Gurgaon Property News, Gurgaon Apartments, Dlf Gurgaon Builders

After a year which has seen sustained momentum in property prices, 2011 is likely to be a challenging one for realty developers. Mumbai, the country’s financial capital, is expected to lead a fall in property prices owing to buyers’ resistance to higher prices, rising interest rates, tightening of credit to developers and excess supply. A fall in the number of transactions that started in October is now likely to be now followed by a cut of around 15% in Mumbai residential prices next year.

After gaining nearly 40% in the last one year, realty prices in Mumbai have already surpassed their last peak seen in 2007. But, interest rates that have started moving higher are impacting affordability and delaying decision making, and all of this is not allowing demand to get converted into sales since last two quarters.

“Last two months have seen interest in Mumbai and Gurgaon realty markets easing sharply. Next year one can expect 10-15 % fall in realty rates. Most of this correction is likely to take place between April-September ,” said Kaustuv Roy, executive director of realty services firm Cushman & Wakefield. The cash flow of realtors that is getting affected by this fall in sales volume and a crunch in the supply of credit following the recent bribery-for-loan scam may force some builders to offload their inventory in the market at negotiated price, experts said.

“Banks are not going to be sympathetic about loans (to developers), IPOs are not a good idea as of now, sales are not taking place, where does one get the required funds from? Ultimately, developers will have to offload their inventory at lower prices,” said Pranay Vakil, chairman, Knight Frank India. He expects realty prices to ease around 15% in next three months. However, he refused to take a call on likely scenario for the entire year.

In November, the stamp duty and registration offices across Mumbai recorded around 16,000 transactions , which is nearly half of the volume registered a year ago. Most of these registrations are for lease and rent agreements and not for buying and selling property, said an officer at Sub Registrar and Administration office for Mumbai division.
“If the stock market continues to rise and attract significant FII money, some of it may find its way into realty indirectly and prices may get some support ,” Vakil said.

In 2010, foreign institutional investors invested $29 billion into Indian equities against an earlier peak of $17 billion in 2007. “Some loans of developers that were rescheduled by banks two years ago are expected to come up for repayment around March. Sales are not showing any signs of improvement , and these loans are unlikely to be rescheduled again,” said a realty analyst with a foreign brokerage noting that realtors are likely to be pressured to sell product at lower rate.

Cushman & Wakefield also notes in its latest report that despite the buoyant demand and strengthening economic sentiments, prices are expected to fall in many parts of Mumbai, especially Central, North and Far-North Mumbai owing to large upcoming supply. It expects rental values also to be under downward pressure owing to upcoming supply in most markets.

Roy of Cushman & Wakefield counted mature markets such as Gurgaon and Mumbai in his list of markets that may witness correction in 2011, while expecting cities in south India to appreciate in the next year. “Southern India is likely to remain a stable market as the prices here are still affordable and have not moved significantly higher. Demand is genuine and less speculative, while supply remains at decent level,” Roy said.-source-http://www.indianrealtynews.com/real-estate-india/property-correction-expected-in-mumbai-and-gurgaon.html

The debate over whether to relax FDI norms in the Indian retail sector gained momentum in 2010, a year which also saw many retailers resume their expansion activities after the global downturn of 2008-09. The key question in front of India’s $435 billion retail sector was whether the multi-brand retail sector should be opened up to foreign direct investment and if so, to what extent?

The year saw the government take up the issue with all seriousness when the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) came out with a discussion paper seeking the opinions of all stakeholders. Later on, the government formed an inter-ministerial panel to pursue the matter further and is understood to have completed the consultation process with all stakeholders.

While the discussions were going on, the sector saw the return of good times, recovering from two years of slowdown. An upsurge in consumer demand helped stabilise the sector, especially in modern retail, which found its feet. Having learnt lessons from the slowdown, a significant realignment of business helped most retailers register double-digit growth rates in 2010, which helped in acceleration of store additions. In the previous year, most retailers saw low single-digit growth.

“2010 has been a comeback year for the retail sector, especially during the festive season. Retailers saw healthy sales as compared to earlier years. Consumers are coming back to the stores and feel secure while spending money,” Future Group Chairman Kishore Biyani said. At the same time, the traditional retail sector saw a growth of about 7-10 per cent in 2010 as per various industry estimates.

“Same store growth for most retailers has been in the range of 15-20 per cent. Big retailers have done really well after realigning their businesses in the last two years,” Ernst & Young partner for retail and consumer product service Pinakiranjan Mishra said.

Companies, including Reliance Retail , Shoppers Stop, Hypercity, RPG Enterprises’ Spencer’s Retail, Bharti Retail , Aditya Birla Retail, Marks and Spencer Reliance India, Bharti Walmart and Pantaloon Retail opened new stores across India and drew up aggressive expansion plans on the back of good growth in sales. “Retailers have plans to expand their retail space by 50-80 per cent over the coming 24 months,” according to a report by brokerage firm Motilal Oswal.

It was, however, not song and dance all the way for the sector. Some big names bit the dust during the year, reinforcing the fact that running a retail chain is not everybody’s cup of tea. Beleaguered Vishal Retail was forced to sell its business to Chennai-based business conglomorate Shriram Group and private equity fund Texas Pacific Group for Rs 100 crore, subject to clearance from the Delhi High Court. Indiabulls, which had entered the retail sector in 2007 through the acquisition of Piramyd Retail, later closed many stores during the downturn and froze expansions after finding that even after rebranding its stores as ‘Happy Store’, happiness was hard to come by. source-http://www.indianrealtynews.com/real-estate-india/fdi-in-multi-brand-retail-sector-still-in-question.html

The foreign direct investment flows (FDI) into developing countries including India, is expected to recover over the next couple of years and is projected to increase by 17 per cent in 2010, a World Bank report said. The report — World Investment and Political Risk — which was launched by the World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) said the net FDI inflows into the developing countries is projected to touch $416 billion in 2010, up from its 2009 level of $354 billion.

Overall, FDI inflows to the developing world continues to be “overwhelmingly” concentrated in middle-income countries, with Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, and China (BRIC) alone absorbing about half, the report said. Net private flows (which include FDI and portfolio equity flows, as well as debt from private creditors) are projected to rebound in 2010 and 2011, but to remain substantially lower than their $1.2 trillion peak in 2007.

FDI prospects appear brighter for developing countries in 2010 and beyond: their economic performance is expected to outpace that of high-income economies as their domestic demand is buoyant, the report said.

“This upsurge in FDI into developing countries is welcome news, especially considering last year’s drop,” MIGA Executive Vice President Izumi Kobayashi said. FDI into developing countries declined by 40 per cent last year. Kobayashi noted that “FDI flows directed to productive assets can spur economic growth and reduce poverty.”

FDI can help generate and sustain economic growth and development by providing much-needed financial resources, technology transfer, managerial expertise, and connections to the global economy, the report said. “Economic growth is critical for all of us around the globe but it is even more so for underserved markets — those economies that have been struggling under the very heavy burden of conflict and instability,” Kobayashi added.

The MIGA report said executives from multinational companies across the world believe that despite the various problems being faced by the developing world, such as lack of finance and quality of infrastructure, the biggest worry is “political risk”. The top worry of multinational executives when operating in developing countries over the next three years is political risk, and a fifth of the investors surveyed use political risk insurance to mitigate this risk.

The report, which also focuses on FDI into conflict affected and fragile economies, said investors there are mainly concerned about adverse government intervention rather than overt political violence as adverse changes are often responsible for losses in these destinations.source-http://www.nrirealtynews.com/news/dec10/world-bank-projects-17-growth-in-fdi-inflows-into-developing-countries.php

ASK Property Investment Advisors, part of the Mumbai-based ASK group, will raise Rs 1,000 crore from high networth individuals and family trusts to invest in residential properties. The ASK Real Estate Special Opportunities Fund planned to raise Rs 500 crore by February 2011 and the remaining in two-three months after that, said Sunil Rohokale, executive director, ASK Investment Advisors. “This is the right time to identify and invest in projects of right developers,” says Rohokale, who was earlier with ICICI Home Finance as managing director.

Fund managers such as ASK, ICICI Venture and others are raising money from domestic investors at a time when commercial banks, especially public sector ones, are tightening lending to property developers after RBI’s new norms to curb speculation in the sector and the bribe-for-loan scam. The new fund launches have also made the market competitive as fund managers are tapping the same sources, some fund managers say.

“There is competition and investors have to make a decision whom to back,” Sanjeev Dasgupta, president, real estate, ICICI Venture, said at an earlier interview. ICICI Venture is in the market to raise Rs 1,000 crore from domestic institutions. “Money from outside is finding it difficult to enter India. But a lot of NRI, HNI and family trusts are looking at investing in Indian real estate,” said Ambar Maheshwari, head, investment advisory at DTZ, a global property consultant. Last year, ASK raised Rs 326 crore from the domestic market and invested over 70 per cent of it in four housing projects. Source-http://www.indianrealtynews.com/real-estate-india/ask-group-to-raise-100-crore-for-investment-in-residential-properties.html

With metro cities already bustling with over-population, the focus of real estate developers and urban planners has now shifted towards developing the satellite towns on the periphery of bigger cities. However the biggest bottleneck in popularizing new townships in the peripheral regions is the lack of proper connectivity. As the real estate sector is finally coming on the fast track, connectivity remains the major concern.

Giving an overview of the sprawling urban areas in different parts of the country at the Economic Times Realty Convention 2010, Kumari Selja, Minister, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation said, “Almost all the major towns and cities have expanded along the highways connecting cities in regions for example Delhi-Jaipur , Delhi-Meerut , Mumbai-Ahmadabad , and so many others throughout the country.

There are also many industrial hubs and small settlements along these corridors. These could be developed into small and medium size satellite townships with the major city acting as a hub. But fro this appropriate urban planning is required . An important aspect of urban planning would be a well planned transport system . Mass Rapid Transit systems and metro will perhaps lead to the decongestion of existing towns.”

The need of the hour is to plan region specific transport policies and link them to the overall transport related initiatives of the Government of India. Even the Union Minister , Ministry of Urban Development, Jaipal Reddy expressed similar views. He said “Apart from land, the other important issue for building new cities is of transportation. No land development should be allowed to take place unless it is a part of the larger plan of transportation. Public transportation should be the major areas of focus.”

In the recent past several steps have been taken to introduce well-planned mega infrastructure projects in different parts of the country. Emphasis is being laid for the development of metro networks and high capacity bus systems. Plans have been introduced for the development of NH-1 , NH-2 , NH-8 , NH-24 , NH-58 i.e. Chandigarh highway, Faridabad- Palwal link, Gurgaon- Manesar highway, Hapur link and Meerut highway respectively. Also in process is DMIC- Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor- A dedicated freight corridor between Delhi and Mumbai, covering an overall length of 1483 km and passing through the states of UP, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

The proposed high speed connectivity between Delhi and Mumbai offers immense opportunities for development of an industrial corridor along the alignment of the connecting infrastructure . Another mega infrastructure project is the 135km long Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway , which will be operational very soon and will transform Kundli into a major logistics and warehousing hub of north India. At the same time, another expressway, Kundli-Ghaziabad ,Noida-Palwal will also be implemented soon. After the completion of this road, Kundli will be directly connected to upcoming township of Noida-Greater Noida.source-http://www.indianrealtynews.com/real-estate-india/developers-focusing-on-towns-located-near-metro-cities-for-real-estate-development.html

National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO), the apex body for real estate and housing sectors under the aegis of Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India, is organizing its 10th National Convention and NAREDCO Realty Exhibition to address the housing requirement of urban India. The convention is aimed at realizing the “Housing for All” call of Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh.

The two-day convention, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, January 8th & 9th, 2011 at The Ashok, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, will be inaugurated by Kumari Selja, Honorable Minister of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation and Tourism, Government of India. The convention will be coupled by a parallel NAREDCO Realty Exhibition with participation of leading real estate developers with projects spread across the country. The exhibition will showcase both low-cost and premium housing options to new home buyers.

“Over 360 million people live in urban India today as against 285.3 million in 2001 with the housing shortage estimated at 26.53 million units (11th Plan, 2007-12). Since economic growth is projected at 8 – 9 percent per annum in the coming 5 years and urban population expected to be 410 million by 2015, there is an urgent need to augment housing and infrastructure shortage. Housing shortage is pre-dominant in the lower income segment which is estimated at 95 percent. This in itself offers an opportunity for massive new housing development particularly in urban areas. The Conference aims to put across all the factors that can bring about a catalytically change in the housing scenario for all,” said Mr. Rohtas Goel, President, NAREDCO.

In the wake of scarcity for low cost housing in the country, the highlight of the convention will be an opportunity to discuss & debate important issues at the highest level with the objective of defining strategies for augmenting housing supply for low, middle & high segments of population including major issues pertaining to affordability of housing with special emphasis on housing for poor. Other issues to be discussed will be, Promoting PPP in Rajiv Awas Yojna, Land availability and policy approach, Rental Housing – Road blocks & solution, Role of private equity and emerging options for housing, Housing finance companies – the challenge, Role of Government, Banking and Micro finance institutions in housing finance for the masses, Innovative materials and technology, Standardization of design for low cost housing, Success stories in affordable housing, Sustainable Urban Development and Sustainable green townships.

According to Brig. (Retd.) R R Singh, Director General, NAREDCO, “The highlight of this convention is a open session on ‘Home Buyers Awareness’ in which eminent legal & financial experts and developers will address the concerns of new home buyers. In the 2 days deliberations spread over 5 sessions the high profile conference will be attended and addressed by eminent speakers from Government, Public and Private sectors, Researchers and distinguished experts from housing finance institutions and industry. Source – http://www.indianrealtynews.com/real-estate-india/naredcos-10th-national-convention-focuses-on-affordable-housing.html

You might be running out of patience while planning to purchase gurgaon property. Sometimes getting the property possession may take 3 to 4 years. To avoid such delay, many opt for buying resale property in gurgaon. But, since you would be buying an already used estate, you would have to go through proper checklistfor buying resale property.

Important Checklist for Buying Resale Property

Check whether the property is included in the government registry or not. Make sure that all the documents related to the registration of the property are available. You may also take help of legal experts to verify the authenticity of the papers.Finding the debt status is an important part of checklist for buying resale property. If the property is under mortgage, then check its debt status and whether it has approvals from authorities or not. Also, ensure that the property tax , water charges, society tax and electricity bills are paid by the previous owner.
Since the property you are buying has already been in use for years, you may further need to invest money to repair all the wear and tear of the
structure. So, plan a budget according to the money you would have to spend in renovation.
The cash component is another important checklist for buying resale property. In India, the sellers force buyers to make the payment mainly in cash.
You are recommended to avoid huge sum of cash payments. The seller insists for cash payment in order to evade tax on the gains of property sell. On the

other hand, if your cash component of the payment increases, you might not receive home lone on the full price you are actually paying. You are recommended to make sure that the building is built according to the plans and layouts approved by authority. The seller should provide you with certificates of completion, occupancy and NOC or No Objection Certificate.

In case the age of your property exceeds more than 10 years, you are recommended to check the quality and the durability of the building. Good quality
building structures are necessary for safe living and would also save you from spending large sums of money on repair and maintenance.

Smart Value Homes, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tata Housing Development Company, has announced the launch of New Haven — a hill township at Vasind in Thane district, Maharashtra. Spread across 33-acres, the new project would offer 1,252 apartments, including 2 BHK and 3 BHK homes starting from Rs 15-30 lakh, according to a company press release.

“With a shortfall of around 26-million dwelling units, there is a lot of untapped demand for quality affordable housing projects across India. The launch of New Haven is in line with our expansion plans in the affordable housing space,” Tata Housing managing director and chief executive officer Brotin Banerjee said.

New Haven is strategically located in Mumbai’s new growth corridor and combines international design fitted with latest facilities, he added.
The project is located at 1.5 km from the Vasind railway station on the central line and is in close proximity to Shahapur and Kalyan-Bhiwandi junction, the press release said. Source – http://www.indianrealtynews.com/real-estate-india/tata-housing-subsidiary-announces-launch-of-hill-township-at-thane.html

Country’s largest realty firm DLF has sold 150 plots, garnering more than Rs 500 crore, in a township project at Gurgaon, PTI reported, citing sources.
DLF launched a 100-acre township ‘Alameda’ in Gurgaon. In the first phase, it released 150 plots at Rs 60,000 a sq yard with inaugural discount of 10 per cent and they were sold within a few hours of the launch, sources said. The plots are available in two sizes — 540 and 700 sq yards.

DLF has launched plots in Gurgaon after a gap of few decades, although it has been developing many group housing project there. The company achieved a sales realisation of more than Rs 500 crore, with an average price for each plot at about 3.5 crore, sources said, adding that it received more than 150 applications.

DLF spokesperson could not be reached for comments.
DLF would launch another 200 plots in the township, where it plans to develop shopping centre and provide facilities like healthcare and recreational facilities for the residents.
At present, the company has 406 million sq ft develop-able area in-hand, out of which construction is under way in 57 million sq ft of area.source-http://www.indianrealtynews.com/real-estate-india/dlf-garners-more-than-500cr-from-sale-of-150-flats-in-gurgaon.html