Indian Property News on 'January, 2008'

Increase Floor Area Ratio- Developers Request Government

Real Estate Industry requested the Government to increase the floor area ration while developing infrastructure across the country. The request was made to create more affordable housing, seeing the rise in demand.

The plea was made on Tuesday at the national conference organised by the Confederation of Real Estate Developers‘ Associations of India (CREDAI), various developers, consultants and experts emphasised the requirement to increase the Floor Area Ratio for creating housing for all. Read More »

Indiabulls Plans Big

Supported by “Steel Tycoon”, Lakshmi Mittal, Indiabulls Financial Services Ltd., foresees a planned fund management unit, which will rank among India’s top five by 2010. The firm which is a prominent name in the brokerage sector seeks to repeat the same in Real Estate.

Chief Executive Officer Gagan Banga expects to receive a license to set up a mutual fund unit this week. He plans to create a $6 billion fund management company, vying with Templeton Asset Management India Pvt. and Fidelity Funds Management Pvt. in an industry that’s quadrupled in size over the past five years. Read More »

Commerce and Industry Minister Favours Tax Relief

Seeing the growing demand of Real Estate, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Shri Kamal Nath has expressed his concern over the high taxes applied on Real Estate Prices.Speaking on the same he said that the sector should get tax breaks to meet the growing demand.

Inaugurating a national convention on real estate, NATCON-2008, organised by the Confederation of Real Estate Developer’s Association of India (Credai), Mr. Nath said that he favors whatever stimulates demand in the sector. Read More »

Fishman Holdings to Invest $1 bn in Ludhiana

India seems to be the hot investment target for every country. The flourishing Indian real estate sector is attracting a lot of investment from overseas. According to media reports, Israeli real estate firm Fishman Holdings is planning to invest $1 billion in Ludhiana.

The latest investment plan in India comes close on the heels of another project it embarked upon last month in Jaipur to build a township at the cost of $2 billion. Read More »

Growth in Real Estate Reflects the Growth in Indian Economy: Kamal Nath

Addressing the “National Convention ‘NATCON 2008’, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Kamal Nath stated that the mushrooming real estate sector signifies the changing face of India and it is a reflection of the growth in the Indian economy brought about by high rates of GDP and also by India’s integration with the global economy. He further added that in recent years service sector has been the driving fuel of Indian economy’s growth.

Seeing the recent economy upswing, Mr Kamal spoke on the necessity of creating international standard infrastructure and housing facility to sustain the growth rate projected in the 11th Five Year Plan. The Real Estate Development sector has the capacity to pay for itself without straining the limited resources of the State Government”, Shri Kamal Nath said. Read More »

NRI Plans Mega Hotel Projects in Punjab

US based NRI, Sant Singh Chatwal, a close ally of the Clinton family, plans to convert the historic Gobindgarh fort at Amritsar into a seven-star hotel.

Speaking on his plans to convert the Gobindgarh fort into a 7-star hotel which will also have a museum, Chatwal said that the amount of non-resident Indians as well as foreigners vising Amritsar is massive because of the Golden Temple but unfortunately the city still does not has a world class hotel.

Chatwal has already discussed the subject with Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal and claims that he was quite positive about it. However, a formal descision is yet to come on the proposal. Apart from the Gobindgarh fort, Chatwal’s Hampshire Hotels & Resorts is looking at other projects too in the state, for which it has set aside Rs 1,500-2,000 crore. This includes a business hotel in Ludhiana, Punjab’s leading industrial township, and another seven-star hotel in Mohali, close to Chandigarh. Read More »

Kochi- A Lucrative Destination for India and Abroad

The industrial capital of Kerala, Kochi is attracting a lot of NRI’s. The city offers grand investment opportunities for real estate and immense number of NRI’s are interested to buy homes in Kochi. One of the major contributors in the city’s fast growth is the increasing number of IT jobs.

Not only this, real estate developers from within the country and abroad see Kochi as the new investment hot spot. The city has attracted not only real estate developers from the country but also from the Middle East. Realty biggies like DLF, Sobha Developers, Ansals, Purvankara, Confident Group, Oceanus, Unitech, Nitesh Estates, Housing Development and Infrastructure (HDIL), Prestige Group, Emaar MGF and Parsvanath Developers have made a cumulative investment of over $2.5 billion in Kochi, the industrial capital of Kerala. Read More »

Real Estate Investors Target Tier-II cities

One of the leading real estate consultant company, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj said that tier-II cities of India will continue to be the hot spot for real estate investors. According to Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj, cities such as Chandigarh, Guwahati, Nashik, Indore, Dehradun, Vadodara and Vizag would be the hottest real estate destinations for 2008. The consulting major has recently declared an investment of more than $1 billion in the Indian property market.

US-based Jones Lang LaSalle, the world’s leading integrated global real estate services and money management firm, recently merged with Mumbai-based property consultant Trammel Crow Meghraj. The saturation of metros and other tier-II cities is one of the factors for the drift. However, in addition to this, the proliferation of IT companies despite the poor performance of IT stocks in the latter half of 2007 would be the other impacting factor. Read More »

2007 – Stupendous Year for Indian Real Estate

The year 2007 has been a record- breaking year for the Indian Real Estate Industry. The entire year witnessed immense boom in the sector overcoming all the predictions of possible realty doom.

Some of the stupendous real estate deals of the year included the sale of a 7,107 sq metre plot at the Bandra Kurla Complex belonging to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) for an astounding Rs 5.04 lakh per sqm, the highest bid for land anywhere in the country. Read More »

Us Retail Major Kroger Plans Entry into Indian Real Estate

The $66-billion US based grocery giant, Kroger is all set to enter into Real Estate India. According to reports, the company representatives have already met 3-4 prominent real estate companies of India for joint ventures.

Some prominent sources said that Kroger is primarily interested in jointly developing new FDI-compliant commercial projects or buying into existing ones. Interestingly, America No. 3 general retailer behind Wal-Mart and The Home Depot runs all its nearly 2,500 supermarket stores in the US. Read More »