Track2Realty-Agencies: West Bengal did not receive any investment, either foreign or domestic, in the real estate sector in the financial year 2012-13, according to a report by industry body ASSOCHAM.
Track2Realty Exclusive: While the real estate fraternity, legal experts and others had strongly questioned the basis of the CCI order and the enormous penalty of Rs 630-crore levied on the real estate major, the sector itself eventually approached the CCI through its industry associations against the cement cartel. Acting on the sector representatives’ complaints, the CCI imposed a penalty of Rs. 6, 307 crore on 11 cement companies for cartelisation.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Consumer rights advocate Lakhendra Singh is even more forthright when he says if CCI has to establish its credibility in the collective conscience; it must make its economic analysis more scientific and full-proof. There can’t be different parameters of defining relevant geographic market and product category for different real estate companies. According to him, CCI instead of being seen as an anti-monopoly watchdog and inspiring confidence has, of late, been in the news for consumer activism.
Track2Realty Exclusive: When the Competition Commission of India (CCI) alleged that DLF misused its dominant market position and imposed unfair conditions on home-buyers at two of its many projects, the real estate fraternity, legal experts and others strongly questioned the basis of the CCI order and the enormous penalty of Rs 630 crore levied on the real estate major. However, within a year the real estate sector itself approached the CCI through its associations against the cement cartel, and got them nailed as well. Consumers too are approaching repeatedly the anti-monopoly body. Track2Realty wonders whether the CCI has become the new regulator in the sector by default.
Track2Realty: Omkar Realtors & Developers, one of the leading players in making the slum redevelopment a success story in Mumbai believes slum projects are generally feasible in Metro Cities and more particularly in Mumbai. Shifting focus on Slum Rehabilitation for ECB will really help the sector.
Track2Realty: It has been a marginal rate cut that may not have any significant affect on the fortunes of the economy in general and real estate in particular. However, the sector believes it still goes a long way in improving the sentiments of the market by and large. On Friday, May 3, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut its policy interest rate by 25 basis points, for the third time since January as growth slows and inflation ebbs. RBI says there is little room to ease monetary policy further.
Track2Realty Exclusive: The Umeda Exit of the Ikeda Route of the Hanshin Expressway system passes through this building. The expressway is the tenant of these floors. The elevator doesn’t stop on floor 5th-7th; floor 4 being followed by floor 8. These floors consist of elevators, stairways, machinery and other stuff.
Track2Realty: When the Reserve Bank of India made the announcement of allowing External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) in affordable housing, including slum redevelopment, there was an optimism and euphoria that cheaper money coming into the much-needed segment of real estate would redefine the property market in general and in the process help the country meet the housing shortage.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Realtors rue that in spite of all the scrutiny, even today realty does not have the right formula. The issue is not to go public or whether the people who have already gone public are right or wrong. The issue now is if while going public, there is a solution where the actual value is derived on the basis of how other industries value themselves? Only then it makes financial sense to go public as the sector has seen successful IPOs also.
Track2Realty Exclusive: The realty market has been pretty exposed to the greedy investors and vulture funding, not venture funding. In desperation the developers often lost track of what kind of funding was required and met with the disaster. Amidst the cyclic very high and very low there has been off balance debt-equity ratio as well. Of late, some developers tried within the box and some outside it. The needs and solutions are different for listed and unlisted companies. Still the sector is in search of right funding mechanism and as Track2Realty finds, are guinea pigs in the funding market.