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Coming soon: Affordable housing policy for all

In two months, India could have a brand new affordable housing policy, an effort to give some boost to a weakening real estate sector.

The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (Mhupa) is in the process of finalising such a policy in two months, reports Business Standard.

The government had already allowed external commercial borrowing (ECB) for low cost houses in India in the annual Budget. But the real estate companies are not too keen on this segment because of the low margins.Hence the government is now trying to make affordable housing attractive for the developers as well.

The policy will raise the floor space index to compensate developers for high cost of land and also ease density norms, the Business Standard article says. It would give capital and interest subsidy to developers. Even government land would be auctioned on the basis of who could build maximum number of low cost houses.

The Mhupa has also built an internal committee to fast track the process of granting approvals of housing projects in a bid to reduce costs by 25-40 percent, reports the Economic Times. Approvals would be given in six-eight weeks as against almost 70 approvals they require at present which typically take between two to three years.

A recent example of such a case is the allegation by the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry and the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India that plan to construct 500,000 affordable homes in Mumbai, Thane and Raigad districts of Maharashtra is gathering dust due to “inaction and policy paralysis” on the part of the state government. Such projects could be better executed with some sort of a single window clearance system.

On the other hand, the government is also making strict riders for the ECB borrowing so that money cannot be borrowed for low cost housing and transferred to other segments. “We do not want a situation where the land mafia is trying to raise such funds from abroad. Only genuine developers, who are building affordable housing projects should be able to avail such loans,” Indian Express had quotes a a finance ministry official as saying.

So the government could mention specific projects and developers that could access the ECB funds and also mention specific channels like National Housing Bank to borrow the funds.

Ansal Projects seeks denotification of its SEZ in Gurgaon

NEW DELHI: Ansal SEZ Projects has approached the government seeking to surrender its special economic zone in Gurgaon after the imposition of minimum alternate tax and global economic uncertainties.

The request for denotification of the SEZ will be placed before the Board of Approval (BoA), which is scheduled to meet on May 22.

The BoA, headed by Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar, will also consider the requests of developers like Uttam Galva Steels, Mumbai SEZ Ltd and Mahindra and Mahindra which have sought more time to execute their projects.

“The developer (Ansal) has requested for denotification of the (IT/ITeS) SEZ due to economic meltdown, lack of demand and imposition of minimum alternate tax (MAT) and dividend distribution tax (DDT),” the BoA agenda said.

Another 10 developers have asked for more time for their projects, it said.

Since December, 2008 to March 15 this year, the Board has approved 46 cases of de-notification.

Earlier this month, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce has recommended the government to check such a trend of denotification which defeats the objective of higher industrialisation and exports.

During the 2011-12 fiscal, exports from SEZs grew by 15 per cent year-on-year to Rs 3.6 lakh crore.

The Committee also asked the Commerce Department to tighten the norms so that only genuine cases can get the approval.

Unhappy farmers go on rampage

NOIDA: After the Allahabad high court rejected the review petition of villagers in Noida Extension, a small section of farmers unhappy with the order went on a rampage targeting projects of several builders. Other farmers were, however, happy that the Allahabad high court had turned down the plea made by the Greater Noida Authority in its review petition to not dole out hiked compensation and developed plots to non-ancestral lands of villagers.

Soon after news of the order reached Noida Extension, some agitated farmers took to the streets and targeted under-construction properties of developers. They blocked traffic at the Gol Chakkar in Noida Extension for a few hours. The angry crowd was dispersed following police intervention. “After getting news about farmers agitating in the region, we reached the spot and our officials managed to quell the agitation,” said SP (Rural), Ashok
Kumar.

The police informed that no case has been filed into the incident of violence. “We are likely to register a case into the matter,” Kumar added.

Farmers’ counsel, Pankaj Dubey, informed that after facing rejection from the high court, where they had sought land to be given back to farmers, they would now challenge the October 21 verdict in the Supreme Court.

Other sections of farmers have expressed happiness over the fact that the plea made by Greater Noida Authority, vide its review petition, in which it had expressed its inability to pay hiked compensation and developed plots to all farmers has been turned down. The Authority had asked for relief from the high court in granting it order to pay compensation and plots only to those farmers who had ‘ancestral lands’ in the region as against ‘non-ancestral lands’ belonging to those who are not originally from the region but own land in different villages.

“The Authority had been trying to make a difference between ancestral and non-ancestral land in the region in giving compensation to farmers,” said Ranveer Pradhan, president of a farmers’ organization, Grameen Panchayat Morcha. “Not only was the Authority shy of giving any developed plots in lieu of acquiring ‘non-ancestral’ lands, they had also been paying 10% less compensation to owners of such lands. It is a matter of great satisfaction that farmers across the board are eligible to get 64% hiked compensation and 10% developed plots now that the high court has upheld its original order delivered on October 21,” said Pradhan.

The Grameen Panchayat Morcha said that there is a vast amount of land in the Noida Extension region which the Authority had classified as ‘non-ancestral’.

What stops adminstration from implementing solutions?

GURGAOn: In a recent newspaper article on Malaysia, a senior columnist mentioned hope and anger as two motivational factors for civil action. In the context of Gurgaon, I would like to add two more – dismay and frustration.

We, who stay in Gurgaon, start with hope. We feel we have some special knowledge and the time and energy to devote to improving our society. We make suggestions to the authorities in the hope that these will be implemented. We even volunteer to spend our time. Then we wait and discover that our hope was misplaced. After that, we experience dismay followed by frustration, and then anger.

One example of this is our water and electricity situation. We had 57 sectors in Gurgaon earlier. When we heard that the government was planning to increase the number of sectors, we wrote to them that the electricity and water available in Gurgaon were not even sufficient for the present population and this was the condition when nearly half of new Gurgaon was still under construction or was yet to be occupied.

We pointed out that it would be foolhardy to increase the number of sectors till such time that the electricity and water problems of the present and projected population in the existing sectors were satisfactorily addressed. Then we waited in hope.

The government went ahead and doubled the sectors in Gurgaon. This will increase the demand for electricity and water to at least three times the present demand – demand, mind you, not supply. There was talk of getting additional water from the second canal and some additional electricity from new power plants.

However, even if these worked on a 100% efficiency basis, these would not suffice to meet the full requirement of even the present residential, industrial, commercial and agricultural sectors in Gurgaon.

Since then, the supply of water and electricity has become even more critical. The groundwater level is sinking, water harvesting remains mostly on paper and check dams in Aravalis are yet to be seen in adequate numbers. Residents’ hope has now crossed the dismay stage and we are frustrated at the excuses given by the administration time and again. The next stage is anger.

Another example concerns our traffic regulation and law and order. Years ago, we found that both these needed significant improvement. We identified the root cause as lack of enough manpower and training. We wrote to the administration and waited in hope.

Almost five years later, we find that the situation has become worse. Almost 1,500 officers are missing from the sanctioned strength of about 4,800, which itself is low for our population. The existing officers and men are overworked – 12- to 18-hour duty for policemen is the norm. VIPs further eat into these scarce manpower resources. We have entered the dismay and frustration phase. With the doubling of sectors, the situation is even more critical. The next stage is anger.

When the population becomes angry on one front, it can perhaps be managed. When it becomes angry on a number of fronts, then it is a time-bomb ticking under the administration and the government.

It is not difficult to calm this anger. None of the solutions is very difficult to implement. The power supply companies can be professionally managed by qualified directors who are accountable, water harvesting and check dams can be expedited, new water pipelines laid on a war footing, sewage cleaning machines increased in number, many more officers and policemen appointed and so on.

The voters are at the last stage of the hope/ dismay / frustration / anger cycle. The question is – will our government wake up by itself or will it wait till the electoral lynch mob is at the door?

Government fast-tracks mass rapid transit projects, appoints managing director

GURGAON: To fast-track the mass rapid transit projects in state and for better coordination with Delhi Metro for its extension to the NCR cities, the Haryana government made the formal appointment of managing director (MD) for the Haryana Mass Rapid Transport Corporation Ltd (HMRTC). Considering the role that the state’s industrial agency HSIIDC will play in this crucial venture since the MRTS stretches would connect future industrial townships, HSIIDC managing director Rajiv Arora has been given the additional job. Arora could not be contacted since he is out of the country.

“The reasoning behind the establishment of HMRTC is to ensure better coordination with all agencies. We are hopeful of extending Delhi Metro from Faridabad to Ballabhgarh and similarly from Gurgaon to Manesar. While these projects will need coordination with DMRC we have to talk to the Railways and Union urban development ministry for the rapid rail corridors,” said a senior government official.

The two priority rapid rail corridors will cover portions of Haryana in the NCR. The first stretch will be from Delhi to Panipat and the second one will be between the national capital and Alwar.

Moreover, the chief minister has announced the plan to lay an orbital corridor in the NCR to improve connectivity across the region. “There is a huge task before this new agency. The MRTS between Delhi airport and Bawal has already been finalized. If industrialization in NCR pushed the state economy, now we need to focus on transportation and connectivity,” said an industry department official.

The HMRTC will have a corpus in which the state government will have 51% share, HUDA with 29% and HSIIDC will have 20% ownership.

The government has already approved a corpus of Rs 100 crore for the company which would include paid-up capital of Rs 10 crore.

The office of the company would be located either in Gurgaon or Panchkula. It would carry on the work of planning, designing, development, maintenance and operation of mass transit and other urban transport on its own or in association with other undertakings or agencies through a turnkey contract. It would also be involved in building new transit routes and providing all infrastructural facilities.

हाईवे पार बसने वालों को मिलेगा भरपूर पानी

गुड़गांव। दिल्ली-जयपुर हाईवे के पार बसने वालों को भरपूर पेयजल आपूर्ति के लिए हुडा ने कवायद शुरू की है। इस बाबत हुडा की इंजीनियरिंग विंग ने सर्वे के बाद नया बुस्टिंग स्टेशन बनाने और पाइप लाइन बिछाने का प्रस्ताव तैयार किया है।

मास्टर प्लान के तहत बसने वाले सेक्टर से पहले अपने पुराने सेक्टर की सीमा में पाइप लाइन बिछाने और पानी उपलब्ध कराने के लिए सेक्टर-72 में बुस्टिंग स्टेशन बनाने का प्रस्ताव तैयार किया गया है। दस करोड़ रुपये की लागत से बनने वाले स्टेशन को दो साल के भीतर तैयार किया जाएगा। इसमें बसई वाटर ट्रीटमेंट की ओर से आने वाली नई लाइन को जोड़ा जाएगा। हुडा के चीफ इंजीनियर पंकज कुमरा ने बताया कि हुडा के सेक्टर में रहने वाले लोगों के साथ कॉलोनाइजर इलाके में आने वाले क्षेत्र को जोड़ा गया है।

वर्तमान में हुडा के सेक्टर-27 से लेकर 57 तक पानी की आपूर्ति के लिए दो बुस्टिंग स्टेशन हैं। इससे सेक्टर-16 के बुस्टिंग स्टेशन से हाईवे से सटे इलाके में पानी की आपूर्ति होती है। कॉलोनाइजर इलाके में सेक्टर-51 बुस्टिंग स्टेशन से पानी की आपूर्ति होती है। नए शहर के इस एरिया में कुछ जगह पर लोगों को बोरवेल के जरिए भी पानी दिया जा रहा है। ऐसे एरिया में लंबे समय से नहरी पानी की मांग की जा रही है। पिछले दिनाें जनस्वास्थ्य विभाग ने हुडा से जानकारी मांगी थी। इसमें अगले पांच वर्ष के लिए पानी की मांग का ब्योरा मांगा गया था। जनस्वास्थ्य विभाग मांग के अनुसार अपने संसाधनों में बढ़ोतरी करेगा। हुडा की इस दस करोड़ की योजना से डीएलएफ, यूनिटेक, अंसल से लेकर अन्य कॉलोनाइजर इलाके में बोरबेल के पानी की आपूर्ति अधिक होती है। इन इलाकों में नहरी पानी की आपूर्ति बढ़ाने की योजना है।

20 एमजीडी हो रही है आपूर्ति
हुडा की ओर से हाईवे पार बस चुके लोगों को 20 एमजीडी पानी की आपूर्ति होती है। इसकी क्षमता बढ़ाकर 30 एमजीडी करने की योजना है। बारह साल पुरानी पाइप लाइन होने के कारण आए दिन पाइप लाइन फटने लगती है। सेक्टर-72 में बनने वाले बुस्टिंग स्टेशन से पुराने इलाके में 10 एमजीडी पानी की आपूर्ति बढ़ाई जाएगी।
कहां-कहा नहीं पहुंचा है पानी
सेक्टर-52, 54, 55, 56, 57, आरडी सिटी, साउथ सिटी आदि ऐसा क्षेत्र है, जहां पर हुडा की ओर से पानी की आपूर्ति नहीं हो पाई है। इसे ठीक करने के लिए ही हुडा की ओर से प्रस्ताव तैयार किया जा रहा है। इसके तैयार होने के बाद प्रोजेक्ट को हरी झंडी मिलेगी।

पानी की बर्बादी तो 32 लोगों पर ठोका जुर्माना
25 लोगों से पांच-पांच सौ और सात लोगों से दो-दो सौ रुपये वसूले
गुड़गांव। हुडा सेक्टर में पानी की बर्बादी करने वालों पर सख्ती बरती जा रही है। रविवार को हुडा की टीम ने सेक्टर पांच में रहने वाले 32 लोगों का चालान किया है।
हुडा प्रशासक के आदेश पर रविवार को एसडीओ विजेंद्र के नेतृत्व में एक टीम सेक्टर पांच पहुंची। वहां पर गाड़ी धुलने से लेकर पानी की टोंटी खुली पाने जाने पर जुर्माना किया गया। कुछ मकान मालिकों ने फर्श की धुलाई के बाद पानी को सड़क पर बहा दिया था। हुडा की टीम ने 27 लोगों से पांच-पांच सौ रुपये वसूले, जबकि सात लोगों से दो-दो सौ रुपये वसूले। हुडा प्रशासक डॉ. प्रवीण कुमार का कहना है कि पानी के दुरुपयोग को रोकने के लिए गठित की गई टीम को खास तौर पर निर्देश दिया गया है कि पहले एक बार सर्वे कर लोगों को इसे रोकने की चेतावनी दे। दोबारा भवन मालिक की ओर से लापरवाही पाए जाने पर उनका चालान काटे। गुड़गांव एरिया में भूजल का स्तर लगातार नीचे जा रहा है। ऐसे में पेयजल की एक-एक बूंद बेशकीमती है। लोगों को पानी की बचत के लिए जागरूक होना होगा। शुद्ध पेयजल को बर्बाद करना एक जुर्म है। इसे किसी कीमत पर सहन नहीं किया जाएगा।

Mumbai’s residential mkt shows negative growth

New Delhi: The residential market in Mumbai showed a negative growth of -9.1% during March 2011–2012, according to the latest Knight Frank Prime Global Cities Index, which compares the performance of prime sales markets across key global cities.

The value of prime property in the world’s key cities fell by 0.4% in the first quarter of 2012.

This represents the index’s first quarterly fall since the depths of the global recession. Overall, the index rose 1.4% in the 12 months to March 2012.

The prime markets in North America performed strongly with prices increasing by 7.7 % on average in the last 12 months

Nairobi (up 24%) was the strongest performer in the last 12 months while prices in Dubai (up 4%) rose the most in the last 3 months

The first three months of 2012 brought with it little new momentum. The Eurozone’s debt debacle remained at the forefront of the global economic agenda, several critical elections were on the horizon (Russia, France, Greece) and Asia’s highly-effective cooling measures showed no sign of being relaxed. Against this backdrop some luxury buyers took to the sidelines to observe their market’s trajectory.

Despite the overall index’s sluggish performance four prime markets achieved double-digit growth over a 12-month period; Nairobi, Jakarta, Miami and London. Perhaps most surprisingly is the fact that the top five performing cities were spread across four continents – North America to be the only continent to appear twice (see overleaf).

London and Singapore are proof that there is still a level of resilience in the prime markets with both cities shrugging off the introduction of new stamp duties in the first quarter of 2012.

In London both prices and applicant numbers increased despite the stamp duty rise to 7% for individuals buying homes over £2 million. In Singapore the new 10% stamp duty for foreign buyers, which was introduced in December 2011, dented demand but not prices, according to Nicholas Holt, Knight Frank’s Asia-Pacific Research Director.

In Knight Frank’s the overall index will remain subdued in 2012 fluctuating between marginal price falls and rises (with London, Moscow, Jakarta, Nairobi and Singapore expected to be the strongest performers) but it seems unlikely we are on the cusp of a new deflationary cycle in luxury global house prices.

The safe-haven argument still resonates. Capital flight will continue to focus on cities with low political risk, transparent legal systems, good security and ideally those with an HNWI-friendly tax regime.

mjunction eyes Nokia Siemens land in Kolkata to build IT campus

KOLKATA: mjunction Services Ltd, an equal e-commerce joint venture between Tata Steel and Steel Authority of India ( SAIL) plans to acquire a 9 acre plot in Kolkata where Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) runs a loss-making landline gear manufacturing unit.

mjunction, which conducts e-auctions of steel and coal on an electronic platform, has been scouting for prime real estate in the city to set up an IT campus. Nokia Siemens is likely to shut down its Kolkata plant as part of a global decision to sell non-profitable fixed-line assets worldwide to cut losses.

It has 73 employees in the Kolkata unit who were recently offered a voluntary separation scheme that will cost the company Rs 14 crore, averaging a pre-tax payout of Rs 15-20 lakh per employee.

NSN is an equal joint venture between Finland’s Nokia and Germany’s Siemens. Nokia Siemens Networks in an internal memo to Kolkata employees, said that due to “circumstances beyond control, there was a compelling necessity to review the limited work at the factory and resources including, manpower”.

mjunction confirmed it is interested in the land if Nokia Siemens shuts down the Kolkata telecom factory.

“The Nokia Siemens site seems a good fit and we are very keen on developing our IT campus there. We are looking at exploring this opportunity and start conversations with the West Bengal government,” said Viresh Oberoi, founder CEO & managing director, mjunction Services Ltd.

Nokia Siemens India said it would not comment on the land issue since it involved one of the parent companies. mjunction’s move comes at a time when the West Bengal government wants an IT park to come up on the land in the event NSN shuts down its landline gear unit.

The state government has told Siemens — the owner of the NSN factory land — to honour its earlier pledge of setting up an IT park within the complex since a majority of the land is idle.

A senior bureaucrat in the state government said Siemens had not come up with any concrete plan towards this, post-discussions. “We have told Siemens to either set up an IT park or vacate the land, since there is serious paucity of land for IT projects in Kolkata,” said a senior state government official.

Siemens has declined to comment to ET’s emails on its discusions with the state government on building an IT park on the NSN factory site. The Mamata Banerjee government has directly approached Siemens since NSN is a tenant in so far as the Kolkata unit goes.

Though the factory building and equipment were handed over by the erstwhile Siemens Public Communication Network Ltd (SPCNL) to NSN five years ago post-formation of the Nokia Siemens JV, the land remains with Siemens.

Home sales hit peak in 2005, dipped post mill land deals

The real estate market may be buoyant about the sector slowly inching towards recovery after a long lull, but the market has never really bounced back for home buyers from the 2005 peak. Figures collated by Newsline from the registration office show that sale of homes in Mumbai had hit a peak in 2005, when the market was most efficient, with 89,843 houses being sold that year.

In a sign of the sharp rate at which realty prices have soared since then, as also heavy investor presence, home sales have been plummeting thereafter — the only jump was from 57,344 in 2009 to 79,909 in 2010 — and only 63,501 properties were registered in 2011.

This is a sharp 30 per cent decrease despite a manifold increase in number of residential projects in recent years.

Realty analysts state that from 2005-2006, it has been cataclysmic for the housing market in Mumbai in many ways. A variety of factors such as aggressive mill land deals, opening of the segment to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as well as an artificial choking of supply paved the way for a speculative investors’ market.

It was in 2005 that the National Textile Corporation (NTC) sold its five mill land parcels at record rates to realty majors such as DLF, Indiabulls, Lodha and Kohinoor group triggering a ripple effect that struck at the very base of housing affordability.

Pankaj Kapoor, CEO of real estate research agency Liases Foras, points out that a perfect example of this is Sheth developers increasing prices in its Beaumonde project in Dadar overnight by 100 percent after the nearby Kohinoor mills was snapped up by Raj Thackeray and Unmesh Joshi, son of Sena leader Manohar Joshi, at an eye-popping rate in July 2005. “The prices at which mill land deals took place were most unproductive and no project was viable at that high a cost. While a couple of those projects haven’t taken off till date, others raked in a profit by getting the government to increase the FSI in specific cases. However they effectively jacked up property prices across Mumbai,” said Kapoor. The average per square foot rate for a house, which was Rs 2,600 prior to the mill-land deals, was catapulted by 400 per cent to Rs 10,800 per sq ft over the next seven years.

According to Liases Foras data, 2005 was also when home loan interest rates were at its lowest at seven-eight per cent, coupled with a low inflation.

“Until then, residential projects were financed by proceeds of sales to end-users. This changed in 2005-06 when a lot of money started pouring in from FDI and private investors making the property market capital-driven. Between 2001 and 2005, Mumbai’s realty prices grew by only eight per cent year-on-year. Since then, the annual price increase has been 21 per cent even as the increase in income has been only 11 per cent,” said Kapoor. Post 2005, a total of Rs 48,820 crore has come by way of FDI into the Indian realty market (in addition to domestic funds), 40 per cent of which fuelled Mumbai’s realty market alone.

“In recent years there has been a huge affordabily gap with prices crossing all levels. A comfortable house in Andheri was available for Rs 30 lakh a decade back. Today one will have to go to Nallasopara or Kalyan to get one at that price,” said Gulam Zia of Knight Frank.

He added that the sky-high rates have driven people to peripheral areas such as Kalyan-Dombivli, Vasai-Virar and Mira-Bhayander. In fact, figures released by the census directorate earlier this year shows that of the 35 districts in the state, the South Mumbai belt is the only one to have actually witnessed a decline in number of households between 2001 and 2011 even as nearby districts such as Raigad and Thane have registered exponential population growth in this period. The data also shows that as many as 4.79 lakh houses are lying vacant in Mumbai mainly due to high prices.

Tehsildars cannot execute sale deed without informing Huda

The Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda) has restricted all tehsildars (block revenue officers) from executing sale and gift deeds without the prior knowledge of the Huda estate officer (EO). A direction issued in this regard on Saturday states that any such deed made without the knowledge of the EO will create confusion in plot ownership records at Huda office.

“It has been decided to recommend that a letter may be issued to all the tehsildars to execute the sale deed/gift deed only after a no-objection certificate (NOC) is issued by the concerned EO so as to update the accounts of Huda allottees and avoid incomplete information of allottees on computers,” reads the direction.

According to Huda, the original owners as per authority’s records remain unchanged in cases of plots’ transfer or sale as neither the original owner nor the buyer bothers to update the same in EO records.

The direction would be binding upon both parties. They need to inform the EO before and after the registry – for sale-purchase purposes – of the plots.

“Huda does not have updated records of plots in which ownership changed. People sold or transferred the plots to third parties but did not inform the office of EO, which happens to be the custodian of such deeds,” said Sanjay Sharma, general manager, IT, Huda.

“I haven’t received any such letter from Huda. I can comment after going through the directions,” said Satbir Singh, district revenue officer, Gurgaon.

The direction came after Huda’s IT department raised the matter issue with the department’s chief controller of finance.