The 2009 Mr. Salim committee report (parliamentary standing committee on housing) lays great emphasis on accelerating housing supply through increasing housing stock and promoting rental housing. It also refers to 24 million home shortage which will soon be 27 Million and ever increasing.
India is today facing a unique challenge of dealing with high inflation, while continuing on its high growth trajectory. Boosting of supply in all industries, including through incentivizing of infrastructure development, streamlining of regulatory process to reduce time and costs for business and tax incentives for low cost housing are all important areas which will help reduce inflation and also enable growth rates to be maintained.
Value and Affordable housing remains a segment where government should definitely continue to provide developers with tax free status which was available earlier. Rather than restricting it to unit sizes as in the past of 1,000 / 1,500 sft per housing unit, the government could instead have a maximum per unit value of say Rs. 15 lakhs for units near Tier I Cities, Rs. 10 lakhs for Tier II Cities.
Chicago-based Vestian Global Workplace Services, an integrated real estate services provider has announced to invest Rs 1,500 crore in India and China over the next 18 months. The company, which raised the fund from global investors, said about 70 per cent of the proposed investment was earmarked for the Indian market.
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.
New research from Jones Lang LaSalle reveals that positive business sentiment and solid corporate hiring are buoying leasing demand in the office markets of Asia Pacific. In 2010, aggregate net take-up across major Tier I markets was more than double the level of the previous year.
Bharti-Walmart, a 50:50 joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and US-based Walmart, has roped in real estate company, Ansal API, to set up its cash-and-carry store in Lucknow.The ‘Best Price Modern Wholesale’ store in Lucknow will be spread over 60,000 sq feet in Sushant Golf City, a high-tech residential township being developed by the Ansals.
It seems the revival in the realty market has once again started attracting big ticket investments in the sector and even the corporate in the allied business want to reap the benefits. Nitco Ltd, known for flooring and interior aesthetics solutions provider, has now marked its foray in the real estate sector with the inauguration of its first commercial project- Nitco Biz Park.
While the realty sector is cribbing for under representation in budget for the last few years, Atul Modak, Head of Mumbai-based Kohinoor City goes a step further to say realty sector not only gets under represented but also it is treated with a bias. He asserts that instead of seeing it as one of the sector responsible for growth of the economy, it is looked with a bias and taxed accordingly. In an interview with Ravi Sinha, he shares his budget wish list and concerns for the sector.
Gone are the days when we were chained to our desk from 9 to 5. How we work is changing. The idea of a “Third Place,” a space that’s neither home nor office but where people want to spend a portion of their lives, was introduced as far back as 1989 in Ray Oldenburg’s book “The Great Good Place.” Today, thanks to the advent of wireless technology, the concept has evolved from being merely from a civic or entertainment space and now also applies to a flexible work space for mobile employees.