Latest Property News on 'Chennai'

MIBC asks Malaysian Companies to Invest in South Indian Real Estate

The newly formed Malaysia India Business Council (MIBC) is calling on more Malaysian companies to invest in South India, as the time was ripe for investments in the infrastructure and real estate sectors there. Leading the first MIBC delegation to Chennai, its president Datuk Krishnan Tan said Malaysian companies should look into an abundance of opportunities available in the southern region that is fast developing. “The ability to access the market is pretty good now, with the global economic slowdown and the cost (of doing business) has also come down.This is reasonably a good time for Malaysian companies to partake of investments in India,” he told Bernama in Chennai.

A galaxy of high profile Malaysian companies, mainly from the real estate and infrastructure sectors, are visiting two progressive cities in south India —Chennai and Bangalore — to scout for business opportunities Overall, India’s construction industry, which includes real estate, infrastructure like roads, ports and airports, and industrial construction, is worth RM511 billion (US$145 billion) and represents the second largest economic activity after agriculture. According to official estimates, the real estate market was valued at RM56 billion (US$16 billion) in 2006 but is forecast to tip RM212 billion (US$60 billion) by 2010. Read More »

CPI to lease Prime office space in Chennai

If the lure of political power was not enough to convince the Leftists of the advantages of pragmatism then the state of the economy seems to have done the trick. The Communist Party of India (which, incidentally, has admitted that Left’s withdrawal of support to the previous UPA government was a mistake) is all set make the most of its resources in this economy by leasing out prime office space in Chennai.

But, if the picture that comes to mind is that of an stolid, dimly-lit Soviet style construction or even that of a worn-out , colonial-era structure being given out on rent, banish the thought. The party’s Chennai unit, which works out of one the city’s most prized commercial areas in T-Nagar , is set to get itself a modern, multi-storey building complete with a plush auditorium and a roomy car park. The party hopes to give out four floors of the new six-storied corporate style building on South Boag road to commercial establishments such as banks on rent once it is ready. While the line on who can rent the office space is being drawn at anyone who is not “anti-social” for the moment, it would be interesting to see if MNCs would make the cut for the Communists. Read More »

RE/MAX India Enters Chennai market

RE/MAX, the world’s largest real estate franchising network entered India on the shoulders of Mr. Samir Chopra on 19th January 2009. RE/MAX India has signed its first regional franchisee at Chennai. Ace realty owner, Mr. V.S. Raman has become the regional owner for Chennai. With this initiative, RE/MAX having more than 7,000 open offices in 74 countries has taken it’s first step towards building a nationwide network of real estate community. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Samir (Sam) Chopra - Chairman & Managing Director RE/MAX India said that “RE/MAX India is happy to welcome Mr. V.S. Raman as its first regional franchisee. We view this as a great opportunity to associate RE/MAX with V S Raman whose expertise in Realty would help in leveraging the brand in this part of the country.”

Adding to this Sam said, “We are confident that RE/MAX India will gain new heights under the leadership of Mr. Raman, who is a person with high integrity levels, the kind of person which the world’s leading brokerage network would want in its elite team of region owners”. This is a first of its kind initiative taken by RE/MAX India which is working towards organizing and bringing professionalism in the unorganized real estate market of India. Mr. V. S. Raman said that “We are proud to bring RE/MAX to Chennai. We look forward to being a vibrant part of the RE/MAX community and playing an important role in the real estate transactions in Tamil Nadu” Also, RE/MAX India is planning to open Franchisees in major towns and regions of the country. Bringing into its network, the leading brokers of the specific regions and trying to create an unprecedented network and referral system.

Tata Real Estate and Infrastructure Limited Plans 20,000 Crore Investment

TRIL has hired Sanjay G. Ubale, a former IAS officer to head its real estate and infrastructure foray. Tata Realty & Infrastructure Limited (TRIL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons, has unleashed it mega investment plans for the sector. The company, part of a $62.5 billion Tata group, has said that it plans to develop real estate and infrastructure projects of around Rs 20,000 crore in next three years. It has raised a $700 million offshore fund to invest in its real estate project for the same. TRIL has hired a former IAS officer to head its real estate and infrastructure foray. Sanjay G. Ubale, MD & CEO of TRIL, was till recently Secretary, Special Projects with Government of Maharashtra, where he was responsible for redevelopment and transformation of Mumbai. The projects are being developed with various strategic partners. The $700 million fund is based out of Mauritius, and 18-20% of the capital has already been deployed.

The company has also announced several real estate projects it’s developing, which include IT/ITES SEZs at Chennai, Ahmedabad and in Hinjewadi. TRIL is also developing a 7 lakh sq. ft. retail complex in Amritsar, adjacent to which Taj hotels would also open a property. It is also evaluating a residential and mixed use development on a 35 acre plot at Gurgaon. For its infrastructure push, TRIL has partnered with a number of overseas companies. Its focus areas in infrastructure are roads and bridges, urban infrastructure (comprising metro/monorail projects), airports and logistic parks. Some of the projects it is considering are Metro projects (in partnership with Mitsubishi Corporation), New Delhi Railway Station redevelopment (with Grandi Stazioni), Amritsar & Udaipur Airports (with Changi Airports India), and roads & highways (with Atlantia S.p.A). Read More »

Poor Utilization of Commercial Space in Chennai

Oversupply and poor absorption of commercial space, particularly IT office space, continues in Chennai. The first quarter report for 2009 released by the Real Estate Intelligence Service (REIS) of the Jones Lang Lasalle Meghraj (JLLM), real estate consultant, states that the stock of commercial space, including IT space in Chennai, is about 30 million square feet and the vacancy rate is between 15 to 20 per cent. The stock of the commercial space is expected to increase and get close to 40 million square feet by the end of 2009. Simultaneously, the vacancy rate is expected to rise to 20 to 25 per cent.

According to the JLLM study, commercial rents in Chennai were down by 10 to 15 per cent since the last quarter of 2008. Weakening IT demand and disproportionate supply has created this oversupply situation. The JLLM explained that the Chennai saw a supply of 8.16 million square feet of commercial space, including 7.91 million square feet of IT space, in 2008. The absorption of commercial space was at 5.86 million square feet leaving about 2.30 million square feet vacant. The drop in rentals was observed to be more prevalent along Old Mahabalipuram Road than along Grand Southern Trunk (GST) Road. Read More »

Cash-Strapped DLF Sells its 66% Stake in Hindoostan Spinning & Weaving Mill

Cash-strapped realtor sDLF is selling its 66% stake in Hindoostan Spinning and Weaving Mill in central Mumbai to a Chennai-based serial entrepreneur for Rs 310 crore. India’s largest real estate company had acquired the mill land in 2007 jointly with Mumbai-based Akruti Builders for real estate. DLF vice-chairman Rajiv Singh confirmed the development. “The deal is happening, but we would not be able to share any further detail at this point of time. We can only say that the buyer is a corporate buyer. We will announce other details later,” he said.

Market sources, however, confirmed that the buyer is a Chennai-based serial entrepreneur presently settled outside India. The entrepreneur is a value investor who is currently negotiating several big-ticket deals. He is also making an attempt to reenter the Indian telecom sector, which he had quit some years ago. A senior DLF executive said the deal has already been struck. Only some formalities are remaining to complete the sale, he said, requesting anonymity. While DLF is selling its share of 5 acres, its partner Akruti is holding on to its share of 3 acres and might sell it to another buyer. Vimal Shah, managing director, Akruti City, declined to comment on the development. Akruti is looking at a higher valuation for the property, said a person privy to the development. DLF is also pursuing Akruti to sell its stake to the same buyer, he said, adding Akruti Builders is also in need of cash and may finalise a deal. Read More »

Chennai Builders Unite to Develop Good Pavements

After building dwelling units for Chennaiites all these years, builders in the city have now embarked on a new mission giving a facelift to the pavements with a view to restoring them to their rightful users, the pedestrians. Tamil Nadu chapter of Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI), a 76-member body of Chennai’s leading builders, has joined hands with Chennai City Connect to make good pavements a concrete reality. Prakash Challa, CREDAI Tamil Nadu president, said his organisation would provide all technical assistance such as the survey, planning and architectural designs of the pavements.

Chennai City Connect, an NGO, provides a platform for various bodies to come together for executing programmes for the betterment of the city and CREDAI is a member of this forum. In November, Chennai City Connect had signed up with the Chennai corporation to upgrade and maintain pavements. Challa said CREDAI members would sponsor the entire cost except the actual execution of the job, which the corporation will carry out. About 125 locations had been identified across the city for pavement upgradation works, he said and added that the pilot project would be carried out in Adyar. Akshaya Homes has volunteered to sponsor the Adyar pilot project. T Chitty Babu, Akshaya CMD said, “We have prepared the architectural design for developing pavements on both sides of the road from Adyar telephone exchange to L B Road junction and from Malar Hospital to Madhya Kailash, a distance of roughly 2km at a cost of Rs 8 lakh.” Read More »

Changes in Residential Rentals

Is it a good time for those living in rented apartments? Your location could well be the answer to that. While some pockets in the country are showing an upswing in rentals, other micro-markets are witnessing a reverse downward movement. Leading real estate consultants say that the residential rental market has been moving in tandem with the demand-supply dynamics of a particular area, rather than the property prices. Pankaj Jain, executive director of Realistic Realtors, a North-Indian real estate consulting firm says while rentals in some areas have come down, certain pockets are showing an upswing due to the limited supply. “In the national capital region for instance, lack of supply has led to an increase in rentals in some areas. These include east Delhi, south Delhi and the university campus areas in north Delhi. However other areas in NCR such as Noida, Greater Noida and Gurgaon, have seen the opposite trend.” Agrees Subhash Kumar, a resident of east Delhi whose rent just got higher last month. “I was paying Rs 9,000 per month till last month for a 2BHK apartment. The landlord has recently increased it to Rs 14,000. I tried negotiating but he did not reduce the rent.”

While the upswing in residential rentals have impacted the mid-segment across cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, the high-end segment has seen a downward correction in most of these markets across locations. According to Cushman & Wakefield (C&W), in Delhi NCR all micromarkets witnessed correction up to 4% over the last quarter. In Mumbai too rental values for high-end apartments witnessed a downward movement across most micro markets in Q1 ‘09. Chennai, on the other hand, saw no movement during the quarter as genuine demand continued to exist. However, a new trend in the city saw clients wanting to consider mid-end options in prime locations such as RA Puram and Poes Garden. In contrast to Chennai, Hyderabad witnessed significant quarterly correction between 10-23% in the high-end segment. Reduced hiring by IT/ITeS companies, speculation regarding lay-offs and tenants becoming more selective towards rental commitment led rentals in the top-end segment to further drop in January, with these remaining stable over the last two months. Read More »

No Fresh Supply of Mall Space for South India between January and March

The three major cities in south India — Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore —did not witness fresh supply of mall space between January and March this year, according to Cushman & Wakefield. However, these cities would see supply of 4.35 million sft by the year end, the real estate services firm said in its report recently. “Retail real estate across India continued to reel under the current economic pressure while retailers continued to show their apathy towards expansion plans.”

Though Bangalore witnessed no new supply, some sporadic leasing activities in the existing malls kept rentals across established locations like Mysore Road and Vittal Mallya Road stable. Rental values in upcoming malls, however, recorded some correction. Bangalore is likely to see about 2 million sft of mall supply in 2009, of which approximately 0.3 million sft is expected in the Whitefield micro market during the second quarter of 2009. Read More »

Bangalore Municipal Authority Accuses DLF for Illegally Selling Flats

The Bangalore municipal authority said in a public notice on 6 May that it has not yet given mandatory sanctions for development of the project, DLF Westend Heights, at New Town, off Banerghatta Road. DLF Ltd, India’s largest property developer by market value, has been accused of illegally selling apartments without mandatory sanctions at its maiden project in Bangalore. The Bangalore municipal authority said in a public notice on 6 May that it has not yet given mandatory sanctions for development of the project, DLF Westend Heights, at New Town, off Banerghatta Road. The municipality, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP), is the final authority for clearing building sanctions in the city.

It also said DLF has only got approval from the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) for constructing four floors in all the buildings at its project, while the firm’s been advertising 18 floors. The Gurgaon-based developer launched the 80-acre project earlier this year after reformatting it from premium homes to smaller, less-expensive residences costing Rs1,850 per sq. ft. On its part, DLF said the company has kept its customers informed about the status of the approvals and will not start construction till it gets all the clearances. “DLF has paid Rs14.60 crore to BBMP towards betterment charges last August, which indicates that it would seek approval from the authority,” it said, adding that it started bookings from customers only after studying the legalities and taking into consideration the approval process underway. The developer has been attempting to launch the project since early 2008, but was held back by delays in getting approvals and because of changes in the design of the project, which will be built in phases. Read More »