Latest Property News on 'Bangalore'

Office India calls of Deal with Bangalore-based Brigade Group

Oracle India, which was in talks with Bangalore-based Brigade Group for 1.2-million sqft commercial space in its Brigade Gateway project, has called off the deal. The IT major was planning to take office space in Brigade Northstar, a 30-floor tower complex within Brigade Gateway, to consolidate its multiple leased spaces in Bangalore. Oracle told its employees in an email communication: “As you know, Oracle Real Estate has been examining the Brigade Northstar facility, as part of our strategy to consolidate our multiple leased spaces in Bangalore. This is to inform you that Oracle has decided not to pursue this location.” Oracle had planned to transfer 8,000 employees to the Northstar facility.

Had the agreement been successful, it could have been one of the biggest commercial space deals in Bangalore and could have made Brigade richer by Rs 600 crore. Oracle was in talks with Brigade for almost six months but the differences over in the prices quoted by the two led to the collapse of the deal. Oracle and Brigade Group refused to comment on the issue. Oracle was looking to move its first team to the new location approximately 12 months from November 2009. The company was planning to centralise its common operations and administrative functions. Read More »

Sobha Developers calls off land sale talks with Shriram Properties

Sobha Developers, which was in talks with Shriram Properties for the sale of around 400 acres in four cities, is learnt to have called off its negotiations following differences over price. While Sobha confirmed that talks have been called off, it did not provide details. Some of the land the firm had put up for sale include 100 acre at Hinjewadi in Pune, 3.8 acres on St Marks Road, Bangalore, 7 acres of NBCC land behind the Bangalore railway station, 330 acres comprising two islands of Valanthakad & Nadukeri and adjoining lands in Manakunnam & Thekumbaghom villages in Kochi. The total value of these land could be between Rs 600 and 800 crore, according to estimates by Mumbai-based research firm Enam Securities.

The latest move by Sobha Developers comes after it managed to strike a deal with an investment fund owned by Infosys co-founder N S Raghavan to raise Rs 225 crore by selling a part of its land bank. The company has also managed to reschedule a substantial part of its loan portfolio. Last year, Sobha raised around Rs 530 crore by diluting close to 22.5% equity through a qualified institutional placement (QIP). Sobha MD J C Sharma had earlier told ET that the company was looking at a stake dilution of up to 25% at the project level through a special purpose vehicle. While the deal would have generated the much-needed cash for Sobha to develop its projects, it would have also helped Shriram Properties, a part of the $5.5-billion Chennai-based Shriram group, scale up its size in the residential market. In fact, Murli of Shriram Properties had earlier said that the firm was in talks to buy 1,500 acres of distressed assets which could be land with development rights, projects under development or mid-sized real estate company. Read More »

Unity Infra to Develop Housing Projects in Kolkata and Bangalore

Construction firm Unity Infraprojects today said it will develop two mixed-use housing projects aimed at middle-to-high income segments in Kolkata and Bangalore with an investment of around Rs 500 crore. “We have already acquired 37 acres of land in these two cities. Work on the projects will kick off next quarter,” company Chief Operating Officer Yogen Lal told PTI. The total cost of developing the projects would be around Rs 500 crore, including Rs 90 crore for acquisition of land.

Unity Infraprojects has two wholly-owned subsidiaries - Unity Realty & Developers and Unity Infrastructure Assets. While the former is into real estate development, in the later the company takes up cash contracts on Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis in various segments of the infrastructure sector. Although the promoters of the company had earlier did some residential projects, none is comparable with the planned two projects in Kolkata and Bengaluru, in terms of size. Read More »

Sunil Mantri Group to Invest Rs250 crore in Housing Project at Bangalore

Real estate major Sunil Mantri Group today said it will invest Rs250-crore to build an integrated housing project in Bangalore, close to offices of major IT companies and the Electronic City. Christened as Mantri Premero, the project will be a large-scale residential township spread over 3.25 acres, a company press release said.

The 500-apartment complex will have a swimming pool with toddlers pool, children’s play area, club house with indoor games as well as a basket ball court. The project boasts of proximity to nature apart from meticulous planning, landscaping, privacy, and the use of quality building materials. “Bangalore being one of the most prominent landmarks on the world map inspired us to develop good quality homes and spaces that are at par with world-class standards. With Mantri Premero, Bangalore will have exclusive lifestyle homes with the blend of affordable amenities that integrate nature with everyday dwelling,” Group chairman, Sunil Mantri said. Read More »

Surge in Bangalore Office Space Demand

Demand grows for space as companies restart expansion plans put on hold due to the slowdown. The office space realty is looking up in Bangalore with the growing numbers of enquiries , say realty experts. Corporates are re-evaluating their expansion plans that were put on hold. The early signs of this revival are being felt in the real-estate marketespecially in the Bangalore market, primarily driven by the IT and ITeS sectors with much of this demand comes from large corporates and multinationals.

According to Mr Anshuman Magazine, Chairman and Managing Director, CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), real-estate services firm, says, “Corporates have now started to seriously evaluate growth/expansion opportunities and are actively seeking out good deals in the market.” Though some significant transactions have happened in the last few quarters; in general, “closure seems to be slow, with corporate clients choosing to deliberate and sometimes wait till they can negotiate the best possible commercial and non-commercial terms,” he adds. Read More »

Developers in Bangalore Plan to Target Middle and Upper Middle Segments

After almost a year of lull due to the economic downturn, the real estate sector in the country’s IT capital is slowly picking up and is all set to focus on the middle and upper middle segments, where it envisages huge potential. Customising their offerings, builders are keen to capture these segments, which are witnessing increasing demand. For Mantri Developers Pvt Ltd, “the recession for all practical purposes is over as far as the real estate sector in the city is concerned”. The Bangalore-headquartered group, which has been in the business for over 10 years, admitted that there was “slackening in demand from October 2008 to 2009. Prices had hit rock bottom and customers were holding back, anticipating further slash in rates”.

But post-April, there has been a surge in sales in the industry as customers realised that “there would be no further decrease in prices”, an official of the firm said on condition of anonymity. The firm, which is looking at the upper middle class and high-end segments, sees a rise in demand in both, more so in the upper middle category. “However, despite the slowdown, demand never slackened in the high-end segment”, the official said. The firm’s two ongoing projects, one in the high-end (ranging from Rs one crore to Rs 10 crore) and two in the upper middle class segments (priced at Rs 35-70 lakh) will be completed in another six to eight months. “Thanks to the slowdown, it is the genuine buyer who is coming forward now instead of the investor. These buyers want the reassurance of reputed brands which are cash flow positive and the pace of progress is visible”, the official said. Read More »

Bangalore Emerging as Most Preferred Real Estate Destination

Bangalore has emerged as a clear preference for sectors like office and retail, while coming a close third in the residential and hospitality according to Cushman & Wakefield, a retail estate research firm. In its report Cushman & Wakefield GRI India Real Estate Investment report 2009: ‘Survival to Revival - Indian realty sector on the path to recovery,’ the firm said that Bangalore is expected to see the highest demand for office space in the period 2009 - 2013 with approximately 34 million sq.ft.

The expected recovery in the IT/ITeS sector would have a positive effect on the demand in Bangalore, the preferred location for many IT/ ITeS companies. The demand for retail sector is also expected to be the highest in Bangalore with approximately 7 million sq. ft. while demand for residential is expected to be approximately 570,000 units over 2009 - 2013, with the highest compounded annual growth rate at 14 per cent. The hospitality sector in Bangalore too is forecast to register the highest compounded annual growth of about 26 per cent in demand, followed by NCR at 24 per cent and Pune at 23 per cent. Read More »

Bangalore Based Developer to keep Escrow Account for Housing Projects

In a first-of-its-kind move in India that could elevate corporate governance standards and usher in transparency in realty transactions, a Bangalore-based real estate player has decided to maintain an exclusive construction escrow account with a bank for its luxury homes project. The Girish Puravankara-run Lalith Gangadhar Constructions Ltd (LGCL) will now keep the budgeted construction cost for its 63-villa LGCL-Ashlar project in a separate construction escrow account from the payments of the home-buyers. “This is a first in the Indian real estate sector though the practice is widely followed abroad,” LGCL’s Managing Director, Girish Puravankara, told PTI here today. LGCL, a start-up firm, has Kotak Realty Fund as an investor. The Fund has invested close to Rs 50 crore, Puravankara said.

The move will ensure comfort to home-buyers as the money they pay to a realty company for a particular project will now be used only for that project. “Their money now cannot be diverted to any other project or for other purposes,” Puravankara said. “I am in discipline to use their money for only that particular project,” Puravankara said. The escrow account increases transparency for home-buyers in a market where a lot of real estate projects are stuck because of the diversion of sales proceeds received from customers for non-construction purposes, Puravankara said. Industry body, Assocham, has recently brought out a White Paper to make it mandatory for realty companies to open an escrow account to ensure transparency in real estate transactions. LGCL’s Ashlar project was launched in November 2008 and comprises of 63 high-end villas spread over 7.75 acres. “All approvals are in place and 45 villas are under construction,” Puravankara said.

Bangalore Based Developer Plans Alliance with Mexican Housing Company

Realty major Puravankara Projects is in talks for an alliance with Homex, a Mexican company that specialises in affordable housing. The idea is to give a boost to its affordable housing subsidiary Provident Housing. Ashish Puravankara, director, Puravankara Projects, said, “We are holding discussions with Homex as they have build a large number of affordable homes. They like our business model and are very keen to tie up.” He did not divulge the nature of the alliance. Homex is vertically integrated home development company focused on affordable-entry level and middle-income housing. It is also the largest home builder in Mexico, based on the number of homes sold, revenues and net income. It has so far delivered around 270,000 homes.

Its affordable entry-level housing ranges between 452 sq ft and 818 sq ft in size and its middle-income apartments are typically 818-1,851 sq ft. Homex has operations in 32 cities located in 20 Mexican states as of December 2008. Homex integrates aluminum moulds into its construction process. With this method, the shell of an entire home can be constructed from concrete poured into as many as 1,000 interconnected pieces of aluminium moulding for an affordable entry-level home. Once the concrete hardens, the moulds are disassembled for use on another home. Each mould can be used as many as 2,000 times. The method also generates less waste, reducing materials cost. Most importantly, the mould system reduces the average time of construction. Read More »

CREDAI Real Estate Exhibition Begins in Bangalore

CREDAI Realty Expo 2009, organised by Confederation of Real Estate and Developers Association of India (CREDAI), Karnataka, the trade body of real estate developers in Karnataka, was inaugurated here on Saturday. K K Malpani, founder president of KOAPA, inaugurated the event.

The two-day exposition, arguably one of city’s largest real estate exhibitions, claims to have brought “together 32 of the leading property developers and housing financial institutions under one roof to offer the choicest of homes at competitive prices to the people”. The properties on display are not only from Bangalore but also from Mysore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Goa and Kochi. Read More »