Commercial Property Rentals Rising

Commercial Property rentals in Tier-1 cities are still rising due to the Retail India boom. Here is a result of our survey.

New Delhi Commercial Business District and Connaught Place,
Grade - A property, Rs 250 / sft / month
Grade - B property Rs 150 / sft / month

Mumbai Commercial District
Grade - A property, Rs 335 / sft / month
Grade - B property, Rs 245 / sft /month

Bangalore Central Business District
Grade - A property, Rs 68 / sft / month
Grade -B property, Rs 45 /sft /month

High Court -Probe Karnatka Government Land Scam

The High Court of Karnataka just a while ago announced that a high level inquiry by Lokayukta must be conducted on how Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board encroached 18,000 acres of land in and around Bangalore city. Modus Operandi - Several vested interest politicians used KIADB as government's face to acquire land and hand them over to private companies including real estate developers.

It is well known fact that companies like Infosys used KIADB and acquired vast stretches of land at prices far lower than what was prevailing in the market. Read about Naryana Murthy's hunger for real estate. The High Court of Karnataka has stopped all land acquistions until further notice stating that land was acquired by pressure and forceful tactics. It reminds me of my history classes on how India had lost its independence to British. The same thing is happening now - Global Corporations are grabbing land in India as if their is no tomorrow.

Also, the Government of Karnataka headed by H D Kumarswamy is planning to SELL part of the land acquired from farmers for the construction of Bangalore International Airport to private developers. [Some Real Estate companies backed by Politicians will Grab those stretches of Lands]

Tags: Real Estate Scam, Bangalore Real Estate Scam, India Scam, India Real Estate

Delhi Master Plan for Housing

The Master Plan for Delhi ( MPD ) 2021 proposed the development of housing through co-operatives and the private sector. Nearly 75,000 Dwelling Units per annum in different income categories would have to be developed in the Urban Extensions.

According to the Master Plan, about 40 percent of the housing need can potentially be satisfied through redevelopment and up-gradation of existing areas of Delhi and the remaining 60 percent can be met in new areas to be developed as urban extensions.

The MPD 2021 also proposes the involvement of private sector in land assembly and housing development in order to promote housing activities. The estimated population of Delhi would be in the range of 220 to 230 lakh in the year 2021, and an additional 24-lakh dwelling units (DUs) would be needed to meet the housing requirement. This includes 20 lakh DUs for additional population and backlog of about four lakh units comprising of one lakh net shortage and the rest for replacement of dilapidated and kutcha structures.

Omaxe introduces Beauty, Wedding, Automobile Specialized Malls

Omaxe Developers, CEO who figured in our coverage of India's Richest LandLords, has come up with a unique concept of specialized malls to encourage targeted retailing.

In a specialized mall, the walk-in sales are as high as 70% compared to mere 12% in regular malls.

planner. Next in line is the Beauty and Omaxe will open a Wedding mall which has stores that stock from Mehandi, Teeka, Pundits, Pooja Items to your HoneyMoonHealth care mall coming up in Gurgaon.

Apart from these ventures, Omaxe is setting up two more malls one to cater to Automobile vertical and the other will house retailers who will exclusively sell Office and Home interiors. Others are planning exclusive malls for the Indian women which will house Jewellery, Sarees and Health Club for Women.

Tags: India Malls, Retail India, Wedding Mall, HealthCare Malls

Rising Rates - Droping Realty Stocks

The increase in CRR by RBI has severely hit the Realty Stocks listed on BSE. Most realty stocks have crashed by over 10% in just two trading sessions. These stocks have already drpped by 50% from their yearly Highs in Jan-2007.

Home Loans have got expensive while Realtors are still arrogant about home prices. Industry insiders claim that many big ticket deals that have happened in the past couple of months will see their construction projects becoming unviable and finally going bankrupt.

Home Loans will become more expensive as the 1% cess on Housing finance companies (HFCs) and commercial banks of their annual incremental home loans will be effective from April;-1st 2007.
The 1% cess is contributed to a new “safety fund” proposed to be created under the National Housing and Habitat Policy. Major banks and HFCs will pass this cess to consumers in order to protect their bottomline.

Ansals Ready with Rs 200 Crore for BuyOuts

In Feburary-2007, we had predicted a shakeout in the real estate sector. Just a while ago, India's Second Largest properties Developer, Ansal Properties and Infrastructures [APIL] has announced that it is sitting with Rs 200 crore cash to BUY-OUT weaker players who are about to default.

Mr. Anil Kumar, CEO of APIL said,

The market is slowing down and funds from banks are not easily available.Some of them would like to exit. The acquisitions are likely to be in the same places where the company operates: Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and National Capital Region. The company might also consider other financial arrangements with distressed companies. Ansals, for example, could build a project on a company’s land, and then return a portion of it to the company.

Sujit Jain, a real estate analyst at PINC Research in Mumbai, said

Many smaller companies paid high prices in land auctions and were unable to make projects viable. Now it makes sense for large developers to sweep in and acquire the distressed companies’ land banks. Instead of going out and buying plots at high prices, why not go and buy companies who have already built up land banks. These people (promoters of smaller firms) will look to liquidate and take out as much money as possible.

Big Bull, Rakesh Jhunjunwala laughed off when Niranjan Hiranandani said that Real Estate was an attractive investment option. Rakesh pointed out how he bought his Nariman Point office from a distressed seller at Rs 10,000 / SFT the latter having bought at Rs 14,000 / SFT during the boom, a decade ago.

Naryana Murthy's Hypocrisy

Infosys Technologies, Chief Mentor, N. R. Naryana Murthy is an honourable man. Unlike his Redmond counterpart, BillG, Murthy was never the Chief Software Architect of Infosys. However, looking at various Infosys' campus in Pune and Mysore, I doubt if Murthy is a civil architect. J/K. The Mysore campus is a MasterPiece :-) Is it Murthy's creation ?

Lately, Naryan Murthy commented on the Kill*ngs @ Nandigram. Murthy said,

I agree that we cannot take land from farmers. The earlier policy where individual companies were building their own campuses was a good one.

Wait a Minute. Is Murthy saying this ? But Infosys under murthy had acquired wet farm lands in Bellandur. Modus Operandi, Infosys used the Karntaka Government's, KIADB to acquire land from farmers at mere Rs 900,000 when the ruling prices were between
Rs 4,000,000 and Rs 15,000,000 at Bellandur. The Rediff article has an in depth study about Murthy's Hunger for Land :-)

Tags: Infosys,Naryana Murthy,Real Estate India, Scam

Life for Land - Bengal's Way of Industrialization

The communist ruled state of West Bengal witnessed violence and blood shed in Nandigram - Site for the proposed Salim Group SEZ.

Farm land owners had opposed handing over their land to the SEZ project because the government doesn't have any alternative rehabilitation program nor does it care to compensate them with enough money. Adding to their woes is the rampant corruption.

Angry farmers protested the forcible entry of State Police in Nandigram when the Di*K Head state CM, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee ordered firing at protesting farmers. 30 innocent lives have been claimed so far [State's Official media is not accepting this fact and is only claiming 19, everybody knows how it is in India] and 100s battling for life in poorly equipped village hospitals. The video @ Nandigram remind me of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre when Son of a Bit*h, Headless General Reginald Dyre ordered firing on the gathered mass and within 10 minutes 1,000 people were de*d.

The Governor of Bengal is a mere spectator and all the human rights and other activists are gone with the wind. The Land and Natural Resources of the State belong to its people. You can't kick them out just because they can't protect themselves. Are we really in Democratic India ? The President of India should immediately suspend the Communist government and take the State affairs in his hands. Communists, are a THREAT to Democracy in India.

Tags: India, Bengal, Salim Group, India SEZ, Communist, India Real Estate