Latest Property News on 'Non Resident Indian (NRI)'

Consumer Affairs Ministry Gives Green Signal to 49% FDI in Multi-Brand Retail

The Consumer Affairs Ministry has given the green signal to allow 49 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail. It has written a letter to this effect to the Commerce Ministry. India currently allows 100 per cent FDI in cash-and-carry operation and 51 per cent in single-brand retailing. Foreign investors are barred from investing in multi-brand retail. Additionally, the Ministry also sought that a model law be first put in place at the State-level to protect mom-and-pop stores from the impact of the ‘Big Boys’ of retail.

“Multi-brand retail should be permitted with a cap of 49 per cent. A significant chunk of investments should be spent on back-end infrastructure, besides logistics and agro-processing,” the Consumer Affairs Ministry had said in response to the discussion paper floated by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion in June on allowing 100 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail. Read More »

Global Commercial Real Estate to Touch $300-bn Mark

Reflecting improved investor confidence, investment in commercial real estate globally is expected to witness a “healthy” growth of 40-50 per cent to $300 billion in the current year, says a report. According to the report by global real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle, the first half of 2010 saw investment worth $130 billion in the commercial real estate globally and is likely to touch $300 billion in the full year, representing an increase of 40-50 per cent from 2009.

“The first half of the year showed that confidence has improved and momentum has increased. While markets across the globe are strengthening, the last few weeks have shown that regional markets are moving with different dynamics,” the report noted. In the commercial real estate market, the quickest recovery was seen in the Asia Pacific. Europe lagged behind, where the investors still seem more hesitant, due to sovereign debt and austerity packages concerns, followed by the US, which had a slow start to 2010, but investment markets are picking up with the stabilised market fundamentals. Read More »

Amidst Global Uncertainty JP Morgan Positive on India

JP Morgan is positive on India despite the global environment being quite uncertain, JP Morgan Asset Management’s Investment Manager and India Country Specialist, Rukhshad Shroff, told reporters here. JP Morgan Asset Management is a leading global asset management company providing world-class investment solutions to clients. “We are positive on emerging markets. We remain very positive on India and if you take a slightly medium-term view, there are ample reasons to be cheerful and optimistic on the Indian market,” Shroff said.

India has achieved an eight per cent GDP growth despite the global economic uncertainty. The country also attracted FIIs inflow this calendar year of around $11-12-billion till date, in an extreme risk-averse global environment, he said. In the short-term, there may be volatility and hiccups but, generally speaking, “we have got all the ingredients for a reasonable market in place,” he said. Shroff pointed out that the BSE Sensex remained positive in 23 out of 31-years and gave 60 per cent returns in five-year period. It has given 30-60 per cent returns in 7- years and registered a 50 per cent decline in only one-year. Read More »

RBI Proposes changes in Private Bank Provisions- Makes it Difficult for Banks with Insurance Ventures to Attract FDI

In an indication of continuing differences over the new foreign direct investment policy, the central bank has proposed changes in the provisions relating to private banks that will make it difficult for them to attract foreign investment if they have insurance ventures. Also, private banks that have sizeable foreign investment will find it difficult to float insurance ventures with foreign partners.

The Reserve Bank of India has proposed that foreign direct investment, or FDI, proposals of private banks that have an insurance joint venture or subsidiary should seek approval of the RBI and insurance regulator IRDA. The central bank has suggested these changes to ensure that 26% foreign investment limit in insurance sector is not breached even indirectly. Read More »

Wal-Mart and Carrefour Ask Govt to Allow 51% Foreign Investment in Multi-Brand Retail

Two of the world’s top retailers, Wal-Mart and Carrefour, vying for a cut in India’s organized retail pie, have asked the government to allow up to 51 per cent foreign investment in multi-brand retail. India allows 51 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in single-brand retail and 100 per cent FDI in cash-and-carry or wholesale trading.

Wal-Mart has partnered Bharti Group to operate cash-and-carry wholesale stores and intends to continue the tie-up for multi-brand retailing. Bharti Wal-Mart believes that FDI in multi-brand retail should be permitted without any restrictions. They believe it will create conditions for greater flow of investments to the back-end with related benefits for farmers, small businesses and consumers.
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Govt to Allow Foreigners Set up LLP in Sectors where 100% FDI is Allowed

The government may soon allow foreigners to set up limited liability partnerships in sectors where 100% foreign investment is allowed, taking a decisive step after much flip-flop over funding guidelines for this form of business organisation, favoured globally for its flexibility.

The department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), the nodal agency for foreign investment policy, has written to the finance ministry giving the broad contours of the proposed foreign investment framework for LLPs. It has suggested that foreign investment be allowed in LLPs with prior approval. Read More »

FDI in India’s Booming Real Estate Jumps 80 Folds

It’s not Indians alone who are monitoring the real estate market here. More and more money is being pumped into India’s housing sector from abroad. And this, despite the recent downturn. Foreign direct investment (FDI) in India’s booming real estate and housing market jumped 80 times between 2005 and 2010. Figures obtained by TOI show that in 2005, FDI in real estate was a mere Rs 171 crore. That soared to Rs 13,586 crore in 2009-10. In April and May this year, Rs 737 crore in FDI was pumped into the sector.

It is no surprise that the largest number of building projects where FDI is in play are in the country’s commercial capital, Mumbai. Of the total 1,614 projects in which foreign investors have put in money since 2005, 422 were cleared by the Reserve Bank of India’s Mumbai office, followed closely by 316 in Delhi. Other big cities like Bangalore (225 projects), Hyderabad (105 projects) and Chennai (68 projects) also enjoyed considerable attention of foreign real estate developers. Read More »

India Wins Property Tax Battle with New York City

India has won a seven-year legal battle with New York City with a federal appeals court ruling that nations with diplomatic housing do not have to pay city property taxes. The unanimous ruling by the federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan Tuesday lets India off the hook for $42.5 million in back taxes and interest, and Mongolia for another $4.3 million on their missions to the United Nations.

The three-judge panel ruled a controversial June 2009 decision by the State Department to exempt diplomatic staff residences from $7 million a year in property taxes also applied retroactively to the past-due bills. The Foreign Missions Act allows the State Department to issue tax exemptions that pre-empt state and municipal tax laws, the court said. “While there is perhaps some unfairness to the city…this unfairness inheres in the federal government’s unquestioned supremacy in the management of foreign relations,” it said. Read More »

Property Market in Developing Economies Outperform Europe, UK and US

Property markets in the more dynamic economies of South America, Asia and Eastern Europe are outperforming those in the United Kingdom and Eurozone, according to the RICS Global Commercial Property Survey for the second quarter. The Survey suggests that real estate performance in the United States has shown a marked improvement while in Latin America the commercial property market continues its bull run.

Respondents in Peru and Brazil were most upbeat, topping all in the Americas for both rental and capital value expectations. Survey respondents in Canada currently view the market as stable. “The real estate world continues to be split, broadly speaking, between the emerging and developed economies,” said RICS chief economist Simon Rubinsohn. “Strong growth in many of the former, including the likes of Brazil, Hong Kong and India, is continuing to boost demand for new space from occupiers as well as encouraging investment activity. Meanwhile in many of the latter, fiscal retrenchment allied to bank deleveraging continues to place significant obstacles in the way of a meaningful recovery in the commercial property market.” Read More »

FKCCI Opposes FDI in Retail

The blood of 160 million Indian families will be on the Centre’s hands if it allows foreign direct investment (FDI) in the multi-brand Indian retail market, corporate consultant and economist S Gurumurthy has said.

Addressing the Federation of Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) on the dangers of FDI in retail market at a city hotel on Tuesday, he said the West was trying to hoist a failed system on India, which had strong familial and savings culture helping it withstand the recent economic turbulence caused by the ‘consumerist America’. Read More »