Track2Realty: Rapid urbanization has thrown up many complicated challenges for home owners as well as city planners. While most of the debate tends to revolve around how to improve living conditions in the core urban areas, real estate developers in many cities like Pune, Mumbai and Bangalore are now coming up with an entirely new solution – the creation of entirely new satellite mega-cities.
Track2Realty: In financial circles, the terms real estate investors and real estate speculators are used to refer to people who are buying property to make a profit, rather than for personal use. Though the two terms are often used interchangeably, they are not exactly the same. Nevertheless, even veteran financial specialists tend to get mixed up between the two.
Track2Realty: The West Bangalore sub-market covers the areas and projects around Tumkur Road NH-4 towards the Yeshwanthpur and Malleswaram junction, the Rajajinagar Industrial Area, Yeshwantpur, and Tumkur Road and its surroundings (which has a high-density population and has traditionally been the primary industrial hub of the city).
Track2Realty: Real estate is a business that requires regular funding, be it at the acquisition or execution stage. To raise funds, developers in India opt for modes like joint venture, pre-sale and construction finance. Construction finance can work out cheaper but is difficult to obtain because of the strict guidelines laid down by the Reserve Bank of India.
Track2Realty: For the quarter ended March 2014, nearly US$800 million was invested into India’s real estate sector. This translates to almost Rs.4,800 crore having been injected into the sector through the private equity route over the past few months. This couldn’t have happened at a more opportune timefor a sector faced with a liquidity crunch, high land acquisition costs, and stringent due diligence from the banking sector—which continues to perceive real estate as a high-risk domain in India.
Track2Realty: Total inflows in the real estate sector for the first quarter of 2014 were recorded at INR 2,800 crores (USD 460 million), witnessing an increase of 28% compared to the previous quarter and nearly 2.5 times the investment in Q1 2013, says Cushman & Wakefield’s report on private equity (PE) investments in real estate.
Track2Realty: Transactions in India’s real estate space might have slowed down over the last two quarters, but the sector has not been overwhelmed by the state of the wider economy. Despite the subdued pre-election economic scenario, in fact, the period observed an increase in private equity activity.
Track2Realty Exclusive: As the country heads towards the General Elections with policy uncertainties expected to get clarity ahead once a new Government assumes office, it seems Indian real estate is yet again high on the wish list of the investors, both domestic and international. If the investments and the policy announcements since the second half of 2013 are any indication, there has been a clear indication that the phase of over-cautious market sentiments is getting over.
Track2Realty: India has received a total estimated investment of US$ 1.2 Bn in the real estate sector making it the 10th most invested location in APAC region of which investment in land was the highest at US$ 838 million, says Cushman & Wakefield in its report ‘Investment Market Beat’ 2013. The APAC region received a record US$ 487 Billion of investment in the real estate sector.
Track2Realty: There are still significant investment opportunities left in India’s real estate market. For investors looking at cost-effective projects to park their funds, this might be a right time as weak market sentiments are likely to lead to weak valuations, providing windows for investing in quality projects.