Ever since I got into the hitherto-untouched & challenging business of brand rating of Indian real estate developers, I only get the reactions in extreme, depending upon whether the developer has been rated high or low. After all, every builder is a God’s gift to the world of brand, as per his own make-belief metrics.
RICS will continue to offer thought leadership, engaging with policymakers, end-users, service providers, employers and practitioners to foster trust in the built environment through enforced standards, transparency and accountability.
There is also a third set of buyers who buy properties in the second home locations as their first home. They are the buyers who look for locations that would be first home location in the next few years. Of course, the budget constraints force them to look for low-cost housing. Analysts believe this third set of buyers can not be classified as the second home buyers.
Competing against DLF, the company won the auction and soon made plans to construct a grant 18-hole golf course surrounded by luxury apartments and villas, to be marketed as the plush “Unitech Golf and Country Club”. Flashy advertisements were immediately published and huge booking amounts were collected from aspiring buyers who looking forward to their dream homes in the project.
This may not be music to the ears of the developers who are hoping against the hope that the recent policy changes & reforms would bring the homebuyers back to the market. But the ground reality is that for a vast majority of the Indian homebuyers the measures like demonetization, GST, RERA or Benami Transaction Act are more for academic discussions than making any tangible changes for them on ground.
The first quarter of 2018 has started on a positive note with a 23% YoY increase in the gross office take-up in India. As per Colliers International, approximately 11.4 million sq ft (1.02 million sq m) of gross absorption was recorded in Q1 2018.
RERA is one year old now and already the homebuyers are questioning the legislation, in the absence of any visible changes on the ground. The developers, on the contrary, feel RERA has already identified the challenges and hit the nail. Within the built environment the debate is inconclusive as to what extent RERA has brought in transparency and accountability and to what extent has it enhanced homebuyer confidence.
In a fresh controversy, the homebuyers of Supertech Ecociti at Sector 137, Noida Expressway are taking to streets after being robbed by the builder of what is as basic service as the potable water. The developer has collected the money from the homebuyers of the housing society for the supply of Ganga water and not deposited the same to the Noida Authority.
For a large expat workforce that depends on the rental houses across the cities, the quest has always been to find a house where the rental prices are not high. Though the rental values might seem to be undervalued in the Indian context due to higher capital values, the fact is that when compared to affordability and median income of the cities, the rental values are mostly exorbitant. This is more true in the context of the top 10 cities being the job magnet.
The uncertainty regarding the continuity of fiscal incentives is an area of growing concern among various stakeholders of Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Although, more than 40.0 million sq ft of new supply is scheduled for completion by 2020, which is currently mandatory to qualify for the companies to get income tax benefits in SEZs, it seems unlikely for all the projects to complete construction by then.