Latest Property News on 'Real Estate Developers'

Emerging Markets Invest $1.7 trillion in Real Estate

The most popular targets for real estate investments now are countries in the new economic region stretching from China across India and the Middle East to Africa (CHIMEA), said a report.

The top 50 emerging markets represented in A T Kearney’s recent Real Estate Opportunity Index spent a combined total of $1.7 trillion on construction in 2007, with a five-year CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of up to 6 per cent. Read More »

Pranab hails Dubai Firms’ ‘tailor-made’ India Projects

The projects being designed by various Dubai-based companies as part of their investment plans in India are tailor-made for Indian requirements, according to External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

The minister said this after going through a presentation on ‘Dubai’s growth and plans for the future and planned investments by leading Dubai companies in India’ organized by the Dubai Executive Council, a Dubai government entity that formulates and implements federal regulations and local laws and prepares annual budgets along with development plans. Read More »

DLF, Indiabulls bring back S’pore REIT listing from cold

It’s destination Singapore once again for realty majors Indiabulls and DLF Assets. After deferring their decision earlier this year, the two companies are once again planning to list their real estate investment trusts or REITs.

Indian realty giants are headed to Singapore again. Both Indiabulls and DLF Assets will tap the Singapore market for their REITs, after having deferred their plans earlier this year due to market volatility. Read More »

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 »