Indian Property News on 'December, 2007'

Real Estate Prices Pose Danger for Retail Sector

India has been rated at the top of the global retail development index for the second successive year by AT Kearney. However the consultant has acknowledged at least 10 holdups that need attention. The list includes underdeveloped supply chain capabilities, inadequate utilities, IT infrastructure hurdles, supply base hurdles, inadequate human resources, limited consumer insights, taxation challenges, real estate hurdles, insufficient government incentives and policy-related hurdles.

Among all these, the major hindrance is Real Estate. The fact that retailers have to spend 25-30% of their revenues among rentals, just to operate in metropolitan makes the situation worse. According to CB Richard Ellis South Asia head Anshuman Magazine, the current commercial rentals are actually unaffordable and correction is inevitable,” says. Read More »

Massive Growth in Real Estate

The booming Indian Real Estate has made Property developers billionaires overnight, with profit overflowing in the sector. Office and shopping mall rentals continued their upward trend, the pace being very vigorous in Delhi and Mumbai. At present Mumbai is at the second place in the list of most expensive office markets in the world with Delhi at eighth.

The real estate industry is estimated to reach $60 billion by 2010 with a growth rate of 30 per cent. The industry entered the Dalal Street in a big way and floated 12 public issues in the year, making it a leading sector in terms of fund raising. Read More »

Unitech Plans Aggressive Entry in South India Real Estate

Unitech is making a volatile entry into the mushrooming South India Real Estate market. One of the largest Real Estate Developers of the country, Unitech is about to announce two joint development deals, covering a prime area of around 1400 acres in Hyderabad and Chennai.

The Real estate major will soon disclose its 50:50 joint venture deal with serial entrepreneur Prasad V Potluri’s PVP Enterprises which owns around 1,300 acres in Hyderabad’s Shamshadabad region, the most well known part of the city in regards to property development. Read More »

Real Estate Investment Products- All Set to Hit the Market

Real Estate Investment Products are all set to hit market, SEBI Chairman, Mr. M. Damodaran said in a statement to Business Line. He further added that the only problem which was a barrier in the launch has been overcome with the Association of Mutual Fund Industry and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India having firmed up the valuation norms for these products. “We should be able to clear the guidelines soon. Our expectation is that in the next couple of months, we should be able to streamline it.”

Elaborating the whole procedure Mr. Damodaran that the two bodies looked at whether it was possible at all to accord a valuation and the frequency with which one needed to do it. Valuation, almost on a continuing basis, is needed as people enter and exit schemes on a regular basis. Read More »

Global Asia Real Estate Fund Concludes Its Third Acquisition

Global continues its golden run in the Asian market. With the announcement of its latest acquisition in the People’s Republic of China, as part of its Asia Real Estate Fund investment strategy, Global Investment house added the third feather in its portfolio of assets.

Global Asia Real Estate Fund had announced the successful closure of two investments; In China and India last month. Read More »

Arab Investors Seek Investment Opportunities in India

Lucrative investment options in India are attracting a number of cash-rich private equity funds from the Arab world. If numbers are to be believed, around 15 Gulf Co-operation Council institutions, with a massive fund size of $10,464 million (about Rs 42,000 crore), are willing to invest a considerable part of fund into Indian equities and other private equity opportunities.

The post 9/11 change in the political scenario of America and Europe and the concerns of a likely slowdown in developed economies are encouraging for Gulf-based investors to turn their focus to developing economies like India and China. Read More »

Indian Real Estate Industry Witnesses Deluge of Funds

Despite the recent predictions of a property bubble in U.S, which is a major source of concern, the Indian Realty Sector continues to witness a deluge of funds. Funds are flowing not only from private equity investors but also from builders seeking a toehold in this market.

In between the six months from April 2007 to September 2007 twenty-one private equity deals worth $1,292 million were struck in the realty sector. As per Real Estate Intelligence – a research and consulting firm, this is a substantial increase over eight deals worth $282 million inked in the same period last year. Read More »

Barclays Targets double-digit Share in Indian Retail Sector

World reckoned banking major, Barclays, have plans to get a double digit market share in the Indian Retail Sector. The banking major has recently invested USD 70-million into India’s retail operations.

Despite being a late entrant into the retail segment, Barclays target’s to make a strong mark in the sub-continent. Samir Bhatia, Managing Director-Indian Ocean told reporters that they are planning to open a new branch in Gujarat by the new-year. Read More »

Hypo Ready for Second Innings in India: Invests Rs 600 cr in Shriram

Hypo Real Estate Group, the German commercial real estate financing conglomerate is ready for its second innings in India. Hypo Group is planning to invest in Shriram Realty Rs 600 crore. The Bangalore based Shriram Properties will execute the three projects which would be financed by Hypo Group. However management of Sriram Properties has not confirmed the development yet.Shriram Properties is a Rs 450 crore real estate arm of the Rs 25,000 crore diversified Shriram Group which has business interests covering real estate, truck financing, insurance, consumer finance and information technology and employs over 15,000 people in its various verticals.

In the past Hypo had taken over the reins of Rs 380 crore Tanglin Development promoted by VG Siddhartha who runs the Café Coffee Day chain. So this investment in India is the second one for Hypo and Hypo is looking out to consolidate its market hold in South India with the key emphasis on Chennai market for its commercial projects that is expected to spread over 6 million square feet. Though it is not clear whether Hypo had taken an equity exposure or channeled this as debt. Read More »

US based Polycom turns to South India

US-based Polycom Inc, one of the largest providers of communications equipment which enables enterprise users to conduct video, voice, data and web communications, is eyeing South India for its growth and development plans. The growing demands for its products from state governments, tele-medicine and tele-education projects have spurred Plycom to shift its focus to South India.

“We are seeing a strong growth from the south in non-IT sector. Plenty of telemedicine projects are being launched. Similarly, most states are gearing up for tele-education and e-governance initiatives. Besides, the real estate sector is witnessing a boom in the south. We expect sales in South India to be on a par with the north in the coming days. To begin with, we will focus on the state capitals. Later, we will venture into secondary cities like Kochi, Madurai and Thiruvananthapuram to target the real estate and education sectors.” Polycom India Head Business (North & South) Roshan Gupta said. Read More »