Track2Realty: The investment vehicle called REITs is once again in the news, and the Indian real estate sector eagerly anticipates this internationally tried and tested platform for smaller investors to invest in larger real estate portfolios.
Track2Realty: The government’s announcement of easier FDI norms for the construction sector has generated a lot of excitement among the country’s real estate players – and justifiably so. The fact that 100% FDI will now be allowed under automatic route to invest in completed assets along with relaxation of other norms is expected to increase FDI inflows significantly.
Track2Realty: Sentiment around Indian real estate among both domestic and international investors has improved in recent times, following the election of a new government and also on account of an upturn in consumer demand, says theEmerging Trends in Real Estate® Asia Pacific 2015 report, published jointly by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
Track2Realty: The answer to the question whether it is preferable to invest in a flat or in a plot of land depends on many factors, including the maturity of the investor. The investor’s overall objectives, ability to leverage, risk appetite and period of time he is able to hold on to the property before selling it again must be considered.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Affordable housing has always been a wishful thought in Mumbai real estate and the call for the same has been reignited post the Government of India calling for a vision document to ensure houses for all by 2022. However, Mumbai is not like the rest of the country and the sky high land prices due to unavailability of developable and licensable land calls for a rethink over what precisely is feasible to create affordable housing stock in the city.
Track2Realty Exclusive: The increasing shift of corporate focus towards Noida has been a matter of both research and speculation in the region. While the critics would like to point out that the shift of the Indian business community and the Multi National Companies (MNCs) have been more due to recent economic slowdown that made the scale of economy unviable in the high rental destinations like Gurgaon, the optimists within the built environment would prefer to look at the traction points of the city.
Track2Realty-Agencies: News Corp has acquired a major stake in an Indian digital real estate company, continuing the company’s aggressive expansion into attractive early stage markets around the world.
Track2Realty: The completion of several large transactions—including a couple of deals worth overUS$ 500 million each—pushed up the total real estate investment volume in the Asia Pacific region in the June–September period to US$ 35 billion, a quarter-on-quarter increase of about 40% (as per the CBRE APAC Capital Markets MarketView Q3 2014 report).
Track2Realty: The daily papers are replete with complaints by buyers who had been led astray or otherwise victimized by fly-by-night developers who specialize in launching small one-off projects and then wash their hands off the project. In a market environment where the exists a high degree of customer awareness with regards to most products, how can this continue to happen?
Track2Realty Exclusive: While the real estate market in the metro cities have been flirting around with the NRIs to woo them with big-ticket investments, the discerning expat Indians had some other ideas. The destination to those desirable ideas was definitely not leading them to metro cities. So, at a time when the spate of luxury and super luxury launches were put on offer, the match makers of pricey dollars preferred to court the humble markets where the modest rupee was well grounded not to flaunt with pomp and show.