Indian Real Estate – Ever-Expanding Territories

July 24, 2008 – 5:41 am

Real estate market in India is on the upswing while builders in India are rapidly investing in all the parts of the country. New constructions in this field are into an all-time growth. Indian property developers are buying plots in large number for construction of townships and residential complexes.
A study of the market trends for commercial property in India reveals a similar pattern of the rising rates and a closer look at the prevailing rates is necessary to get the best out of the property. Commercial properties in India are also on the rise with their flourishing constructions. Shopping malls, shops, big Corporate Offices, Movie Halls, Amusement and Recreational parks et al are in for investments by Real Estate Developers in India.
Huge number of properties is on sale in India, luxurious apartments, premium quality flats, independent homes, farm houses, penthouses, row houses - are some of the projects that are selling like hot cakes in residential property sector in India. Property developers in metropolitan cities are expanding their vision and investing in tier II cities like Pune, Surat, Coimbatore, Cochin, and Vadodara.
Property developers in Lucknow, such as Ansals have invested here in a township, Sushant City- Lucknow, which they name as “shaan of Awadh” or Awadh’s pride. Builders in Chandigarh like Axiom Estates are coming up with projects in residential sector. Real estate builders in Ludhiana are investing in residential as well as commercial complexes.
Builders in Hyderabad like Modi Builders are coming up with number of residential projects such as The Gardenia, The Golden Palms, Palm Springs and The Silver Springs. Builders in Cochin for instance, Abad Builders, Trinity Builders & Developers and Gokulam Engineers are establishing themselves in real estate sector and their construction and investments are showing up to be fruitful.
With the kind of growing economy buying, selling, investing and renting properties in India is considered a lucrative option by the people world over. Moreover, an increase in the property rate in the real estate market, even in tier- II or tier - III cities of India, is showing an upswing trend in building and construction. According to real estate agents in India, this is indicative, at least on one level, of a clear interest of people in buying or selling of properties.

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Real Estate Boom In Bhiwadi

July 24, 2008 – 5:40 am

Touted as a entrance to Rajasthan, Bhiwadi, falling in Alwar district and bordering Haryana is a key industrial growth centre in the NCR with over 2500 operational industries. Bhiwadi enjoys huge location advantage with IGI Airport, New Delhi, just fifty five kilo meter away and Gurgaon forty kilo meter away. Being close to Delhi and well connected by NH-8, Bhiwadi is attracting industrialists not only from the capital but also from Punjab and other parts of India.
Manesar, lying between Gurgoan and Bhiwadi, is another key industrial town with IT parks and proposed SEZ. As the prices in Gurgaon are already high, service class people are left with no choice but to go to Dharuhera, Manesar or Bhiwadi. Several private firms such as Ashiana, Parsvnath, Omaxe, Piyush group etc are developing integrated townships and group housing projects along the Alwar-Bhiwadi Road, the nearest and most reasonable destination.Today the real estate developers are quite upbeat about the brand Bhiwadi. Says Vijay Mohan, Marketing Manager of Ashiana Group, “In 1992 when we launched our group housing scheme, we had to sell Bhiwadi first and then our product but today, from the marketing point of view, it is much easier for us to sell because Bhiwadi is gaining fame and we are established as a brand in this locality. In 1992, people who had purchased flats from us for Rs 800/sq.ft. are today reselling them for Rs 2600/sq.ft. The three BHK villas that sold for fifteen lakhs rupees in 2003 today the same villas cost around sixty to seventy lakhs rupees.”
Explaining the reason for sudden real estate development in Bhiwadi,CEO of Infocus India, says, “Government’s plan to develop Mumbai-Delhi industrial corridor (Bhiwadi will fall under phase I) and the entry of several new multi-national companies in and around Bhiwadi have acted as catalysts.” He added, “In 2005, with the development of Gurgaon, Bhiwadi started gaining visibility. But the land, which used to cost twenty lakhs rupees per acre then, has jumped to one crore rupees per acre in 2007. In a year or two, it is sure to double.”

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JP Morgan Chase Buys 33% In Alok Infra’s SPV

July 23, 2008 – 7:10 am

Global financial giant JP Morgan Chase is investing Rs 130 crore for 33% stake in an SPV of realty firm Alok Infrastructure, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mumbai-based textile maker and retailer Alok Industries, according to banking sources.

Alok Infrastructure’s SPV, which is receiving the JP Morgan funding, will develop a realty project at a prime location in Mumbai. Alok Infra owns land at several prime locations in Mumbai, some of which it bought in high-profile transactions in the past one year. Alok Infrastructure had been in negotiations with some private equity players to offload equity in the main company.

A falling stock market and a sluggish realty sector of late has, however, brought down the valuation of realty firms forcing Alok Infra, as many other realty companies, to go for investment at the project or SPV level. Alok Infra may be looking at raising more funds through private equity route for its different projects.

The company’s biggest project under execution is the 180-acre textile SEZ at Silvassa in the union territory of Dadra & Nagar Haveli. The SEZ obtained the government’s formal approval last December. Parent Alok Industries plans to occupy one-fifth of the SEZ space for its textile and apparel units. The company is also in talks with other textile makers for space in the SEZ.

Earlier this year, Alok Infrastructure acquired 50% stake in Ashford Infotech, which would develop a million sq ft of space for Rs 400 crore. Ashford Infotech, now equally owned by Alok Infra and Ashford group, had earlier purchased a 6.92-acre plot from CEAT in a Mumbai suburb for Rs 130 crore.

Alok Industries reported a net sales of Rs 2159 crore and net profit of Rs 200 crore for the year 2007-08. Alok exports its range of textile products to as many as 58 countries, which contributes nearly half of the company’s sales. The company has been present across all textile segments, including spinning, weaving, knitting, fabric, garment and home textile.

Lately, the company has moved up the value chain and is increasingly strengthening its presence in retail in India as well the UK. The company retails its products under H&A brand name targeted towards the mass market. The retail division is being hived off as a separate wholly-owned subsidiary by the name Alok Homes and Apparel.

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Tier2 and Tier3 Cities Are Ready For IT

July 22, 2008 – 6:29 am

It always comes to hear that time is now ripe to go to Tier2 and Tier3 cities for IT and ITES companies. Being part of a big city or Tier1 city and being an SME, we keep wondering too whether should we go or not and if yes is the time ripe and if so, can SEMs go first or it is the business of the large corporations such as a Infosys, or a Wipro or a TCS to setup the operations and the ecosystem first and then the SMEs to follow?

Shimoga is a small town around 300 k.m north of Bangalore and it is considered as Tier3 city (Mysore and Mangalore probably fits under Tier2 tag). There are many such towns and cities in different cities which are considered as potential Tier2 and tier3 destinations for IT/ITES. Infact Shimoga happens to be the home district of the current CM and there is lot of hope and aspirations of the local community for attracting many IT/ITES companies over there and infact there is already an ITES company operating for last couple of years.

There are lot of advantages – you are away from the hustle and bustle of big cities and being part of a quiet relatively unpolluted environment, lower living costs, no traffic jams for sure, better quality of family life etc but the biggest advantage will be the land/realty price and especially more attractive if government can provide (thru SEZ etc) very subsidized land. But then again lot of cons go with that – lack of availability of talent, even if local talent exists will be tougher to pull them from the lure of big cities, fewer schools to support the ecosystem, additional expenses (which is not an issue for BIG IT companies) of setting up of every infrastructure item that is required, the quality of life off-office hours, the schools, the shopping malls, the night life what most of the IT and the ITES crowd expect – all these will be missing, and more than finding talent, retaining the talent will be a bigger issue expect for those who are from that town and love to stay and work there. Then again the expenses of running a firm in big cities is becoming extremely tough and challenging with rising inflation, fuel costs, real estate costs, attrition rates, traffic chaos, ever reducing of the quality time spent with the family, and in general dissatisfaction towards the ever busy polluted city life. The issue has become a chicken-egg issue with waiting to see which one will happen first – the IT companies moving to Tier2/Tier3 or is it the ecosystem first and then IT companies more there. Still better big companies opening it up first on a big scale so that they can or have the potential to make others to create the needed ecosystem to start with them but the early advantage will be lost for SMEs and as the land/rental prices would have increased, stealing the lone big advantage one could have got.

Many companies are finding it very difficult to hire talent and still tougher to hold onto them. Today’s talent is in spite of all the deficiencies and cons, still sticking onto metro life style with shopping and entertainment in the weekend which is clearly lacking in the tier2/tier3 cities. A NASSCOM- Kearney assessment of 50 leading locations for IT-BPO sector has pointed out that a lack of recreational facilities was a handicap for the tier-II and III cities. But the study on `location road map for IT-BPO growth’, had predicted that the share of sectoral employment in the top seven locations will decline to around 60-75% over the next decade and that will subsequently result in the rise of tier II and tier III cities’. SM Doshi, partner A T Kearney India, said, “But that cannot be achieved by only installing physical infrastructure like power lines and mass-transport system in tier II and tier III cities. Efforts should also be made to create an ecosystem that comprises social infrastructure with the trappings of metropolitan life”.

The industry experts believe that the first mover advantage does no way help IT companies attract skilled employees to these locations. When an ITES employee was asked by his company to get ready for a stint in a Tier3 location he decided to hunt for a new job. There are currently over two million employment provided by India’s IT-BPO sector, and over 90 percent of which is captured by the seven leading cities of Bangalore, Mumbai, NCR, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai and Kolkata. Less that 10% is relegated to tier2 and tier3 cities and a very low ratio indeed.
So do SMEs make the bold move and couple it with Government incentives and move also to Tier2 and Tier3 cities and to get that early mover advantage or wait until the Big ones move or there is a critical mass built and then move.

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IVRCL Infra To Sell Costly Land

July 22, 2008 – 6:28 am

City-based construction firm IVRCL Infrastructure and Projects has plans to sell its high-priced pieces of land, including the twenty five acre information technology special economic zone (SEZ) plot in Noida, and purchase low-cost property in the light of the downside in real estate business in the country. Read More »

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LIC Housing To Enter Venture Funding

July 22, 2008 – 4:28 am

LIC Housing Finance, the mortgage arm of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), is set to foray into the venture capital arena. It intends to start Rs 500 crore real estate fund by the end of this financial year.
LIC Housing Finance is reportedly scouting for a banking partner for raising capital and will soon approach SEBI to set up an asset management company. To invest in listed companies, companies usually register with SEBI.
Based on the response to the real estate fund, the company will decide on whether it will expand its presence in the venture capital space.
There are at least three major banks in the fray for a tie-up and a memorandum of understanding will be signed soon. While LIC Housing Finance would be the promoter of the real estate venture fund, LIC could also be one of the internal contributors of the fund.
LIC Managing Director Thomas Mathew said the insurer has no plans to directly enter the private equity or venture capital businesses.
The fund proposed by LIC Housing Finance will be used to finance real estate development and about fifty-sixty projects are likely to be funded over twelve to eighteen months.
A large number banks and finance companies have recently entered the venture capital space and the existing players are expanding their footprints.

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Domestic Hospitality Under Transformation

July 21, 2008 – 5:09 am

The domestic hospitality industry is undergoing rapid transformation, with several hotel groups investing in new properties across India and the globe. Additionally, real estate players are entering the industry through management contracts with established hotel chains.

This expansion in the hospitality business is taking place on account of the massive growth that India is likely to witness in the coming years. Currently, India’s travel and tourism industry is estimated at 6.1% of the gross domestic product (GDP) — below the world average of 9.9%.

The capacity for star-rated rooms in India is far shorter than its demand, and cities are now evolving from a single-business district to multiple-business districts, as growth spreads and cities get bigger. Moreover, new growth centres are emerging in previously untouched markets such as Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Pune and West Bengal, among others. This has greatly expanded the market for star-rated hotel accommodation in the country.

The hospitality industry is divided into four segments: luxury, leisure, business and budget hotels. Major hotel chains like Indian Hotels Company (IHCL), Hotel Leela and ITC Hotels are aiming for a presence in most of these segments.

For instance, the market leader, IHCL, is following an integrated approach to offer rooms at all price points and in almost all million-plus cities in the country. This is being complemented by setting up hotels at strategic locations across the globe. The company plans to double its room inventory to over 20,000 in 3-5 years. This includes around 3,000 rooms under the ‘Ginger’ brand, which is IHCL’s budget chain of hotels.

Meanwhile, ITC Hotels is using a mix of owned investment and franchisee model to take a shot at market leadership. The company offers a choice of over 90 hotels across 77 destinations in India under four different brands — ITC Hotels, Welcome Group, Fortune and Welcome Heritage. It also has four properties under the Sheraton franchise, which adds up to an inventory of 6,000-plus rooms, with half of the room inventory being at the premium end.

Hotel Leela has already started constructing hotels in Udaipur, Chennai and Delhi, while it continues to expand its existing properties at Bangalore and Kovalam. East India Hotels (EIH) plans to set up one new hotel each at Mumbai , Gurgaon, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Khajuraho. Besides, it is expanding its flight kitchen services in Kolkata and Mauritius, and plans to refurbish its existing properties.

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PEs, FIIs Ready To Buy Equity Stake

July 21, 2008 – 5:09 am

Real estate funds, PE players and foreign institutional investors are exploring options to buy equity stakes in listed realty companies, as valuations of these companies have fallen by over 65% during the past three months.

The move has also come as a blessing in disguise for these realty companies who have been finding it difficult to source funds after the RBI tightened lending norms to property developers following a global liquidity meltdown. Sources said that funds floated by majors such as HDFC, ICICI, Kotak and Anand Jain’s Urban Infrastructure Opportunities Fund as well as foreign funds are in talks with listed real estate developers to pick up minority stakes.

Although domestic real estate funds have raised over $2 billion during the past year, a major chunk of these funds is yet be invested. So, most real estate companies are keen to close such deals with the funds.

Mumbai-based Lok Housing chairman Lalit C Gandhi said, “There are 4-5 such proposals that we are working on. No deal has been finalized yet”. The company is in the process of raising around Rs 1,800 crore from the market. Interestingly, foreign institutional investment in various companies has also been on the rise since March.

Companies such as Orbit, IVR Prime, Kolte Patil and Peninsula Land have seen an increase in FII holdings, with IVR Prime and Orbit recording the highest such increase in institutional holding by over 1%.

Private equity interest in real estate companies has also revived as the slowdown in the economy has beaten down valuations, which were once quoting triple digit price earnings multiples when the market was at 21,000. Private equity players are now shifting focus from special purpose vehicle (SPV) investments in individual projects to entity-level investments. The fact that most of these real estate stocks have high promoter holding could leave scope for some equity participation by these private equity players.

Promoter holding in various companies has been going up sharply. Puravankara Projects and Akruti City have 89.96% promoter holding. If DLF was to go ahead with its entire buyback, it could have one of the highest promoters holding of 89.3%. DTZ director investment Amber Mahasweri said, “We are working on a few of such proposals. Though promoters are asking for a premium, many funds are keen to invest in the entity level”. DTZ is an international property consultant.

Many developers have also admitted that the investment bankers are also approaching them with proposals. “In the last two months, we have received as much as 12 proposals from PE players to pick equity stake. We are yet to come to any decision,” said Orbit Corporation head finance and strategy Ram Yadav. Realty stocks have fallen 65% from their 52-week high market capitalization. Companies like Parsvnath and Omaxe have already fallen by about 79% and 77%, respectively.

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A Township coming up In Siliguri

July 21, 2008 – 4:58 am

Although the debate for the renovation of a tea estate into a real estate project, Uttorayon township, a project of Luxmi Group, in partnership with Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority (SJDC) and West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC), and managed by the Ambuja Group, at Chandmoni in Siliguri, has completed two phases of development, and is scheduled to be complete by 2011. Read More »

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Prediction About Realty Trend

July 21, 2008 – 4:53 am

For now, the next few quarters could be the acid test for the sector. The stock prices of many real estate companies are under duress. DLF’s offer for a share buyback comes at a time when the stock price has been adversely hit. While one could argue that the overall sentiment is on a low, the fall in these stocks has hit the investor really hard.

At such high price levels for property, the buyer is taking his time which does not augur well for the developers. It is precisely for this reason that the uncertainty has stepped in.

HDFC’s Karnad admits that there are some pockets in India where prices need to correct further. “However, today, the real estate sector is going through a stage of over-pessimism,” she argues.

The story of the aspiring Indian middle class is hard to ignore and that could be urge to own a home could still make sure there is a healthy level of demand. Overall, the impact of a global slowdown on India is slowly being felt. It may affect Indian realty sector in coming time. However, NRIs affections towards Indian properties will not likely to be vanish in near future.

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