Gurgaon One Sector 84- The Epicenter of New Gurgaon

January 28, 2011   Subscribe Newsletter

Gurgaon One Sector 84, a premium residential project is about to be launched by renowned real estate developer Alpha G:Corp. Gurgaon One sector 84 is their second offering after Gurgaon One sector 22.

Alpha G Corp Development Private Limited is one of the fastest growing professional companies in the Indian real estate industry with projects spread across the country including Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Delhi NCR, Fatehabad, Gurgaon, Goa, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Jaipur, Meerut and other cities in Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. These developments encompass an area of more than 30 million square feet.

Gurgaon One Sector 84 epitomizes the principles of design that exudes openness, maximized greens induced with sensitive landscaping and an unprejudiced approach in planning. The high-rise towers placed at appropriate distances from each other allow a visual and physical connection between the site and beyond. Seven such towers are placed along the periphery of the site with the large expanse of landscaped green within in. A landscape of approximately 6 acres becomes the soul of the project, unifying the various elements together. Two basements have been planned to create ample parking space for the residents.

The design of each of the buildings is such that apartments extend out into the green like flanges though interconnected through a central core. Each apartment seems to float into the landscape enjoying a sense of individuality and freedom of space with ample sun light, ventilation and views.

The Offering
- 2 bedroom Unit (1181 Sq.ft)
- 2 bedroom Unit with utility (1427 Sq.ft)
- 3 bedroom Unit with utility (1826 Sq.ft)
- 3 bedroom Unit (L) with utility (1923 Sq.ft)
- 3 bedroom unit with study & utility (2087 Sq.ft)
- 4 bedroom unit with utility (3194 Sq.ft)

Strategic Location

View the Original article

Awkward Shape of Buildings a Big Hurdle for WallMart

Expansion happened too fast… which led to overcapacity’ It might sound odd and a bit funny too, but a big hurdle that WalMart faces in India is the awkward shape of buildings constructed by developers. Prohibitive real estate prices in the big cities too have forced the world’s largest multi-brand retail company to open all its cash and carry stores in smaller cities.

Doug McMillon, President and CEO, Walmart International said that the company was keen to invest billions of dollars in India, but it will have to wait till the government allows foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail.

View the Original article

Housing Prices can Appreciate in 2011

January 28, 2011   Subscribe Newsletter

People in India will have to shell out more money to buy a house this year due to increasing input costs and huge demand and supply gap, a report said today. “About 70 per cent of the home seekers are pretty convinced that they will have to shell more money to buy a house in 2011, as compared to last few years,” Track2Realty, a real estate market tracker, said in its report. The survey was conducted in 10 major Indian cities including Delhi, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Chenai and Allahabad.

Majority of the brokers and property agents said that the property prices would remain bullish in 2011 mainly on account of “huge demand and supply gap and ever increasing input cost”. The report also said that those planning to sell houses this year would get higher returns. About 72 per cent believe that if they missed the chance to buy a house now, “they may not be able to but it ever”, it added.

Real estate developers and consultants yesterday said that the RBI’s decision to hike policy rates by 25 basis points will affect the sentiment of the property market. The RBI has raised short-term lending and borrowing rates by 25 basis points each.

News Published Under:   Banking and Finance, Delhi, Gurgaon, Home Loans, Noida, Property Prices, Pune, Real Estate Developers, Real Estate India, Real Estate Trends

View the Original article

SBI to Continue its Teaser Home Loan Scheme

January 31, 2011   Subscribe Newsletter

For someone who has built a reputation of standing up to the regulator, State Bank of India chairman Om Prakash Bhatt is unlikely to let his image change as he prepares to step down in March after a five-year term as the head of the country’s largest lender. Despite the regulator going public with its concerns on the so-called teaser rate home loans, SBI is likely to continue with the scheme, where rates are fixed during the initial few years before turning flexible. “Every quarter we look at the data. It is data-based. If it’s good, then I would extend it,” said Bhatt, the longest serving chairman in recent years. “The NPAs on my loans are the lowest and I also have the collateral of the customer’s house.”

With nearly 80% of his home loans being under Rs 10 lakh, Bhatt said the real beneficiary was the aam aadmi. “About 2.92 lakh people have got loans. Where is the tease in the product? There is no risk and there is no opacity. There is no dilution of loan appraisal norms or documentation. Every Indian is eligible,” he said.

Though it was rivals such as HDFC which first raised concerns over these schemes, RBI recently asked banks continuing with the scheme to set aside more funds to deal with possible defaults in the future. Following this, SBI tweaked its offer and told RBI that it was no longer offering teaser rate schemes that required provisioning. Now, other players such as LIC Housing Finance are also using SBI’s stance to argue their case.

The difference in position over the fixed-cum-floating rate offer, which has been on for nearly two years now, is not the only issue on which the regulator and the public sector player have differed. RBI first raised concerns over SBI’s plans to float a private equity fund, which eventually put on the backburner.

Then came the tiff over provision coverage ratio that required banks to set aside funds to cover 70% of their gross bad debt. In this case, SBI managed to get certain flexibilities and an extended deadline though its profits may be hit. The latest set of differences arose over structuring of loans given to corporate houses and Bhatt said his position on the issue had been supported by the government too.

He, however, said there was no question of his relations with RBI being strained. “There are a few issues on which we differed with the regulator. But that’s in the nature of things. If you are the largest financial conglomerate in the country, often the regulator may do things that are not appropriate for us, or for the system. We give feedback on a regular basis and sometimes it gets into public domain. There are no interpersonal issues,” he said. Is it the size, accounting for three-quarters of the banking business in the country, that allows him to defy the regulator? “That’s a strong term. Tell me, had I been wrong, would the finance ministry or the regulator have not said anything. What power do I have? Who knows a simple pahadi like me? I can always be removed anytime,” said Bhatt.

Asked about his plans post-retirement, he said there were a few offers but he would only decide around April-May. But he seems to be retiring with a sense of satisfaction with what he has done. After all, he has brought much-needed aggression. “Focus, not aggression. Hopefully it should continue,” he said and listed creating a leadership pipeline, steps to improve technology and productivity in retail banking as areas that were work in progress.

News Published Under:   Banking and Finance, Delhi, Gurgaon, Home Loans, Mumbai, Noida, Property Prices, Real Estate Developers, Real Estate India, Real Estate Trends

View the Original article

DLF Reports Marginal Drop in Quarterly Earnings

February 1, 2011   Subscribe Newsletter

DLF Ltd said it was cautious on the near-term outlook as rising interest rates could weigh on demand after the top-listed Indian real estate firm reported a marginal drop in quarterly earnings. Property prices in major cities like Mumbai and Delhi have more than doubled over the past 18 months, spurred by rising incomes and a strong stock market, but sales volumes are down by a third from a year ago as high prices and rising borrowing costs deter buyers.

New Delhi-based DLF said late on Monday consolidated net profit fell to 4.66 billion rupees ($102 million) in its fiscal third-quarter ended December from 4.68 billion rupees a year ago. Revenue rose 21 percent to 25.94 billion rupees from 21.51 billion. India’s central bank last week raised interest rates for the seventh time since March, to curb stubbornly high inflation, and mortgage rates are expected to move into double-digits. The central bank had also tightened loan rules late last year by asking mortgage firms to limit loans to 80 percent of the asset value.

“With inflation becoming a serious concern and due to the inadequate supply side measures, it is feared that overdependence on monetary policy alone to bring inflation to reasonable levels could result in a sharp deceleration in economic growth,” DLF said in a statement. Rising land prices have also added to developers’ costs. DLF said it expected its housing projects volumes to grow but would not hesitate to moderate volumes if needed, as it focuses on protecting margins. HSBC Securities last month downgraded DLF and second-ranked listed property firm Unitech saying it expected the companies to miss their volume outlook for the year to March 2011 and issue conservative guidance for the next fiscal year.

Ahead of the results, shares in DLF, which is valued at about $8 billion, closed 0.4 percent higher on Monday in a Mumbai market that fell 0.4 percent. DLF shares fell nearly 20 percent in 2010, underperforming about 17 percent rise in the main index .BSESN. The real estate sector index .BSEREAL lost more than a quarter of its value in 2010.

News Published Under:   Banking and Finance, Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Property Prices, Real Estate Developers, Real Estate India

View the Original article

40.4% Dip in Real Estate Stocks since Diwali

February 1, 2011   Subscribe Newsletter

Since the muhurat session on Diwali, when the BSE sensex closed at an all-time high of 21,005, software stocks have emerged as the safest bet, safer than even traditional sectors like FMCG and pharma, while real estate stocks were the worst performers. The data on the performance of sectoral and other indices since Diwali shows that BSE’s IT index has gained nearly 3%, while the real estate index, which is at the other end of the spectrum, has lost 40.4%. The other laggards on the sectoral front are banking with Bankex down 20%, capital goods index down 19%, and PSUs down almost 18%. Compared to these indices, the sensex and the NSE nifty are both down by 12.7% and 12.8% respectively. Even when compared on a monthly basis, the realty index is down nearly 22%, while the IT index has lost 6.7%%, and the sensex 10.6%.

Market players say while a number of headwinds that the real estate sector is facing are the reasons for the current investor apathy towards realty stocks, the low level of institutional holding in this sector compared to sectors like IT and banking, also affected the sector’s performance. A recent sector report by Edelweiss Securities said that although the demand for housing in India continues to be robust, rising interest rates, increase is residential prices in some cities crossing the peak levels seen is 2008, and rising construction costs will continue to be dampeners for the sector.

On the other hand, software stocks are rising because of strong quarterly results, improving economic situation in the US, the largest export market for most of the leading Indian IT services companies and also the depreciation of the Indian rupee against other major currencies, market players said. Brokers and dealers also said that the currently sliding phase of the market has also unnerved retail investors as memories of 2008 and 2009 are still fresh, and they are in hurry to sell.This is clear from the fact that BSE small-cap index has lost a little over 23% since the muhurat session on Diwali day, while the mid-cap index is now down 21%. Compared to the sensex and nifty stocks, which are the preferred picks for fund managers, retail shareholding in midcap and small-cap counters are much higher. And this is one of the reasons why the slide in the small-cap and midcap indices are so much more than that in sensex and nifty, a dealer with a local brokerage explained.

News Published Under:   Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Noida, Pune, Real Estate Developers, Real Estate India

View the Original article

Alpha G:Corp to build Rs 400 cr-Gurgaon, Township

February 2, 2011   Subscribe Newsletter

Realty firm Alpha G:Corp today said it would develop a group housing project in Gurgaon at an investment of Rs 400 crore. The company would build 670 housing units on a 12.5 acre land, which is owned by Magnum International. “The project cost is Rs 400 crore including land cost,” company’s Director and CEO S K Sayal told reporters.

The investment would be largely met through bank debt and advances from customers, he added. Alpha G:Corp, which is 60 per cent owned by foreign investors including Morgan Stanley, will soon launch this project at an inaugural rate of Rs 3,400 per sq ft, but the company is looking at a realisation of over Rs 3,800 per sq ft from this project.

Morgan Stanley has 14 per cent stake in the company. Alpha G:Corp’s completed developments and upcoming projects encompass an area of more than 40 million sq ft.The company’s business model entails undertaking of projects through acquisition, joint venture development and real estate asset management. Apart from national capital region (NCR), Alpha G:Corp is developing projects in Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat.

News Published Under:   Banking and Finance, Delhi, Gurgaon, Property Prices, Real Estate Developers, Real Estate India

View the Original article