Tata Realty Initiatives Fund-I, managed by Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd, has bought over Kotak India Real Estate Fund-I, a $100 million (Rs.450 crore) fund managed by Kotak Realty Fund in Peepul Tree Properties Pvt. Ltd for Rs.385 crore.
With only $400-500 million of foreign funds flowed into the Indian real estate sector in 2009-10, the outlook ahead seems to be far from being rosy.
At least four firms, Ansal Properties and Infrastructure Ltd (Ansal API), Emaar MGF Land Ltd, Kumar Urban Development Ltd and Paranjape Schemes Constructions Ltd, have received fresh sanctions from banks, although overall lending to the sector remains subdued.
Real Estate developers across the country have termed the Union Budget 2011-12 as a tie cricket match which can’t be termed as won or lost. However, they are all unanimous that it is not a game changer budget for the sector.
It would seem that the Union Budget 2011 pointedly ignored the larger issues affecting the Indian real estate sector at this sensitive stage of revival and growth.
The unfulfilled demand of more than 24 million houses in the country needs large scale impetus to achieve desired results. Allowing deduction for investment into affordable housing is a welcome step and will surely boost morale of housing industry and will accelerate investments in affordable housing.
Real Estate may boast off to be the second largest economic activity and the largest employment provider in the economy, but when it comes to have a say in the policy making, they are found to be sulking.
Reforms in the real estate sector is the need of the hour for tackling issues like high stamp duty which often results in otherwise honest people having to deal in black money, according to the Economic Survey 2010-11 tabled by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the Lok Sabha on Friday.
Even as Lower Parel and BKC vie with each other for pre-eminence as Mumbai’s commercial real estate hotspots, Dadar – Mumbai’s oldest and most established locations – stands in a class uniquely its own by virtue of its extremely favourable geographical placement and connectivity. For this reason – and for all practical purposes – Dadar is the heart of Mumbai.
In a change of stance, the state home department has decided to look into its own move to shift out the Yerawada police station on the Pune-Ahmednagar road and allow commercial exploitation of the three-acre plot on which it stands.