Latest Property News on 'Real Estate Developers'

Real Estate Developers come up with Strategy to woo flat buyers

Given the current global economic slowdown and its impact on the Indian economy, real estate developers have hit upon novel marketing strategies to woo reluctant flat buyers. Real estate players such as Mantri Synergy, Jains Sunderbans, ETA Rosedale and Hirco Palace Gardens have come out with new schemes to attract buyers.

In what is seen as a clear move to shore up the ‘sagging morale’ of prospective buyers, property developers have now come forward to pay pre-EMI (equated monthly instalment) interest on part-money disbursed on the housing loan taken by a flat buyer “Given the current situation, builders are taking a conscious decision to bear the interest burden of the consumer,” Prakash Challa, President, Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI). In the current tight liquidity situation, developers find it difficult to raise finances. When one buys a flat on mortgage, the money is disbursed by his/her bank to the developer in stages. This way, the developer gets the money upfront. Read More »

Indian property developers Promoting Products among Indians in Gulf

With property prices and rents spiraling in the Gulf and the rupee depreciating, Indian real estate developers are actively promoting their products among expatriate Indians in the Gulf. “Because of spiraling rentals in Dubai and elsewhere in the region, Indians working here prefer to keep their families back home,” Haseeb Ahamed, chairman of the Calicut chapter of the Kerala Builders’ Forum (KBF), told IANS here Wednesday.

“Also because of the depreciation of the rupee, Indians here can invest their disposable income in real estate back home. Given the current global financial crisis, it is better to invest in real estate in India instead of investing in stocks or other investment options,” he added. KBF Calicut is holding a Malabar Property Show here Oct 23-25 to showcase villas, apartments and commercial space. Read More »

Real-Estate Major Enters into Construction Business

Piyush Group, a leading real-estate developer has announced the launch of its latest venture Piyush Developers Ltd; thus marking the foray of the company into construction business. Through this enterprise, Piyush Group will be addressing the real-estate industry’s need to improve delivery timelines and quality of the building construction in house.

Speaking on the developments Brig. D Satyanarayana (Retd.), Executive Vice President - Projects, Piyush Group said “Construction is a viable sector, now and for the foreseeable future and the launch of Piyush Developers fits perfectly well with our diversification and investment plan. We have decided to create our own construction company because it will allow us to better control the cost and quality of a project.” Read More »

Crack in Indian realty firms

Future economic historians may remember the month that just ended as Black September. Lehman Brothers collapsed; the Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch; AIG was nationalised; banks such as Washington Mutual and Wachovia were wiped out. As credit and finance markets around the world tumbled like ninepins, so did stock markets in India, with the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index (Sensex) falling 3.35% or 469 points on September 15. The worst affected was the realty index which dropped 7.6% on the same day. Since then, while stocks prices in India have seen massive swings, shares of real estate firms have remained depressed, falling a total of 20% as of October 1.

In addition to housing stocks, home prices are taking a beating. By some estimates, prices have dropped by 25% in certain urban markets. While in the US — and also in Britain — the subprime mortgage mess has seen home prices fall dramatically, in India, such slowdowns have been rare — at least in the past. Prices may soften, sales activity may slow and occasionally a distress sale occurs, but there has not been an overall fall in home prices. “India has not seen a boom-bust cycle in real estate mainly because the industry is still nascent,” says Anurag Mathur, joint managing director of Cushman & Wakefield, a global real estate solutions company. “India has not seen a boom and bust cycle in almost any sector,” adds Rajesh Chakrabarti, a professor of finance at the Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business (ISB). “While there have been variations, we have not had cycles of the kind we see in the developed countries. It is only after liberalisation that the Indian economy has been seeing more cyclical movements.” Read More »

Real Estate Firms Eyeing Chennai Metro Rail Project

CMRL has invited real estate firms with a minimum experience of five years in rendering real estate valuation in India, and Rs 50 crore as turnover. For the Rs 10,000-crore first phase of the project, CMRL is planning to acquire around 10 hectares of private land mainly for construction of stations and depots. The railway line would pass through government lands in most of the places.

“Though the government has mandatory powers to acquire private land, we want to take the land with the consent of the landowner. For this, we want guidence from experts to arrive at a reasonable compensation. We would invoke provisions of compulsory land acquisition only if the negotitations are unsuccessful,” a senior official told The Times of India. Read More »

‘Woman Entrepreneur of the Year’ will Participate at Bahrain Real Estate Conference

The First Annual Gulf Real Estate Fundamentals Conference 2008, the only international dedicated Conference focused on meeting the specialized Real Estate needs of a fast growing economy, is proud to announce that the Vice-Chairperson of India’s foremost Real Estate Developer, Ms. Manju Yagnik, has confirmed her participation in the event. Ms. Manju Yagnik, the Vice-Chairperson, Nahar Group, One of India’s foremost and leading Real Estate Developer - to be a lead speaker at the Gulf Real Estate Fundamentals Conference, Nov 18-18, 2008.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Ms. Manju Yagnik said: ‘We are pleased to be able to present a paper on ‘Real Estate Opportunities in India’ at the Gulf Real Estate Fundamentals Conference 2008 in Bahrain. Bahrain serves as a particularly strategic location for the gathering, as the leading country in the region to have strategically addressed the growing need of the real estate sector. I am delighted to be the present at such an exciting and innovative event aimed at meeting the highly specialized needs of the region’s advanced and fast growing real estate sector. Read More »

Emaar suffers Setback in Profits

Emaar suffers Setback in ProfitsThe Middle East’s largest real-estate developer by market value and a prominent name in the Indian Real Estate sector, Emaar Properties PJSC recorded a third-quarter profit fall of 3.3 percent as revenue declined. Net income dropped to 1.51 billion dirhams ($411 million), or 0.25 dirham a share, from 1.56 billion dirhams, or 0.26 dirham, a year earlier, Emaar said today. That compares with Citigroup Inc.’s estimate of 1.64 billion dirhams.

“Barring write-downs, Emaar earnings are pretty impressive,'’ Robert Mckinnon, managing director of equity research at Al Mal Capital PSC, said today in a phone interview from Dubai. “Going forward it’ll be a tough operating environment for real-estate companies although Emaar may weather it by enhancing its recurring revenue in Dubai.'’ Read More »

TDI infra to develop townships in Indore, Meerut

Real estate developer TDI Infrastructure has planned an investment of Rs300 crore for building two townships in Indore and Meerut projects over the next 4-5 years. “In the next six months, we will be launching two residential townships in Indore and Meerut spread over 150 acres each. Once all regulatory issues are solved, we will start construction,” TDI Infrastructure Managing Director Kamal Taneja said. When asked if the company would approach private equity players in view of liquidity crunch in the banking system, Taneja said: “We are not completely closed to PE funding, but in today’s scenario, they are expensive and their expectations are going very high.”

The company launched a new scheme of construction solutions for the plots in its township in Kundli, TDI City. Under the scheme ‘build and earn’ the company would offer one-stop-solution for overall constructions of the plots and would offer a rebate of up to 25% to the owners. “We want to create a new Gurgaon in Kundli. For this we will offer standardized constructions to the plot owners, through which they will be getting a good rebate also,” Taneja said. TDI City is a 1,500 acre integrated township comprising plots, villas, group housing, commercial complex, school and hospitals. It is being developed at an investment of about Rs10, 000 crore and is expected to be completed by 2013. “We will develop about 15,000 apartments and offer 12,000 plots. After developing the plots under the scheme, we may retain some and lease them in future,” Taneja said. The company has a land bank of about 2,600 acres and it plans to develop the same in the next 6-7 years. Currently, it is developing five township projects in about 2,000 acres of land.

JMD Group to develop townships in Punjab, Haryana

Real estate developer, JMD Group, will be developing two township projects in Punjab and Haryana with an estimated investment of Rs 750 crore. The Group, which had floated a company JTPL Townships Private Limited for its real estate business, would develop luxurious housing projects in Mohali (Punjab) and Karnal (Haryana) over the next four years. “We will be investing Rs 450 crore on Mohali project and Rs 300 crore in Karnal project. Both these projects would be packed with international class amenities which will be within the reach of the common man,” JTPL Townships, Director, Siddhant Gupta said.

The first integrated township project ‘JTPL City Mohali’ would be spread over 85 acres. In close proximity with the airport and railway station, it would have all the facilities and he said. Another township project in Karnal spread over 77 acres would be developed and the work on its development would start within next 4 months, he informed.

Developers hit by credit crunch

The credit crisis is drying up private equity deals drying up and all major realty companies have picked up cash from private financiers at a whopping interest rate of 36-48 per cent per annum to save the blushes. According to industry sources, the developers acquired at least Rs 250 crore to Rs 1,000 crore from financiers in lieu of their existing projects in the last one month, since the US financial system crisis became acute. Though none of the developers were willing to go on record, many developers admitted in private that they had meetings with private financiers during the last couple of months and also picked up money. With tie-ups already happening at a project level, experts also don’t rule out mergers & acquisitions in the sector, if the situation doesn’t brighten soon. Says Arvind Mahajan, executive director of KPMG India: “A lot of projects announced may not happen. With significant pressure on companies, they are likely to go for restructuring and focus on selective projects in the short to medium term. There will be more tie-ups at the project level. For realty players, these will be testing times that will check whether they are strong enough to weather the downturn.”

Stock prices of major realty players, including DLF, Unitech, Housing Development & Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL), Indiabulls Real Estate, Puravankara Projects, Parsvnath Developers, Sobha Developers, Omaxe, Mahindra Lifespace Developers and Ansal Properties & Infrastructure have all tumbled more than 60 per cent in the last one year on Dalal Street. Badri Narayanan, partner, Ernst & Young India, agrees with the notion of private equity players that long-term opportunities exist in India but needs cautious valuation. “They are waiting to discover new value paradigms before they make any fresh investments in the realty space. Developers, on the other hand, are likely to have a re-look at their business models and re-asses consumption patterns to bring it in line with the current market expectations,” he said. Industry sources, in fact, said that across all metros and tier II cities like Mohali, Kundli (Sonipat), Jaipur, Lucknow, Indore, Surat and Cochin, there has been a 90 per cent drop in the number of deals.