Monthly Archives: January 2008

Important Issue For Repatriation Of Sale Proceeds Of Residential Or Commercial Property Purchased By NRI or PIO

 NRI PIO can repatriate the sale proceeds of immovable property, provided property was acquired out of foreign exchange sources i.e. remitted through normal banking channels or by debit to NRE or FCNR (B) account.  The amount to be repatriated should not exceed the amount paid for the property.  Repatriation of sale proceeds of residential property purchased by NRI or PIO out of foreign exchange is restricted to not more than two properties. Read More »

Asipac tied in to build up real estate project in Brazil

Bangalore, Jan 29 Bangalore-based real estate consulting firm Asipac has been requested to join a association that is developing Rs 70,000-crore luxury real estate project in Brazil.

The project is sketched on 6,350 acre site, the company said in a statement.

The project is being promoted by a association of investors based in Brazil, France, Spain and Taiwan.

Asipac’s role will be to do a detailed possibility study, help lift $1.2 billion development capital for the project, manage the master planning and design process, get co-developers and area operators, and oversee universal marketing & sales efforts Asipac expects to produce a fee of about $85 million from the project.

After receiving approvals from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), it will incorporate an offshore subordinate based in London to undertake its commitments.

Asipac has a fee order book of $65 million and expects to earn fee income of $30 million in FY’09 and more than $80 million in FY’10, apart from the Brazil project.

Important Issues Regarding Property Dealing By NRI/ PIO

 India’s first super luxury mall is ready to open in Bangalore.   CNBC-TV18’s Faye D’Souza and Ramya Ramamurthy get a sneak peek.  UB City is the first of its kind super luxury mall in the country.  It is preparing to put lots of brands forward to the brand lovers in Bangalore.  Louis Vuitton store, Gucci, Dunhill, Ferragamo, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Moschino and Stella MacCartney brand names are the attraction point of this mall.  This mall will be opening for customers on April 01, 2008.  Property price has got a new peak in the city due to the mall.    Read More »

Oberoi Constructions Expands Garden City

Oberoi Constructions Private Ltd is well-known as leading developer. Now Oberoi group is on the way of expansion. They have decided to set up three ‘Oberoi Garden city’ township in Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad. Initially they started ‘Oberoi Garden city’ project for Gurgaon east and Mumbai. New three townships will start with an area size of 80 acres each. Mr. Vikas Oberoi, managing director, Oberoi Constructions Private Ltd told FE, “For acquiring land for each planned township project, we will be investing Rs 1,000 crore which will be followed with further investments as well for development of townships”. The company has also decided to get the funds from internal accruals.

Mr. Oberoi said “Our first Oberoi Garden City’ in Mumbai will be ready in the next four years. In a tie-up with Starwood, the hospitality chain, we are planning to develop a hotel at Gurgaon. For developing hospitals, we are talking to developers and planning to partner with them. We hope to garner gross revenues to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore from one project in four years. We should do revenue of Rs 3,000 crore in the year 2009.”

Besides this, Oberoi Constructions is also planning to rise with an initial public offering (IPO) in September 2008. Mr. Oberoi acknowledged “We still have to evaluate the exact valuation for the IPO. Through the IPO, we are looking at developing close to 15 mn sq ft of real estate, which can accommodate homes, hotels and shops”.

Rreef Enters Indian Real Estate

Rreef has entered into the Indian real-estate sector with initial investment of $70 million. Rreef is known as global alternative investment manager business of Deutsche Bank. Rreef would be taking an undisclosed stake in Bangalore and Hyderabad based Golden Gate Properties Ltd. Rreef has no specially India dedicated fund, it has invested from its global fund. The reason behind such strategy is that Rreef looks forward to be a part of coming boom of real estate market. It currently owns $97.3 billion in assets under management worldwide.

Mr Kishore Gotety, Head, real-estate advisory services, Deutsche Asset Management, said, “Rreef has not taken a majority stake in Golden Gate”.

Mr Kurt Roeloffs, CEO of Asia Pacific, Rreef said, “India is a particularly attractive emerging real-estate market for our high return-oriented clients and in time will mature into an important investment destination for Rreefs broader base of institutional and retail clients. Golden Gate Properties can provide us with an important cornerstone for further investment in India.”

Golden Gate primarily deals with residential apartment projects in India. It has a collection of 10 completed projects, out of which eight are residential apartment and two are commercial projects within Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Emaar MGF and Fortis Healthcare Joint Venture

21 January 2008: Emaar MGF and Fortis Healthcare plan to form a joint venture to set up 25 hospitals across major cities in India, with an investment of Rs 1,200 crore. Main aim of this healthcare plan is to provide the features of “one-stop shop”. That’s why they have decided that hospitals will provide upper secondary and lower tertiary levels of treatment. Each hospital will have 75 to 125 beds.

Emaar MGF and Fortis will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the 50:50 joint venture. This joint venture will be an exclusive arrangement mandated to set up the hospitals in ten years from the time the first site is transferred or acquired.
Read More »

South Mumbai Emerges As New Real Estate Destination

Premium resident, retail houses, commercial places and hotels are the identity of south Mumbai. Big entrepreneurs, businessmen, diamond-merchants, expatriates, top echelon of multinationals, Indian conglomerates and high net worth individuals are resident of this posh area. Supply has been completely exhausted in this area. No fresh supply can be injected. With the release of mill land, the future development has introduced new commercial development supply in this area. Still lots of mills are under development so new limited supply is predictable in near future.

Worli is taken as the most attractive area of Mumbai. Back office companies, retail investors are taking worli as a nice destination. It has famous Jaslok and Breach Candy Hospital at a short distance and moreover, the upcoming project BWSL (Bandra Worli Sea Link) will establish the connectivity of worli with other parts of the city.

As far as residential trends of south Mumbai is concerned, south central Mumbai is emerging for new high end residential activities. Current capital values for residential buildings in this area range well between Rs. 8,000 to 35,000 per sq. ft. From last three years the opening of mill lands for real estate development has increased the growth of south Mumbai.

Worli is an old settlement developed adjacent to the mills district and highly populated central Mumbai localities. There are many prominent residential, commercial and retail addresses which were sought after destinations in the past and even today. There are many good schools and colleges, hospitals and entertainment and leisure facilities present.

Proximity to the business district of South Mumbai, and retail hub at Kalbadevi, Masjid Bandar areas and more importantly its view of the Arabian Sea have made Worli a prime residential neighborhood. Many old chawls are being redeveloped into high-rise towers with a host of facilities. These cater mainly to the high income group sector. Further, the development at the mill lands is also targeting high-end customers. In the near future, Worli as well as the mill district of Parel will see more of high-end residential along with commercial, retail and hospitality developments. The neighborhood area will emerge as the most preferred location for real estate spaces in the city.

Lok Housing Constructs Residential Projects In Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune

Mr. Lalit Gandhi, chairman and managing director, Lok Housing & Constructions says that they have decided to initiate around eight projects in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore in coming six months.

The proposed projects will cover 42-50 million sq ft saleable area, and 60 % of this will be residential development and is likely to fetch revenues of Rs 22,000-25,000 crore by completion in the next five to seven years. Read More »

NITCO Will Establish Separates Realty Company

21 January 2008: NITCO Group has decided to hive off its realty business into a separate company. Till now, NITCO is into tiles and real estate and distribution both. At present NITCO real estate arm is at 500 crore. NITCO will list NITCO Realties when its real estate arm achieves sales of Rs 1,000-1200 crore.
Read More »

Kochi- An Emerging Real Estate Industry

Leading real estate developers like Ansals, Confident Group, DLF, Emaar MGF, Housing Development and Infrastrure, Nitesh Estates, Oceanus, Prestige Group, Purvankara, Sobha Developers, Unitech and Parsvanath Developers all have shown their interest for investment in kochi. All leading real estate developers have invested over $2.5 billion.

Kochi is known as the industrial center of kerala. A lot of NRIs are showing their attention towards Kochi. The City offers grand investment opportunities for real estate and huge number of NRI’s are interested to buy homes in Kochi. One of the major factors of this fast growth is rise in number of IT job opportunities. Along with IT industry, city is also growing with tourism and international trade and hence the demand for office space, hotels, restaurant and retail outlets are growing. An industry observer and a former builder said, “Property development and real estate activities have overshadowed the state’s booming tourism sector. This boom witnessed the emergence of many developers and projects”.

Dubai Internet City has chosen Kochi to set up a Smart City project, and for IT and media hub. The initial investment for the Smart City, being executed by the DIC management will be over $400 million. The Smart City would come up in a vast, 1,000 acres of land in the outer edge of Kochi.

In past days, Kochi was not recognized as commercial or industrial investment place but current trends illustrate kochi as an indicator of a revitalize and strong economy.

Sharp Rise Is Possible In Mhada Flat Cost

The state housing board, Mhada decides to raise the rate of sale flats in its various projects by double. The main goal of Mhada was to provide housing at reasonable cost and now Madha puts forward the issue for increase the going rates of its flats by almost 90%. Earlier, flat price was fixed on the basis of 1992 state guide that considered the land acquisition cost and the construction cost for the structure for fixing the rate.

Data available with DNA exposes that a 485 sq ft LIG flat at Kannamwar Nagar in Vikhroli, which was earlier available at Rs. l, 350 per sq ft will now be sold at Rs2, 580 per sq ft. The percentage price hike in this case is 91%. This means a flat that could be bought at Rs. 6.54 lakh last year will now be priced at Rs. l2.51 lakh.

Similarly, a 652 sq ft flat at Pratiksha Nagar in Sion, earlier available at Rs ll.73 lakh (1,800 per sq ft) will now be sold at Rs21.51 lakh (Rs3, 300 per sq ft). The rates will first be implemented for 1884 flats to be put up for sale in January. Apart from Prateeksha Nagar and Kannamwar Nagar, other flats are located at Navghar in Mulund, Malvani in Malad, Patliputra Nagar in Oshiwara, Bimbisar Nagar in Gurgaon, Dindoshi and Tagorenagar in Vikhroli.

However, the opinion of Mhada officials is not in the favour of rise in the flat rates. They too think that this act will create an obstacle in the way to provide affordable housing for every income group.

Last available information is that the board’s vice-president Mr. T Chandrasekhar has ordered a meeting of senior Mhada officials to get their opinion.