Latest Property News on 'Property Prices'

HDFC Increases its Retail Prime Lending Rate (RPLR)

After a gap of two years, mortgage leader HDFC has increased its retail prime lending rate (RPLR) by 50 basis points to 14.25 per cent.
Significantly, the lender has not said anything on the continuation of its “teaser rates loans”, launched late last year and which was supposed to end yesterday.

“This (the hike) is in line with the current rates of interest in the economy, which have hardened in the last few months due to rising inflation and tightening of liquidity in the domestic market,” HDFC said in a statement, adding that the new rates will be effective from tomorrow.
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Kishore Gotety Appointed Country Head of Indian Real Estate by GIC

The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) has hired Kishore Gotety, who was most recently at RREEF, as country head for India real estate. GIC confirmed the appointment of Gotety as head of real estate for India but declined to comment further. However, the hire suggests GIC believes the opportunity is ripe to start investing in real estate in India.

Gotety was earlier with RREEF Alternative Investments, the global alternative investments business of Deutsche Bank’s asset management division. Real estate is one of RREEF’s core businesses. Gotety joined RREEF at the end of 2007 as head of Deutsche Asset Management’s real estate and infrastructure investment advisory services in India and was widely expected to spearhead the firm’s expansion there.
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Realtors Express Satisfaction on Tax Exemption in Housing Loan Segment

Realty firms and consultants have expressed satisfaction on the proposal to retain income tax exemption on interest up to Rs 1.5 lakh a year on housing loan, but said the government needs to enhance the limit. “It is a very good thing that the government has retained the exemption. It will have a feel-good sentiment in the market,” said Anuj Puri, country head, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj (JLLM).

He said the move will not dishearten the low and mid-income group from going ahead with their buying decisions. The first draft of Direct Tax Code (DTC) was silent on exemption on interest paid on housing loans. However, after adverse feedback from various quarter, the second draft proposed to retain this exemption, which is also incorporated in the bill.
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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 »

6 Chennai Projects Get Top Ratings from CRISIL

Six real estate projects in Chennai have got top ratings from Crisil, which has, for the first time, has come out with a product to provide city-specific all round assessment of real estate projects.

Addressing a gathering got up to announce the award of 7-Star rating to Abode Valley and 6-Star rating to Central Park — couple of projects promoted by Lancor Holdings — Lodd Rajendra, Head of Business Development, Crisil Ratings, said Crisil was now working on two more mandates from the realty sector. He said Crisil had thus far rated 21 real estate projects. 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 »

Lalit Suri Hospitality Group Plans Expansion

Lalit Suri Hospitality Group, which runs the Lalit chain of hotels, will invest Rs 2,500 crore by 2014 for expansion across luxury and mid-segment properties. The group’s chairperson and managing director Jyotsna Suri said that it has earmarked Rs 2,000 crore for expansion of luxury hotels and Rs 500 crore for mid-segment hotels. Suri said the group is taking up new projects in the luxury segment in cities, including Jaipur, Chandigarh, Kochi and Ahmedabad but did not share details.

The group has seventeen luxury hotels with 3,600 rooms in the five-star deluxe segment.
She said the company plans to open its hotel in Thailand by 2014, while it has put on hold plans to open a hotel in Dubai due to economic situation there.
Commenting on the group’s plans for mid-segment, she said the first hotel under the ‘Lalit Traveller’ brand will be opened within the next six months with the operationalisation of its property at Faridabad.
“The objective is to promote domestic tourism. There is a need to create hotels in the budget segment, ” Suri said. Read More »

CMDA comes with New Guidelines to Meet Affordable Housing Demand

In a bid to create housing stock jointly with owners having large tracts of land and to meet the increasing demand for affordable housing in Chennai metropolitan area (CMA), the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) has framed a new set of guidelines for implementation of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme.

The guidelines comes in the wake of Minister for Slum Clearance and Accommodation Control Suba Thangavelan’s announcement in the Assembly in April that the Housing and Urban Development Department would implement PPP for housing projects in the CMA. 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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