Latest Property News on 'Banking and Finance'

LIC Housing to enter Venture funding

LIC Housing Finance, the mortgage arm of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), is set to foray into the venture capital arena and intends to start a Rs 500 crore real estate fund by the end of this financial year.

LIC Housing Finance is reportedly scouting for a banking partner for raising capital and will soon approach the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to set up an asset management company. To invest in listed companies, companies usually register with Sebi. Read More »

Private Equity Firms Build up on Indian Realty Firms

Real estate and infrastructure management sector saw Private Equity (PE) deals worth $2.32 billion in the first half of 2008, nearly three per cent higher than the year-ago period, even as the average deal size fell over nine per cent reflecting the sluggishness in the market.

According to Grant Thornton, 33 deals were inked in the first six months of the 2008 compared to 29 deals in the January-June 2007. Read More »

India’s Unitech Realty Fund raises $300 mln

A realty fund launched by India’s No. 2 listed developer, Unitech Ltd, has raised $300 million from international investors for the firm’s projects, a company spokesman said on Thursday.

“This is the first tranche. Another $300 million will be raised by September,” the spokesman said. He declined to name the investors.

The Economic Times newspaper, citing an identified senior Unitech executive, said a Japanese bank and some Europe-based wealthy individuals were the investors in the Unitech International Real Estate Fund. Read More »

SBI hikes Interest Rates on Home Loans

Home loans from public sector State Bank of India would be dearer as the lender has decided to hike interest rates by 50 basis points on all credit linked to prime lending rates.

Speaking at a function in Ghaziabad on Monday, State Bank Chairman-cum-Managing Director O P Bhatt said the bank has decided to raise the interest rate by 0.5 per cent on all loans such as home loans and auto loans which are linked to PLR. Read More »

Prudential forms JV to Invest in Indian Real Estate

Prudential Real Estate Investors on Tuesday announced that it has launched a joint venture with Beekman Helix India Partners LLC (BHI) to invest in real estate in India. Through its new private equity real estate platform, the venture plans to embark on a strategy to create real estate funds for institutional clients.

Prudential Real Estate Investors is the real estate investment management and advisory business of Prudential Financial Inc. Read More »

Banks Turn Choosy on Realty Loans

Sensing a correction in the real estate sector, commercial banks have become selective in lending to new residential and commercial real estate projects.

Besides increasing the lending rates, some banks have asked the promoters to increase their share in project funding in an attempt to mitigate the associated risks.

The economic uncertainty and runaway inflation is likely to impact the real estate prices, and this is already evident in some pockets in Mumbai. The decline indicates tough times ahead for the real estate industry, according to bankers. Banks have already turned selective in taking up new funding proposals. Read More »

Norms for Housing Loans by Coop Banks Relaxed: RBI

Making it easier for urban cooperative banks to extend housing loans, Reserve Bank has relaxed the risk provisioning norm for purchase of residential properties up to Rs 30 lakh.

The central bank issued notification yesterday in pursuance of the annual credit policy announcement made by the Reserve Bank Governor Y V Reddy on April 29. Read More »

Home Loans may become Costlier as RBI raises Repo Rate

Consumer, home loan, auto and other loans could become costlier with the Reserve Bank today hiking its short-term lending rate to banks by 0.25 per cent to 8 per cent in the face of surging inflation.

Announcing the increase from 7.75 per cent, the central bank said the decision was taken to contain inflationary expectations as the rate of rise in prices touched a 45-month high of 8.24 per cent. Read More »

HDFC Fund picks up 50% in ACME Project

HDFC Property Fund’s international wing has picked up a nearly 50 per cent stake in Mumbai-based developer ACME Group’s housing project in Thane, on the outskirts of Mumbai.

Though the fund has bought the stake in a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to develop an eco- township, the exact financial details of the deal is not known. ACME Ozone, a 1.1 million sq ft township, will have 760 residential apartments and a small commercial space based on the eco-living theme. The company has already launched the project, expected to be completed in four years. Read More »

Insurance Cover for Real Estate Deals to Become a Reality Soon

Risks associated with property transactions in India could reduce with at least three insurers submitting details of the property title insurance products they wish to launch to insurance regulator Insurance Regulatory Development Authority, or Irda.

People familiar with the submissions said ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd, National Insurance Co. Ltd, or NIC, and HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co. had filed details of their products with Irda as any company wishing to launch an insurance product here is required to. Executives at ICICI Lombard and Standard Life Insurance could NIC confirmed the submissions. Executives at HDFC not are reached for comment. Read More »