Year 2018 was a veritable roller-coaster ride for the Indian real estate. Despite signs of recovery across segments, the liquidity crunch – further exacerbated by the NBFC crisis – put all industry stakeholders on tenterhooks.
It is more of bad news than good news for the developers as far as their efforts to entice the NRIs is concerned. The good news is that the outlook of the expat Indians towards the Indian real estate is changing; the recent policy reforms have made them more optimistic about the property market back home. But the bad news is that they are yet not ready to commit for property purchase in India.
CSR means different things to different stakeholders of India Inc. and today there is no reliable rating/valuation methodology to measure CSR standards. Most of the ranking that has been done about the most sustainable corporations is not professionally standardized or uniform.
The new regulatory regime is largely about steps, which include streamlining approval processes, simplifying taxation (GST), building institutional capacity, as also introducing urban planning and real estate-related reforms (RERA and REITs).
During the CREDAI national convention few years back, a miffed real estate seemed to settle scores with the then Union Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath. Displaying stiff opposition to the proposed real estate regulator, the builders’ body went critique to say it is not actually a regulator bill, but builders’ harassment and public amusement bill.
The developers are by and large living in denial. The deep rooted psyche is that once the market conditions improve the buyers have no choice but to run for an asset class that is not only need-based but also a business where the demand far exceeds the supply. This medieval thought process is in fact the biggest roadblock in the way of best practices gaining ground in the Indian real estate.
Some discussions about best practices in the Indian real estate has started because today the investors also do not want their money to be locked in an asset that is neither growing nor is likely to get delivered. Worse even, there is no authority or court in India that has been successful in getting a stalled project restarted or in forcing a bankrupt builder into selling his assets to compensate his allottees.
Mostly as of now only the developers of integrated townships have got into the healthcare investment. The dilemma of whether or not to have healthcare facility in the project also comes with whether the developer should himself get into the operational side of running it or it should be outsourced post the investment.
Interview Point: PNC Menon, Chairman-Emeritus of Sobha Ltd feels India…
Bottom Line: The Indian property market has always been quite…