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.
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.
The idea of creating a new city as a counter magnet to Mumbai was originally envisaged in the Regional Plan of Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) in 1965. The actual planning process of this new city began in 1971 after the formation of CIDCO, a Government-owned company for development of cities.
For a very long time, Pune was considered little more than a pensioner’s destination which benefited to some extent from its proximity to Mumbai. It was not considered a serious real estate market at a national or international level. This has now changed for good – the city has attained its own unique identity and is firmly in the limelight as a thriving economic microcosm, with a real estate market that has overtaken Mumbai in terms of attractiveness and investment viability.
Track2Realty Exclusive: The time of transition for the Indian real estate and construction sector has finally arrived. Since last few years, a number of regulations pertaining to the real estate market were put on hold. A number of them are now at the draft stage waiting for Parliament’s approvals.
Track2Realty: The economic growth rates in Asia are likely to lead the world—creating demand for built spaces, triggering business expansion, and inducing businesses to occupy retail premises and office properties.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Perhaps no other segment of Indian real estate would have taken as much beating as the retail one. With consumerism down due to overall slowdown in the economy, e-commerce emerging big to challenge the malls and the high streets back with innovations, it seems the mall developers had abosiltely no idea as to how to deal with the emerging market realities. Track2Realty Focus 2015 takes a look at how the promising retail in India could not benefit retail realty in its performance.
Track2Realty: As e-commerce attains new heights and presents a number of opportunities for the real estate sector in general—and the warehousing segment in particular—CBRE recommends strategies for landlords and e-retailers for attaining a win-win scenario.
Track2Realty: Almost 25% of the total warehousing/logistics space uptake across the country in 2014 was by e-retail players, while the uptake of logistics space rose by more than seven times over that of 2013. India’s online retail sector saw exponential growth, as a number of local market-specific services—such as cash on delivery (COD), multiple payment options, and EMI options—assisted in developing the growth curve of e-commerce in the country—according to the findings of CBRE’s latest special report, India Online Retail Driving Realty.
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.