In their opinion, the city has managed to avoid a crisis because prices here had never reached ‘unrealistic’ proportions. Kolkata’s real-estate market is also relatively stabilisedsince the number of speculative investors here is much less compared with end-users.

The proportion of end-users vis-À-vis investors is 70:30, says Mr Sanjay Chowdhury, Regional Head, Emaar MGF. “Prices in some other cities had to undergo a correction because they were inherently over-priced. Prices in Kolkata never appreciated so much and have always been realistic in nature,” he says.

Rentals for office space “Rental values for office space are appreciating as much as in the previous years and even the central business district (CBD) is witnessing a higher growth over the period by virtue of non-availability of Grade A offices vis-À-vis the rise in demand,” Mr Abhijit Das, Regional Head, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj, says. Rentals at the CBD are currently in the Rs 80-130 per sq.ft per month range. The Life Insurance Corporation of India, which is planning to build a 50-storey office building on the bypass, a non-CBD area, expects to get a rent of Rs 150-170 per sq, ft when it comes up in a couple of years, Mr D. K. Banerjee, Chief Engineer of LIC, said.

“Real-estate prices in Kolkata saw a steady rise rather than a sudden boom and bust which most other States witnessed in the first quarter of 2008. Prices at New Town, Rajarhat, were ranging between Rs 1,200 and Rs 1,700 per sq.ft when development started there a couple of years ago. And then the price gradually saw an upward movement towards the Rs 2,700-3,000 range with national level players (such as DLF and Unitech) entering the market, says Mr Rahul Todi Managing Director, Shrachi. The nature of development — forming joint sector companies with the Housing Board — has also ensured that there is appropriate regulation in controlling volatility in prices, he adds.

“Kolkata has been witnessing a steady growth in prices even in a phase of a downturn elsewhere. We have seen a growth of 7-10 per cent rise in prices over the last couple of months,” says Mr Pradeep Sureka, President, Confederation of Real Estate developers’ Association (CREDAI) Bengal. The rise in property prices over the last six months was 20 per cent as against 100 per cent over the preceding two years, according to Mr Todi. In the past six months developers have seen an average monthly sale of 10-12 units vis-À-vis 25-30 units being sold over the last two years, he adds.

Boom and bust elsewhere Some other regions have not been as lucky, according Mr Pradip Sen, Group Vice-President, Jain Group. “The worst hit States are Maharashtra, Delhi, and other national capital regions (NCRs) comprising Noida and Gurgaon. The sudden boom followed by phases of high inflation rates and crashing stock markets sparked off the domino effect on buying power, severely affecting the real-estate market there,” he says.

A property expert based in Hyderabad predicts that the real-estate market in India is going to face a downturn of 30 per cent over the next 18 months. Sale of residential houses has decreased by 25-30 per cent in Hyderabad over the last three months, he says. Sale of old houses has also seen a decline since people are more inclined to hold on to their property rather than sell at lower rates. “The prices in Kolkata are expected to go up by 20-25 by the end of this year,” Mr Sushil Mohta, Director, Merlin and South City Project, says. His own project, the South City at the Prince Anwar Shah road, will see a rise in price by 15-20 per cent by year-end, he says. The prices of apartments at South City have doubled since its sales began in 2004.

The comparative stability in the Kolkata market has also helped in countering some part of the losses incurred due to escalating raw material costs in steel and cement, which have increased by 15-20 per cent over last three years, Mr Mohta says. However, going by the overall health of the sector, “Kolkata as a market will continue to remain healthy and it is one of the best markets for investment over a long term of 5-10 years,” says Mr Das.

“We are at the end of a cycle where slowdown is for real. But given the robustness and fundamental long-term nature of demand, we will see the beginning of another cycle some time soon,” is Mr Todi’s take.

This will be in addition to the Rs 1,100 crore it spent last year for purchasing lands across the country. The public sector insurance giant has identified Kolkata, Jaipur, Agra, Vishakhapatnam and Bangalore as possible cities where it may acquire land and develop it.

LIC had hired consultants, which had identified the growth centers in the country and based on the report, the company intends to invest in real estate. “We will evaluate the locations, which earn higher returns when we invest,” a company executive said.

The insurer is next only to Indian Railways in terms of property ownership in the country and, at present, it holds 1,708 properties in the country which are estimated to be worth around Rs 20,000 crore. In the eastern region alone, the life insurer owns 187 properties.

While a part of the real estate has been acquired by LIC in the last five decades of its existence, it also inherited a majority of the properties owned by it at the time of nationalization in 1956. Most of the inherited real estate is in prime location, typically in central business district in most cities, including the metros.

A bulk of the commercial complex developed by LIC is being used to earn rental income, company executives said.

In Kolkata, for instance, the state-owned company is developing around 700,000 square feet of commercial area opposite the Science City, LIC zonal manager R R Dash said.

The company acquired the five acre plot from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation for over Rs 276 crore through a bidding process and is working on a 50-storied commercial building that may be the tallest building in the eastern city. It has already short listed around 10 design consultants for the project that is estimated to cost around Rs 400 crore.

LIC Chief Engineer BK Banerjee said that during the last five years, the PSU’s rental income has increased four folds and during 2007-08, in the eastern zone it stood at Rs 22 crore.

“We expect that in the current fiscal the rental income would be close to Rs 30 crore in the Kolkata region. We would like to double this in the next two years,” Banerjee said.

Elita Garden Vista, a 1,278-unit complex, is being developed on a 25-acre land parcel in Action Area III of the Rajarhat Township by Keppel Land Limited, the property arm of the Keppel Group, one of Singapore’s multinational behemoths with core businesses in offshore and marine infrastructure and property.

Keppel Land’s Indian partners in the project — the first in the city being developed by Singapore realty major — are the Jatia Group and the Puravankara Group. It’s set to be ready by end-2011.

Earlier, the Salim and Ciputra groups from Indonesia and Universal Success Group of Jakarta-based NRI Prasoon Mukherjee had kicked off the Kolkata West International City in west Howrah.

“We are happy to establish a footprint in Calcutta, which is one of the fastest-growing cities in India. We plan to do at least three more projects here, both in the residential and retail/commercial segments in the next five years,” said Albert Neo of Keppel Land, the marketing director of Keppel Magus Development Pvt Ltd, the consortium developing the New Town project. Keppel Land won the FIABCI award in 2005 (the Grammy equivalent in real estate) for its Caribbean at Keppel Bay, Singapore.

The Garden Vista complex in Rajarhat has Architects 61 of Singapore as the landscape consultants, while the project design was done by local architect J.P. Agrawal. The condos will be housed in 15 towers, with the tallest going up to 30 storeys.

Besides recreational amenities like a central swimming pool, a clubhouse, a gymnasium and a children’s playground, the complex will have features designed to suit the needs of IT professionals. “Calcutta is among the most significant IT growth centers in India after Bangalore and Hyderabad and our project, with an average unit price of around Rs 50 lakh, has been created to facilitate the lifestyle of the executives in the new-age service sectors,” said Neo.

“This project will provide a huge fillip to Calcutta’s property market,” feels Pawan Agarwal, of realty agents N.K. Realtors.

Prodded by Mayor Bikash Bhattacharya, the civic body is now preparing a list of major defaulters. Under the glare are some nationalized banks, government departments and private commercial estates. According to KMC estimates, around 55 such defaulters owe the civic body Rs 110 crore as property tax, high enough to bore holes into its development plans.

The authorities have decided to issue a distress warrant to all major defaulters, failing which the properties would be attached. A KMC official said the properties of habitual offenders — who have repeatedly ignored reminder notices to clear their dues — would be attached.

That’s not the case for government properties. The civic bosses have decided to go slow on that count after nationalized banks started paying up following an intervention by municipal commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay.

Even Central Excise authorities have paid Rs 1 crore and promised to pay at regular intervals.

But a KMC list specified that Rs 22 crore is pending from 11 nationalized banks. Some of the defaulters are Punjab National Bank, Bank of India, and State Bank of India, United Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and West Bengal Cooperative Bank. Bandyopadhyay conceded that the banks plan to clear their dues. “We have held meetings with the chairpersons, who have assured of all cooperation. Some banks have even started paying the dues,” he added.

Some of the other defaulters include the animal husbandry building on Belvedere Road, the commercial tax building on Beliaghata Road, the KIT chairman’s office on CIT Road, the South Eastern Railway headquarters at Garden Reach or Bengal Chemical’s office on Ganesh Chandra Avenue. According to KMC, outstanding taxes add up to more than Rs 50 crore. However, according to a senior KMC official, some of these defaulters have made partial payments and have promised to pay the rest.

This apart, some private commercial establishments such as a foreign bank on Shakespeare Sarani or an office complex on Park Street are also on the KMC list of defaulters.

Things had earlier changed for the better after former mayor Subrata Mukherjee acted tough with a couple of five-star hotels. The mayor had obtained a go-ahead from the court to snap water supply to the defaulters. The threat worked wonders and the KMC mopped up an additional Rs 50 crore.

Gujarat real estate wins the second position with investments worth Rs 30,000 crore whereas Maharashtra comes third after West Bengal.

As compared to other Indian metros, Kolkata offers cheap cost of living which serves as its biggest attraction. Despite such a high growth, the prices of essentials in the city are much lower, says Mr. Lakshmi Narayanan, CEO of RBI.

Despite all the benefits, Kolkata requires significant improvements in its infrastructure or the property boom will get limited to already developed areas like Rajarhat, Salt Lake, and Durgapur.

Improvements in the city will pave way for more investments and make the investors feel confident about selling their real estate projects, adds Narayana. Kolkata in any case will add up to 250 million sq ft of built up space, for which an investment of more than Rs 37,500 has been earmarked.

The demand for properties is shooting up in areas such as Greater Kolkata comprising Garia-Narendrapur, Behala-Joka, Rajarhat, and Howrah.

No slump has yet been identified in the growth as there is a huge housing shortage in the country. Kolkata possesses an untouched potential and is likely to see an astronomical growth of 25-30 per cent in very near future, avers Narayana.

In a tie-up with Bank of India, the customers can avail loan from Rs 10,000 to Rs 10 lakh for one year to three years.

Featuring the latest entrant into the furniture market, the fair had everything from extended dining table, folding sofa-cum-bed and single bed with attached centre table and the other imported furniture from Malaysia, France, Belgium, China, and Italy. The elitism of the fair was due to its feature of lending loans to buy furniture, a concept introduced for the first time in the city, says Vishnu Aggarwal, owner of a furniture showroom.

People generally shop and avail loans for automobiles, homes, and education as per their priorities. Now, they will be taking the loans to buy furniture of the latest and modern designs. High cost of the furniture is seen to be a major factor hindering middle class shoppers to opt for their selected furniture.

The fair indeed offers a bedroom package with a wardrobe costing Rs 1 Lakh.

The furniture house featuring an electric baby cot operated with a remote control along with necessary office equipments costing Rs 25,000.

The fair got a decent response on the very first day with two customers having booked the office items and a dining table through loan option.

Such options render good chances to the customers to know about the imported furniture. The old misconception that the costly furniture is only meant for high class seems to loose its significance in the wake of such loan options, adds Aggarwal.

This kind of mela will surely form a channel and bring an array of benefits for shopping enthusiasts in the long run, says Lakhan Hembrom, marketing officer of Bank of India.

Visitors have all praises for such loan mela which helps them to think about adoring their homes with expensive furniture.

The authority also has plans to take up a multitude of other construction projects with private partners, on its land in Kolkata.

The Fort Group will pay Rs 75 crore as compensation for the land and take up responsibility of relocating 160 families living in a ‘rickety’ estate that now stands at the site. The residents of the estate will be shifted in flats to be built by the Fort Group, informs P.R. Baviskar, CMDA chief executive officer.

There were several prominent builders bidding on the lucrative contract. The list includes the names such as Paharpur Cooling Towers (Rs 57crore), South City group (Rs 55crore), Salarpuria group (Rs 35.51crore), BMW Industries (Rs 10.67crore) and Mumbai’s Unity Infrastructure (Rs 3crore). Beating all to punch, the Fort Group emerged as the winner.

The company had earlier bagged the contract for building a residential estate and a circuit house on a state government plot in Gol Park. It had also pitched for the redevelopment of Park Circus Market, owned by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation, but lost to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail.

The group had earlier bagged the contract for constructing a residential complex and a circuit house on a plot owned by state government in Gol Park. With all such construction projects in bag, the Fort Group has certainly fastened its seat belts to carve out a substantial niche in the fast flourishing city of Kolkata.

A small aircraft which was repeatedly flying over the area at a low altitude perplexed the villagers, giving them an obscure idea that industrialists were on board the aircraft to search for land. At stake was their rich, which the government is planning to acquire for the development of the Barasat-Raichak Expressway.  The violence that followed was unexpected.

When the aircraft returned on Thursday morning, panic turned into anguish with villagers taking to the streets in protest. The message was loud and clear that people were rejecting government plans of development at the cost of their land.

On being informed of the violence, the district magistrate Prabhat Kumar Mishra was stunned and claimed to have no prior information about such an aerial survey.  Since a low-flying plane had been repeatedly sighted, the DM had words with the state Secretariat but drew a blank.

He then contacted officials at Netaji Subash Chandra Bose International Airport. The authorities informed him about Dornier carrying out sorties to fine tune the ILS.

The flights were being conducted to check the accuracy of the instrument landings system and calibrate the glide slope that provide the vertical coordinates over the runaway to allow pilots to land in low visibility conditions.