sentiment changed dramatically in the second half post the national elections as it became clear that there would a ‘new’ stable government.
Track2Realty: Sentiment around Indian real estate among both domestic and international investors has improved in recent times, following the election of a new government and also on account of an upturn in consumer demand, says theEmerging Trends in Real Estate® Asia Pacific 2015 report, published jointly by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
Track2Realty Exclusive: Prayag Damodar returned to the home town Ahmedabad after having spent 14 long years in the Gulf region where the only option of living has been high rises and skyscrapers. He had developed the liking for such vertical living so much that he had a feeling of missing that sky high living back home as the prevailing housing culture has been standalone residential units when he left the city.
Track2Realty: Despite overall retailer demand remaining generally subdued for retail real estate space in the Asia Pacific region during the July–September period of the year (Q3 2014)—major global mass market fashion brands continued with steady space transactions in India and emerging markets of Southeast Asia.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Cities come into existence either by design or by default and the first movers (either the local urban bodies or the private developers) give it a definite outlook & shape in terms of urban planning and overall outlook of the given city. This has been the pattern of urbanisation and rise and growth of the cities across the world with Indian being no exception.
Track2Realty: Affordable housing is not only essential to the well-being and health of the people but also for the smooth running of economies. Yet all over the globe, in advanced and developing economies alike, a majority of the cities are struggling to give their citizens decent, affordable housing.