Latest Property News on 'Retail Market in India'

FDI in Retail will Create Millions of Jobs- Sharma

Making a strong case for FDI in India’s multi-brand retail, Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma has said that entry of global retail giants would help create millions of jobs and not weaken the unorganised sector as feared. Dismissing “septics and scare mongers” who say FDI in the sector would lead to job losses, Sharma said “it (FDI) will generate millions of jobs from sorting to processing to packaging to marketing”.

“I do not see a situation where the unorganised retail sector will be weakened (by allowing FDI) because they are also moving, modernising and competing,” he said. He was here to participate in the ‘India Show’organised by industry body CII. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), under Sharma’s charge, had floated a discussion paper on FDI in the sector and is in the process of formulating a policy. Read More »

LIC to Invest Rs 1000 crore in Mall Cum Office Complex at Mohali

Insurance major Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) today said that will invest a sum of Rs 1,000 crore to develop a mall-cum-office complex at Mohali. “The expected investment in developing a mall-cum-office complex in Mohali will be Rs 1,000 crore and it may be ready within one-and-a-half to two years,” a senior LIC official, who declined to be identified, told reporters here.

On 9.6 acres of land LIC has proposed to build 6 lakh square feet of area for this project. “Three lakh square feet will be developed for shopping and a mall while remaining 3 lakh square feet area will have offices,” he said. Currently, LIC is in the process of hiring an architect for this ambitious real estate project. Consultancy agency IL & FS has also submitted its report on how to go about this project, he revealed. Read More »

BPTP’s Plans Residential Project “Park Arena” in Faridabad

BPTP has announced the launch of its new residential project — Park Arena — in Faridabad. Starting at a base price of Rs 2,750 per square feet, Park Arena is spread over approximately 10.5 acres of land, and is a sports theme based group housing offering a range of 2 BHK, 3 BHK and 4 BHK (Duplex) apartments, according to a company press release.

Park Arena is located in Parklands — the signature BPTP integrated township in Faridabad spread over approximately 1,415.49 acres of land with saleable area of 57.99 million sq ft. Parklands comprises residential plots and independent floors, villas, high and low rise group housings, convenience commercial complexes, IT park, IT SEZ along with other social infrastructure like clubs, hospitals, schools, police post and places of worship. The project is in proximity to the existing NH-2 (Delhi-Agra) as well as the upcoming Faridabad-NOIDA-Ghaziabad expressway which will connect Faridabad, Noida and Ghaziabad.
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HDFC Increases its Retail Prime Lending Rate (RPLR)

After a gap of two years, mortgage leader HDFC has increased its retail prime lending rate (RPLR) by 50 basis points to 14.25 per cent.
Significantly, the lender has not said anything on the continuation of its “teaser rates loans”, launched late last year and which was supposed to end yesterday.

“This (the hike) is in line with the current rates of interest in the economy, which have hardened in the last few months due to rising inflation and tightening of liquidity in the domestic market,” HDFC said in a statement, adding that the new rates will be effective from tomorrow.
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Aditya Birla Group Plans to Expand its Luxury Retail Chain

Aditya Birla Group, promoted Madura Garments Lifestyle Retail today said it will set up its high-end luxury stores -’The Collective’ in three new cities next year, besides expanding in the existing locations. The company currently operates two stores, one each in Mumbai and Bangalore that sell high-end luxury apparel and accessories from brands across the world under ‘The Collective’ banner.

“We are opening the third store in Delhi on Sunday and the plan is to explore opportunities in Chennai, Chandigarh and Hyderabad by next year. We will also look at opening more stores in Mumbai and Delhi,” MGLRC Chief Operating Officer Ram Iyer told PTI. Iyer, however, did not specify the total number of stores the company is planning to set up in 2011 saying that talks were currently on with the real estate developers. The company is likely to make an investment of about RS 40 crore in next year. “One store entails an investment of Rs 8 crore,” Iyer said without specifying the total investment planned. Read More »

Consumer Affairs Ministry Gives Green Signal to 49% FDI in Multi-Brand Retail

The Consumer Affairs Ministry has given the green signal to allow 49 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail. It has written a letter to this effect to the Commerce Ministry. India currently allows 100 per cent FDI in cash-and-carry operation and 51 per cent in single-brand retailing. Foreign investors are barred from investing in multi-brand retail. Additionally, the Ministry also sought that a model law be first put in place at the State-level to protect mom-and-pop stores from the impact of the ‘Big Boys’ of retail.

“Multi-brand retail should be permitted with a cap of 49 per cent. A significant chunk of investments should be spent on back-end infrastructure, besides logistics and agro-processing,” the Consumer Affairs Ministry had said in response to the discussion paper floated by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion in June on allowing 100 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail. Read More »

Ambuja to Build City Center Mall at Siliguri

Buoyant over the success of its multi-utility commercial property projects City Centre-I (at Salt Lake) and City Centre-II (at Rajarhat), Ambuja Realty has now come up with its third City Centre, this time round at Siliguri, on the foothills of the picturesque of Darjeeling district. More importantly, it has lined up three more City Centres — all beyond Kolkata and in fact two of them are outside West Bengal.

Harshavardhan Neotia, chairman, Ambuja Realty, said that while City Centre at Siliguri has come up with a capital outlay of Rs 280 crore, the three other City Centres at Haldia, Raipur and Patna would involve an investment of close to Rs 550 crore. Patna City Centre will be ready by the end of the current year, Raipur City Centre will be ready by December 2011 and City Centre Haldia will be up and running by 2012, he said.
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Wal-Mart and Carrefour Ask Govt to Allow 51% Foreign Investment in Multi-Brand Retail

Two of the world’s top retailers, Wal-Mart and Carrefour, vying for a cut in India’s organized retail pie, have asked the government to allow up to 51 per cent foreign investment in multi-brand retail. India allows 51 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in single-brand retail and 100 per cent FDI in cash-and-carry or wholesale trading.

Wal-Mart has partnered Bharti Group to operate cash-and-carry wholesale stores and intends to continue the tie-up for multi-brand retailing. Bharti Wal-Mart believes that FDI in multi-brand retail should be permitted without any restrictions. They believe it will create conditions for greater flow of investments to the back-end with related benefits for farmers, small businesses and consumers.
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RBI to Consider Prudential Provisioning in November

Subir Gokarn, deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, spoke with DNA on the state of monetary affairs. He said he doesn’t see a realty bubble now, but the central bank will consider prudential provisioning in November - though it does not rule out an early clampdown if the situation rises. We are back to, if not above, the 2007 peak in real estate prices. What’s the RBI’s position on realty prices? We haven’t seen you beginning to stamp down using provisioning.

Just two aspects on that — one is that from a monetary perspective, the only way to deal with real estate prices is to reign in liquidity, to raise interest rates, to make borrowings more expensive - in short, make money less attractive. We have started doing that. Now we have broken up the cycle — into half-yearly ones where we take monetary and policy-related actions, and the quarterly cycles where we take only monetary actions. So, the provisioning issue would typically be done in either the April or the October-November policy. Read More »

FKCCI Opposes FDI in Retail

The blood of 160 million Indian families will be on the Centre’s hands if it allows foreign direct investment (FDI) in the multi-brand Indian retail market, corporate consultant and economist S Gurumurthy has said.

Addressing the Federation of Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) on the dangers of FDI in retail market at a city hotel on Tuesday, he said the West was trying to hoist a failed system on India, which had strong familial and savings culture helping it withstand the recent economic turbulence caused by the ‘consumerist America’. Read More »