Indian Property News on 'May, 2007'

A Mega Retail Event in Bangalore

South India’s first-of-its kind Mega Retail event ‘The Shop’ is held in the country’s IT hub, Bangalore. The two cum conference cum exhibition is the third of the series of regional retail forum which winds up today.

The event aims in shaping up the Indian retail sector that continues to pioneer and set standards.  Also, the meet gives an opportunity to all retail majors to come together under one roof and builds fellowship across industries, says Reliance Retail Lifestyle president and CEO Bijou Kurien, who is also the conference chairman. Read More »

Major Builders Invited to Overhaul Dharavi

Five major property developers have been invited to take up the controversial project to redevelop Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum. Spread over an area of 1.75 kms along the Mahim river in Central Mumbai, the slum houses some 57,000 families – about 300,000 people who will be accommodated into free but small 1 bedroom homes in the area.

The drive is decided to clean the land for business and development of exclusive high rise buildings. Dharavi occupies 535 acres between the suburbs of Sion and Kurla on one side and the tiny area of Bandra on the other. Read More »

The Political Brain – Deciding the Fate of Real Estate

The Munnar Demolition in Kerala has taken on political upheaval between State Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and CPI (M) State Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.

Most confrontations occur due to the political stance of different builders indicating the favorites of whom. With a huge amount of foreign investments coming into Indian real estate, the market is becoming lucrative for politicians and in the name of regulating the market, they start putting obstacle, explains a real estate consultant who wished not to be named. Read More »

KIAC and City Corporation to Form JV Company

Kshitij Investment Advisory Company (KIAC), the real estate arm of Future Group and Pune’s real estate developer, City Corporation are to establish a joint venture for the construction of a 2.8 million sq ft. Market City. The space will come within the Amanora Park Township being developed by City Corporation.

The firm is looking forward to make investment worth $45 million. The amount will be parked in as equity from the combined $430 million corpus belonging to Kshitij Venture Capital Fund and Horizon Realty LLC, both interested to invest in Indian realty. Read More »

DLF to Raise Funds through Public Issue

DLF Ltd, a renowned name in Indian real estate, has announced to invest Rs 3,500 crore for development of its land reserves.  The amount is however lower than what the company has earlier decided to invest for the purpose.

The company has plans to raise Rs 9,625 crore through a public issue of Rs 1.75 crore shares in the price band of Rs 500-550 between June 11 and June 14.  The new shares will comprise 10.27 per cent of DLF’s post-sale capital. The sale of shares on offer will push the company’s market value to a mark of $24 billion, more than double Unitech’s, India’s biggest real estate developer. Read More »

Indians Generating Demand for the UK Real Estate

Indians have emerged as the largest property buyers in the UK thereby contributing to economic development of the country, as per the data compiled by real estate firms and British Government research.

The group of prospective buyers also includes Russians, Arabs, and South Africans. Together, they are known to be the largest buyers of residential property in the past two years, says Sheetal Chantal Halai, heading the India Desk for realtors Savills in London. Read More »

ETA Star to Invest USD 923 mn in Chennai

In a bid to tap the growing demand for residential projects in India, ETA Star Property Developers Ltd, a group company of Dubai-based ETA Ascon, has announced to invest USD 923 million to construct an info-tech park in Chennai.

The IT Park, to spread over an area of 100 acres would home leading software companies such as Microsoft, Intel, IBM. Its commercial part will be developed as a part of mega residential project. Read More »

L&T Bullish on Real Estate Projects

The Mumbai based Larsen & Toubro Ltd. is planning to invest a whopping Rs 8,000 crore in Indian real estate and urban infrastructure over next three to five years. The company will make investments through its subsidiary L&T Infrastructure Development Project Ltd (L&T-IDPL).

Taking a cue from soaring demand for commercial and residential projects in India, the company expects to carve out substantial niche for itself in growing market. It envisages leveraging its strength in engineering and construction to build an excellent urban infrastructure. The main focus area will be emerging cities including Chennai, Hyderabad, Vizag, Bangalore, and Kochi.  HDFC has a 25% stake in L&T – IDPL, and would also be contributing to the investment. Read More »

Lease Market Filling Investors’ Cup of Delight

Easy tax norms and dropping interest of people for property investments ensure a thrust in rental segment in India. As such, soaring rentals and leasing property are to of the hot topics in real estate today.

Talking about the residential segment, it is witnessing a downside in actual transactions, which has turned out to be beneficial for the lease market. But there are hopes regarding capital values to undergo corrections. Rents will go up by 20-25% because may people are putting themselves off from buying a house. Increasing interest rates on home loans is the main cause behind the scenario. However, rental houses will always remain in demand. Read More »

Govt. to Bring Energy Code for Commercial Buildings

Considering a drastic increase in energy consumption in large commercial buildings, the government has decided to give these establishments a certificate declaring the buildings to be energy efficient if they plan to have a connected power of 500 kilowatts or more.

For the time being, the code will be applicable to new construction commercial buildings as well as integrated townships but a separate code will soon be formulated for reconstruction of old buildings soon. Read More »