Latest Property News on 'Real Estate Developers'

Dubai’s Deyaar drops Project with India’s Ansal

Deyaar, a Dubai property developer at the centre of an investigation into alleged embezzlement, said it had agreed to drop plans to develop a real estate project in India. In November, Deyaar, Dubai’s second-largest property developer by market value, said it expected to finalize a $5 billion agreement to build a township near Delhi with India’s Ansal Properties and Infrastructure Ltd.

An initial agreement with Ansal to work together had been cancelled by mutual consent, Deyaar said on Wednesday in a statement on the Dubai bourse website. It did not explain why. Read More »

Ansal’s Husing Pot Sheme under MRTPC Sanner

Ansal Housing & Construction Ltd’s residential plots project in Karnal has come under fair trade practices body MRTPC’s scanner, as advertisements promoting the scheme withhold the true cost of plots while inducing potential buyers to seek loans only from a particular bank.

The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) has directed its investigative unit DGIR to look into the claims made by Ansal Housing and Construction Ltd for its upcoming modern township in Karnal. Read More »

Realty Developers feel Liquidity Squeeze

Real estate developers are feeling the liquidity crunch with funding sources tapering off. On the one hand, high interest rates and soaring property prices have hurt off take, on the other hand, rising steel, cement prices have pushed up input costs by 20-25 per cent, which developers have to absorb for now.

”The crunch is getting severe. It’s not apparent but will become more apparent in the next six months. Land prices are likely to fall in the next 3-6 months,'’ said Chanakya Chakravarti, MD (real estate business), Actis Advisers, a private equity firm. Read More »

Select Real Estate Locations will always be in Demand

Sentiments in the sector will continue to be muted, especially in the residential sector, which has seen the highest price appreciations and is the most sensitive to non-amenable lending norms.

Major real estate developers who are flush with private equity and IPO-based money, further bulwarked by pre-sale monies and land banks, will not be as seriously affected as smaller players. They will not offer substantially reduced rates as they have prolonged holding capacities.

Some smaller development concerns, which have projects under construction, will have difficulties in bringing these to completion. Some developers in certain areas may sell their products at lower rates, or choose to sell to speculative investors in bulk, at marginally discounted rates. Many buyers who were in a wait-and-watch mode may continue to postpone their intended property purchases. Residential developers will begin to look more seriously at incentives formats such as townships, while office space developers will consider the SEZ option. The extension of the STPI scheme by one year is not significant enough to make much of an impact. Read More »

Real Estate Developers Look at Alternatives to Trim Construction Costs

Real estate developers in India are planning alternative measures to cut down costs of construction by about 15 to 20% owing to the recent hike in raw material inputs costs for construction, especially, cement. Red Fort Capital, in association with Nagarjuna Constructions and DLF, has replaced the use of cement in residential and hotel projects with cellular light weight concrete.

Besides, Red Fort Capital is currently talking to big developers in India to replace the use of cement with cellular light weight concrete. “This will benefit real estate developers in reducing costs of construction by 15%. Read More »

23 big firms eye Thatipur realty project in Gwalior

As many as 23 big real estate firms are eyeing the Thatipur project in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. Reliance, DLF, Parsvnath and Gammon are in the fray to bid for the mega project, of which the bid submission will end on May 7. The MP government has not set a reserve price for the project. The bidders have been asked to quote speculative prices. The state government has roped in India Infrastructure Initiative Facility of IDFC and Feedback Ventures as project advisors for selecting the developer of the project.

After the bidding is over for the Central Business District project in the prime business locality of New Market in Bhopal, Thatipur will attract mega investment under the “re-densification scheme”. Unlike the Bhopal project, which fetched Rs 338 crore from Gammon India for infrastructure development on 15 acres for a lease period of 30 years, the winning bidder will be awarded the Thatipur project on 95 years’ lease and will be asked to develop residential and commercial complexes on 50 acres in an integrated manner. Read More »

Slump forces Real Estate Companies to up Ad Spend

Till some time back, the advertisements for specific housing projects were largely confined to property supplements or niche magazines, but now it has moved on to TV and has an increased presence in print.

Caught in a downturn and unable to hold back new launches, real estate developers have stepped up promotion activities of their new projects. “Speculators are exiting real estate. Therefore, promotional activities have increased these days to woo buyers, who are the actual users now,” says Omaxe chairman Rohtas Goel. Omaxe recently launched a luxury housing project in the national capital region and ran a big promotion campaign around it. Read More »

Sunteck Realty inks ties with Oman’s WJ Group

Forging the first Indo-Omani partnership in real estate, Piramal Sunteck Realty Group and Oman’s WJ Towell group have signed an agreement to partner each other in developing high-end and mixed-use properties in and around Muscat.

Construction is expected to begin in the next three months and the project would be completed in 12-18-months, a press release issued here stated. “We are delighted to sign the first Indo-Omani real estate partnership which will look at opportunities in real estate developments in Oman,” Piramal Sunteck Realty’s Chairman, Ajay Piramal, said. Read More »

Indian Realty Developers may come Under Service Tax Net

Real estate developers who till now had been out of the service tax net may soon have to loosen their purse strings, if a recent verdict by the Authority for Advance Rulings in Delhi is enforced by the central excise and customs department. The ruling has sent the realty market into tizzy as any additional cost would mean passing it on to the customers.

A new decision by the Authority for Advance Rulings on Monday has ruled that a real estate developer, who first charges a booking amount from his customers, constructs on his own and then sells residential units on the land owned by him is now liable to service tax. Read More »

Citi Arm Invests Rs 640 cr in 4 SEZs being Developed by BPTP

Citigroup Property Investors has invested Rs 640 crore in four special economic zones (SEZs) being developed by the Delhi-based real estate developer BPTP, picking up a 40 per cent stake in the special purpose vehicle.

This is Citigroup’s second major investment in BPTP after recently picking up 5.89 per cent for Rs 322.50 crore. Citigroup Property has earmarked Rs 2,000 crore for investing in the Indian property market. Read More »