Track2Realty: 2013 was one of much economic turbulence. High retail inflation, high interest rates and a continuous fall in the rupee value, have been slowing the overall growth and have continuously hindered the investment sentiment in the market during the entire 2013.
Track2Realty Exclusive: A great challenge in real estate branding is the local versus national market. 90 per cent of the realty brands have local presence and not pan India. Most of the projects are linked locally like Prestige with Bangalore or DLF with Gurgaon.
Track2Realty: India continued to feature on the list of the world’s most expensive office markets, with New Delhi (Connaught Place – CBD) ranking at the 7th position, according to CBRE Global Research and Consulting’s semi-annual Prime Office Occupancy Costs survey. Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) bagged the 15th position, while Nariman Point stood at the 32nd position. The latest CBRE survey provides data on office rents and occupancy costs as of September 2013.
Track2Realty: Total net office space absorption recorded a 25% decline in across top eight cities over last year. According to the annual year end estimations by Cushman & Wakefield the total net absorption for 2013 was recorded at 23 million square feet (msf). Most cities have witnessed a decline in net absorption in the range of 20-40% during the year, except Pune where incremental new space take-up increased by 15% in 2013.
Track2Realty: There are still significant investment opportunities left in India’s real estate market. For investors looking at cost-effective projects to park their funds, this might be a right time as weak market sentiments are likely to lead to weak valuations, providing windows for investing in quality projects.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune…wait India has just discovered yet another claimant as the ‘Luxury Capital’. The City of Ahmedabad known more for its cost conscious living and affordable housing has been witness to the city’s slow but steady rise to the luxury living with developers’ focus shifting on luxury projects, buyers’ looking up to scale their living and luxury brands flocking to the city.
Track2Realty: Launch of new homes dropped by 12 per cent to over 1.72 lakh units so far during this calendar year in the eight major cities due to cautious approach by developers in view of slowdown in demand, according to global property consultant Cushman & Wakefield.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Media perception is not much different than public perception in developing brand. It depends on how media plays down. 50 per cent of the media is honest in promoting actual brand worthiness but few media also carries planted articles or on the contrary, prevents negative articles in exchange of media barter deals.
Track2Realty Exclusive: It is relatively easier to plan a real estate project’s brand positioning in the high-end category where overboard advertising creates the top-of-the-mind recall value. Though many carry home the perception that branding is about ATL (Above the Line) activities for premium projects; fact of the matter is that branding at the bottom of the pyramid is even more challenging.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Gujarat real estate has seen phenomenal growth in the last over a decade and property markets of Ahmedabad and Vadodara are among the most sought after hot spots. The growth story, however, would be incomplete without understanding the stress level of the sector which weathers multiple challenges to perform, with approvals being the biggest challenge.