US billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump is finally making a serious move to transform the skyline of India’s financial capital, Mumbai. Trump is now planning to develop a super luxury 60-storey tall “condo” in south Mumbai. The Trump Tower is expected to be launched next month and is believed to have 45 flats across 60 floors, most of which will have one flat for every floor.
Real estate developers have called for focussed support in the Budget for the first-time home buyer and measures to augment supply of housing for affordable and low income groups. Industry representatives have also called for a simplification of systems and tax reliefs as a step to bringing down costs and catalyse developments.
I would say I am relatively dissatisfied with the focus of budget on realty sector in the last ten years. Our expectations have never been fulfilled and I now demand investments in infrastructure sector should be set as a priority, as good infrastructure is very necessary for the economic growth of the country.
The Reserve Bank of India has asked banks to put in place an escrow mechanism that can ring fence their loans to real estate firms and keep a closer tab on the end use of funds. The RBI has been looking to tighten the lending norms for the real estate sector after last year’s bribery-for-loan scam. The scandal also exposed several unethical practices, such as diversion of funds.
Century Real Estate Holdings, the realty development arm of three-decade old Bangalore-based Century Group, is looking to raise Rs 700 crore through private equity players in three tranches. The company during the past four years have been focusing on development of projects, is understood to be effecting this deal at the holding company level.
Vigneshwara Developers is developing a ten-acre business-cum-technology park for the Haryana State Industrial & Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) within the 150-acre technology corridor at Manesar in Gurgaon.
Atul Modak, City Head of Kohinoor Group of companies says they are bullish on the Mumbai realty market and have a couple of residential and commercial launches coming up this year. In an interview with Ravi Sinha, he wondered that in a market where input costs are going sky high, how can the market go downwards?
While some reports have predicted correction in Mumbai realty market, Babulal Varma, Managing Director of Omkar Realtors & Developers assert that rising demand and low availability of ready-inventory will make Mumbai the most sought-after property market in 2011.
Through a hailstorm of bouquets, brickbats, controversies and triumphs, the Indian real estate sector has always been one of the mainstays of the country’s economy. At some level, every Indian is connected with it; in some way or the other, it affects every citizen of this country.
The housing and real estate sector in India witnessed foreign direct investment (FDI) of $2.8 billion in the fiscal year (April-March) 2009-10, according to Indian Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion. The statistics made available to the media at the India Home property exhibition, which concluded in Dubai on Sunday, revealed that total NRI FDI inflows through the period April-December 2009-10 stood at $320.05 million.