Track2Realty Exclusive: A report released by BNP Paribas earlier this year on realty firms found that each of them performed poorly on one or more of the parameters. Some of the assessment parameters include compensation structure, ability to retain key personnel, financial stability, pending litigation and trading in own stock.
Track2Realty Exclusive: With a vision to make India a housing surplus nation from being the housing shortage country, CREDAI has been campaigning to make the business environment congenial for growth. But the realty bill, in its current form and shape, stifles the honest developer and scares away new entrepreneurs from entering the sector.
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: Although the Interim Budget announcement supporting affordable housing was welcomed by the real estate industry, the segment has a long way ahead as yet. To begin with, there is considerable supply shortage in this arena—pegged at 18.78 million for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012–2017) by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Ministry (HUPA), of which 96% is in the EWS and LIG categories. Housing shortage for the EWS stands at almost 11 million homes, while that for LIG stands at 7.41 million homes.
Track2Realty Exclusive: 2014 is the year when, to some extent, not only the real estate market but the economy as a whole will have the impact of being in an election year. This is because real estate gets affected as approvals get delayed during this time. A couple of months before even the State elections, slowdown in deals happens on which new approvals are pending.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Property markets across the country have shoot up in capital and rental values in tandem with the infrastructure development. Infrastructure development and better connectivity are two key elements behind property prices going up. Navi Mumbai, however, presents a different picture with arguably the best infrastructure development and connectivity in Mumbai.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Noida has defied the conventional wisdom of economics of late, thanks to the new found interest of the multinational corporations (MNCs) and the NRIs. This is due to the fact that the investment pattern of these two demand drivers have so far been guided by the conventional wisdom of economics that suggests to put money in a relatively mature market, and that too when the macro economic outlook is bright and the sentiments bullish.
Track2Realty: During 1Q 2014, commercial leasing in eight major cities recorded at around 8 MN SF including 1.7 million sq ft pre commitment from large corporates for future expansion. Cities like Bangalore, Delhi, Gurgaon and Kolkata witnessed increase absorption on qoq basis. Bangalore and NCR topped the chart contributing 75% in the total absorption. Bengaluru witnessed the highest absorption to the tune of 3.8 million sq ft followed by 2.3 million sq ft in NCR. IT/ITeS topped the charts and remained the primary demand driver IT/ITeS followed by Engineering and BFSI sectors.
Track2Realty Exclusive: While the infrastructure of Pune has been comparably better than many urban centres across the country, there is no denying the fact that the kind of urbanisation and migration that is happening in the city the load on the infrastructure is increasingly getting heavy. Moreover, since most of the infrastructure has been created by the private developers in the city of late; hence there has been uneven growth of infrastructure across the city.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Elections are part of a vibrant democracy. And like everyone else who is part of this democratic system, the developer community also pins hope on the upcoming elections. We are, in fact, watching all development with bated breath. We will keenly follow the five Assembly elections to be followed by the general elections of 2014 without any bias and in a totally unattached manner with no political affiliations whatsoever.