Track2Realty: 2013 was one of much economic turbulence. High retail inflation, high interest rates and a continuous fall in the rupee value, have been slowing the overall growth and have continuously hindered the investment sentiment in the market during the entire 2013.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Looking back at the year 2013, Indian real estate has witnessed a variety of changes from IT perspective. The trend which started much before 2013, continued with industry’s growing focus on putting IT systems in place to manage business processes to effectively manage real estate organization.
Track2Realty: Total net office space absorption recorded a 25% decline in across top eight cities over last year. According to the annual year end estimations by Cushman & Wakefield the total net absorption for 2013 was recorded at 23 million square feet (msf). Most cities have witnessed a decline in net absorption in the range of 20-40% during the year, except Pune where incremental new space take-up increased by 15% in 2013.
Track2Realty Exclusive: When a developer few years back launched a 5 acre project in Coimbatore dedicated to the senior living, it raised quite many eye brows. Everyone was wondering whether there is a market for such a project, exclusively conceptualised for the senior citizens. Critics even had it that the project is ahead of its time and some termed it as a project meant for parking the investment.
Track2Realty-Agencies: The government on Friday, Dec 13, said it would modify the Real Estate Regulatory Bill if necessary, and sought to allay fears of developers on the proposed law that aims to bring in transparency and protect home buyers.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Friends handling the social media of realty companies take an offence when social media is being criticised to be overused due to strategic dilemma. “Don’t blame the medium for human follies,” is the argument in general. Actually one of the friends from the online community wrote a blog post on the issue with the same title and started a discussion thread on the LinkedIn.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Once a promise has been defined, all the customer touch points need to be mapped. Everything from the website to marketing collateral to what the CEO says about the company to how the telephone is answered at corporate headquarters should reflect the promise of the corporate brand.
Track2Realty: Emerging markets are offering interesting investment opportunities in terms of shopping center development, according to the latest Asia Pacific Retail Trends and Retail Hotspots reports released by CBRE. The Asia Pacific market in particular continued to see a steady flow of new retailer openings in 2013, amid steady economic growth and generally positive consumer sentiment.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Had people who conceptualised the idea of Facebook & Twitter been from the Indian real estate, they would have by now thrown open a BIG IDEA where the cost of running a country like India could have been brought to almost negligible having social media its way. The law makers would not have the trouble of travelling all their way to Parliament from respective constituencies in the remote areas.
Track2Realty Exclusive: To say that the year 2013 has been stressful for the Indian real estate would be like stating the obvious. A major reason why the sector could not perform up to its true potential this year is the negative market sentiments.