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Delhi Development Authority Taking Delhi to New High

DDA is an acronym that stands for Delhi Development Authority, the agency developed to promote and look after the construction activities of Delhi, the Capital city. It is providing homes to a million Delhiites. The authority plays a significant role in the orderly yet rapidly development of the city.

Planning Department of DDA enjoys the status of being the largest town planners in any Development Authority in India. Preparing the plan, policies, proposals for undertaking the development of the city are some of the responsibilities that fall with the authority.

DDA serves as a consolidator of land in the city to ensure that real estate and housing values remained affordable in the city. The role of DDA in improvising real estate market cannot be denied. By bringing good quality of construction in Dwarka, DDA has certainly contributed in making it a self sufficient sub city. Moreover, the authority has planned it so well that space and population ratio has been taken care.

DDA has initiated some major plans for the development of Delhi. It includes the much talked about Delhi master plan 2021, which has been made to cater to the demanding requirements of increasing population. In addition, DDA’s Planning Department has begun the work development work on its two other significant projects i.e. Jasola and Dheerpur.

The Dheerpur Project Area falls under the four planning zones – C-14, C-19, and C-20. It is to be developed at south of NH-1 bypass in proximity to the Coronation Pillar and Dheerpur village.

The Union Development ministry will be moving a note to cabinet seeking release of Rs 445.62 crore for different games-related projects to be taken up by Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to meet the deadline for the development activities to be taken up for the Commonwealth Games-2010 to be held in the Capital.

DDA has been given the responsibility to construct the Game Village and important venues for competition. The authority had sought a whopping 62 crore for the development of an indoor stadium for table tennis at Yamuna Sports Complex and Rs. 161 crore for the construction of another stadium to be built for badminton and squash at the Siri Fort Sports Complex.

Submitted by Rakesh

Property Evaluation & Investment Made Easy

There have been many misconceptions regarding realty valuation and market rates.

But now a handy and reliable tool to evaluate a property and location for property investment is at hand in the form of RESSEX ( Real Estate Sensitivity index).

A synonymous of Sensex, RESSEX analyses price factoring in availability and supply versus actual demand and tracks price elasticity. It is the numeric representation of potential ad variation of real estate industry and covers almost every new real estate development (primary supply). It enables you to view market potentiality in macro perspective.

There are various misconceptions about real estates rates. The efficient rate is one that is absorbed by the market negatively. Ressex enables you to know the market efficiency, demand and supply and would also be able to track rate dynamics.

There is this Efficiency Index, which is the ration of average demand & average rate. In other words, it is demand elasticity and measures the impact on demand given an increase of decrease in real estate rates. Demand Index, on the other hand is average annualized sales of the primary supply where gestation period in sales has been taken as an indicator to estimate the demand. Supply Index measures annualize supply, where total supply of the individual building is distributed over the duration of the building completion. RESSEX can be a very helpful tool for real estate investment. The impact of price variation, interest rat variation, Chang in Govt Policies, etc can be measured through it. RESSEX also represent the relative grading of city, suburb, area, locality, etc.

RESSEX that represents the outlook of real estate industry will cater to consumers, financial institutions, banks, developers, mutual funds and FDI and also to government bodies.

It’s helps the consumers and investors to know the potentiality of the location through efficiency of the location is improving then there is scope of appreciation and vice versa.
Similarly for other segment of the industry including Developers, Funds Company etc. would also be able to know market efficiency and its local perspective along demand and supply situation. Ie given a price what is the impact on demand, to what extent gestation time in sale has gone up with the increase in price.

And for the industry, one will be able to know what has been the impact on the market due to policies, regulations and issues which have hampered the supply like Forest land, TDR Corridor, Environment Clearance, etc.

RESSEX us accessible to the public at propertyscience.com and considering that it will be updated from time to time, it can really prove to be an authentic and reliable tool for property evaluation and investment.

Submitted by Saumya
Source from Real Plus

Airport Upgrade Jacks up Realty Rates in Dwarka, Gurgaon

With the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi having laid the foundation stone for the revamped Delhi airport last Saturday, the ball has been set rolling for the first modern, international-styled airport in the country. But, what has also been set rolling are the real estate rates all around. According to experts, a 10-15% rise in rates has already been registered in areas near the airport like Dwarks as well as Udyog Vihar, DLF Phase II & III in Gurgaon.

Says local realtor Vikram Chopra, “In a country where connectivity is a major issue and the construction of an expressway or a flyover result in a hike in the prices of the surrounding real estate, an airport that is going to be the first internationally-styled one in the country is big news. In fact, apart from Gurgaon and Dwarka, the increase in property rates has already started happening at farmhouse colonies like Westend Greens, Pushpanjali, Vasant Vihar and Shanti Niketan in South Delhi.”

The modernisation of the airport has also added to the image of the areas around it, especially Dwarka. “The airport revamp has added to the sentiment of the area and has become a selling point for real estate developers and dealers alike. People’s point of view too has changed and most of them, especially foreigners now want to live in close proximity to the airport,” says property dealer Vinod Sindhu.

But, it is not just the Delhi airport that has seen an increase in realty rates all around. This phenomenon is more prominent in cities like Dubai and Singapore, which are also popular transit points for travellers, apart from being great tourist destinations. Both cities saw a quantum jump in the real estate around its state-of-the-art airports — to the tune of 20-25% — owing to the economic boom that the city’s experienced after the modernisation of their port and airport.

Says Deepak Bhavsar of Trammel Crow Meghraj Property Consultants, “Airports always have a spin-off effect on the surrounding real estate, especially commercial, owing to the link that industries like logistics and tourism have with it.

Story Submitted by Ranjeet
Source from financialexpress.com

Is the Real Estate Bubble Bursting?

WHEN BIG trees fall, they fall with a thud. The market is still reeling from the complete collapse in realty stocks over the last fortnight. And now everyone wants to know whether this was just a bubble and a passing fad.

As often happens with new things, markets in their love of novelty overestimate prospects and thus overprice assets. It happened with eyeballs in the Internet dotcom craze and it has happened here with land bank values for real estate stocks. Back in September when the real estate frenzy was unfolding we heard DLF will do an IPO with an ascribed market cap of over Rs. 100,000 crore, as it had a strong land bank. Read More »

Why should I invest in Goa?

Goa – India’s ‘must see’ destination is fast becoming a ‘must have’ for tourists who want to own a permanent place under the Goan sun. Goa’s alluring beaches and palm fringed countryside has so much to offer that one cannot have enough of it, and for every tourist, it’s a case of “yeh dil maange more”!

And what better way to get that ‘more’ than owning a slice of that paradise? From modern apartments to quaint Portuguese villas, Goa has every reason to be a sound place for investment. You will be spoilt for choice with the range of residential properties that Goa has to offer – from Aguada Anchorage’s immaculately furnished detached villas adjoining the Fort Aguada resort to the Three Kings sea front project on Quegdevilim beach

Stamp duty and property taxes in Goa are lower than in other states, making the investment easier on the pocket. Expenses on a 3-bedroom villa, for example, would add up to Rs. 30,000 annually, covering round-the-clock manned security, maintenance expenses, salaries of gardener, pool attendant and other estate staff, insurance of the structures and common areas, and property tax / rates.

If you’re a regular tourist to Goa, mounting hotel rates can be exasperating, restricting your stay to 2-3 days, and before you’ve even begun to savour the spicy delicacies on the beach, it’s time to pack your bags. Your own apartment could offer you all the space you need to unwind, and earn for you when you’re not on vacation, for Goa homes offer rentals upto Rs.1 lakh a month. Goa is an excellent return on investment which few other properties can match.

What lends appeal to this enchanting city is the “live and let live” lifestyle of the local population. At peace with nature, Goa has a low crime rate, and no history of communal or religious unrest. Rated as one of the best states to live in, Goa is unpolluted and not overcrowded, and offers a better quality of life.

Driven strongly by tourism, real estate investment in Goa offers excellent appreciation. Besides, the expanding hotel industry is on a constant search for land, and prices have appreciated by 25-30% in areas fringing Panaji, the capital, where mega luxury projects are coming up.

Rates for residential property in Goa range from Rs.2, 400 to Rs.3, 000 in Panaji to Rs.900 to Rs.1700 in Ponda, the industrial hub. As for commercial spaces, Panaji is again most sought after by corporates, commanding rates between Rs. 3000 to Rs. 4250. Ponda is the home of industry in Goa, so commercial rates are higher than residential properties between Rs. 2000 – 3000.

Commercial projects in Goa are driven by the ‘Meeting-Incentive-Convention-Exhibition’ (MICE) destination project of the state tourism ministry started in 2002. Corporates use Goa for their off-site workshops and business conferences, and the hotel industry dominates the commercial activity here.

Malls and multiplexes co-exist with flea markets, and Advance India Projects has plans for a theme mall in Goa. Parsvnath Developers Limited is also in the process of building a mall in Panjim.

With the best of both worlds that Goa has to offer, what are you waiting for?

Submitted By Saroj

Changing Face of Faridabad

Faridabad has a multitude of multinational companies and small industrial units, yet the city appears to be a neglected part of the National Capital Region (NCR). Although, the development activities in Faridabad is moving at snail’s pace but it will surely emerge as the hub for commercial as well as retail spaces.

Faridabad has been catering to the residential requirements of over 11 lakh people, and more than Rs. 3,000 crore are to be invested on its major facelifts by the year 2010. As such, Faridabad residential property has been grabbing the attention of more and more people. Situated in proximity to the Capital city, Faridabad enjoys several advantages. With soon to come up Badarpur –Noida express highway, the city would improve its connectivity to Noida as well.

Faridabad real estate is seeing appreciation in wake of emerging retail spaces and other construction activities. A number of malls and multiplexes are coming up in the area. Apart from the existing malls like Crown Plaza and PVR SRS malls, there are ten other malls to come up soon. Of this, there would be functional in a short span of time.

Rupa Construction’s Pristine Mall, Parsvnath Group’s mall Manhattan and city mall, Eros Group’s EF-3 and East Square Mall will be functional in a few months time. As for other malls like Crown Interiors (owned by Crown International), Vardhman Group and Sewa Builders will come up by the next year’s end.

One of the most prominent names in Indian real estate, SEWA Group, is setting up a mall and a three star hotel having 40 rooms on an area of 3 lakh sq. ft. Following in footsteps is Vardhman Group, that too is coming up with an exclusive mall in an area of 1 lakh sq. ft, while the mall Destination Point owned by Senior Builders is getting renovated.

Submitted by Seuli Bhattacharya

Real Estate BIG Players Look for Business in India

Capitaland, Southeast Asia’s biggest developer is planning to double its real estate investment trust (REIT) portfolio to 10 by 2010, and is looking for new business prospects in China, India and Malaysia.

The group, which reported a record profit for last year, owns five REITS, including retail-based CapitaMall Trust and office-based CapitaCommercial Trust, with exposure to countries such as Singapore, China and Malaysia.

The group is also seeking to cash in on Asia’s booming property market, as he estimates the region could provide some US$400 billion of REITs.

“We have been sought after by various parties for REITs,” Liew said at a results briefing. “For us to do four or five more would not be difficult.”

Asked which countries the group was looking at, Liew said: “China is a big potential. Japan, yes, but it’s a difficult market.”

“India, if you want to let loose, you can create a lot of REITs. Malaysia still has potential.”

CapitaLand, in which state investor Temasek Holdings has a 46 percent stake, generates about 80 percent of its earnings outside of Singapore.

The firm said on Tuesday that it would pay S$41 million ($27 million) for a 13 percent stake in Japanese property trust BLife Investment Corp., making it the biggest shareholder.

CapitaLand posted a near five-fold surge in fourth-quarter net profit on Wednesday, beating expectations and helped by bumper home sales in Singapore and a write-back from asset revaluations.

The results spurred the stock more than 4 percent to a new high of S$7.55. It later eased to S$7.45, up 2.8 percent.

The group posted record profit in the full year of S$1.02 billion ($662 million), up 35.6 percent from 2005.

The developer said fourth-quarter net profit surged 389 percent to S$455.82 million, from S$93.18 million in the same period the previous year. The result beat the S$101.9 million fourth-quarter profit forecast by Reuters Estimates.

CapitaLand said assets under management are expected to reach S$18 billion by the end of 2007, up from S$14.3 billion in 2006.
Story Submitted by Priyanka Batra

Today’s Scenario or Corruption’s True Face

Special Economic Zones (SEZ’s) - Local regimes are buying off HUGE tracts of land from farmers. How? By banning the farmers from selling to anyone else, except to the regime in question, by invoking ‘Security’ and other words in their new rules Then the same regimes are selling off HUGE PERCENTAGES of their respective States, by directing dealing with MNC’s and big money holders. Next, with this kind of money power, MNC’s can build big properties very cheap, due to their economies of scale.

A layman’s view to this is:
- you buy 10 bags of cement from the shop, & pay say Rs. 100.
- but MNC buys 10,000 bags of cement direct from the factory, then they pay say Rs. 50 or even less! So basically, what is their aim??

1. Buy real cheap, HUGE TRACTS OF LAND, by working hand-in-hand and/or behind the scenes, with the local authorities, and paying out, virtually pennies on the dollar,
2. Build real cheap: buy cement, steel, labor, real dirt cheap, due to the above detailed layman’s view, or whats commonly known as economies of scale. Maybe even import containers of cheaper inventory, thereby eliminating the local shops and factories altogether. Use the cheap labor and inventory, to build huge properties, of the scale, which are previously unknown to India.
3. Sell the new properties, with huge advertisements, compared to the poor individual builder/dalal
4. In any case, they stand to reap large profits from india’s lands, and then they route the same, back to their respective countries of origin.And what about end-user’s property? Its price could literally collapse, given the huge new supply of properties, created by MNC’s in the market!

Nithari – Recent events like NITHARI and criminal acts causing potentially dangerous scenarios for noida areas, as regards the safety and security of fathers, mothers and boys and girls alike.

Exodus – Witness a somewhat exodus of curent and potential families with children from there, towards other areas like Hariyana, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Delhi, Punjab, etc, as they are not too far to their jobs/schools, by well-connected road/metro/train.

Elections – Political situation there is highly unstable, per experts views, and knowing of elections in near future, one cannot say what will happen. As seen in the past, changes after elections caused immense hardships to the end-users. They keep changing the laws and regulations, read, changing the goal-posts (or keep moving the wickets, as we say in cricket terms) which do make big bucks for the regime of the day, that then exists. But in return, cause lots of problems to the local end-users and some unfortunate dalal’s/builders.

Dalals - Dalal’s buy form end-users, by comunicating with end owners, making big promises, then taking off all legal papers from end owners, and paying just 10%-20% of the market price. Then dalal’s keeping end owners on hold for months and in some cases years for the balance amounts, till a time when these real owners get tired of running in courts and between all sorts of lawyers. Finally, the same working end owners then settle for very low amounts and complete the sale to the dalal’s, and very low prices. So they basically lose big time, not only on the dalal’s agreed to price, but, also months and even years of their valuable lives’ time.

Low Working People – The actual requirement of the daily-working people is low, so construction of houses was originally at a slow pace. Now the authorities are forcing in legal clauses, to deadline the people into constructing houses, by so and so dates. But even such newly built houses would then be actually empty, with nobody staying in them. Then dalal’s again come into the picture, with the same old formula: sell the earlier bare-plots, as, now plots-with-brand-spanking-new-houses.

Land – If you visited the area well, then you know that, the new upcoming areas of noida/g-noida are vast, with huge tracts of land being thrown up for development by the relevant authorities, despite the low actual requirement by the end-users, thus these maybe primarily for dalal’s/builders.

Hoarding- Huge numbers of these owners are actually dalal’s/builders, who are trying to “hoard” land, and create a monopoly, to pull out big bucks from any potential real end-users/buyers.

Story Submitted by Tribhuvan Desai

How to buy an apartment in India

Whether it’s a condo, a bungalow, or an apartment, the old saying “A house always gives a sense of belonging” seems true for all. Your home is a valuable possession and can be the reward of year’s efforts which makes it more precious. The article sheds considerable light over the tips that you must not forget while purchasing your home sweet home.

Here, I m talking about apartment or flat (as commonly refereed) buying tips as they have become a distinguished form of housing accommodation in virtually most major areas in India. Featuring technical and economic advantages, high rise flats have undoubtedly become more popular again. Read More »

Are Indian skyscrapers protected against Earthquake?

An earthquake is the most extreme condition that any building may be required to survive during its lifetime. To survive the natures might safely and surely also poses the greatest challenge to the architects and structural engineers. However the modern day technological advances in the earthquake protection industry have made the solution once considered un-surmountable a reality.

Today most medium and high-rise buildings in India are following Life-Safety Design, more popularly referred as Earthquake Resistant Design for protection against earthquakes. The earthquake will structurally damage the building and incase the damage is above a threshold level there would be no option but to demolish and re-construct.

The architects and structural consultants are therefore are no longer designing only to meet the government building code requirements but are going by the seismic performance criteria being demanded by their clients. Building codes are applicable to all buildings at large belonging to all strata of society and therefore the socio-economic conditions need to be carefully looked into before formulating them.

The risk assessment exercises by the major insurance companies and financial institutions is another factor encouraging people to reduce risks by going in for the state-of-the-art earthquake protection technologies. The insurance companies world over are refusing to guarantee such losses unless the buildings which house these businesses adhere to enhanced safety standards. The reduced insurance premiums and financing at lower rates of interest more than compensates for the cost of enhanced earthquake protection in the long run.

As the awareness and economic prosperity is increasing, more and more people want to reduce risks. Not to forget the urge of many upwardly mobile to live in high-rise buildings away from the pollution and noise with their balconies overlooking the cityscape giving them a sense of achievement, superiority and contentment after a tiring days work. However many have started to realize the peril of staying in a high-rise, they become more vulnerable to the seismic effects.

Submitted by Saroj