Haryana plans housing for the poor

After raising towering housing facilities in the National Capital Region (NCR), especially by the private builders, the Haryana Government has now decided to create some space for those who had helped in raising these buildings. The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) is chalking out a plan to complete formalities and identification of location for these houses after Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda directed the Authority in a recent meeting to create one lakh houses for the poor working in the NCR.

Interestingly, the Haryana Government had been pursuing the private builders to move to other districts than the NCR and had succeeded to some extent also but the NCR still remained priority area for the real estate developers. The real estate boom in the state had already seen the housing boom created by the real estate developers in NCR. The builders had so far resulted in raising of 3.25 lakh plots out of which 65,000 meant for economically weaker section (EWS) and 75,000 flats including 11,000 for EWS category.

Ironically, after reaching saturation point in Gurgaon and Faridabad, even the builders are now moving to the areas other than these two towns. A few builders are planning their projects at places like Dharuhera, Rewari, Kurukshetra, Panchkula, Hisar and Sirsa. “This trend is quite encouraging because this would create low-cost houses in these areas also by these builders.

Hooda had given clear instructions to the Authority to keep the cost of these houses under control and should build a two-room accommodation at a cost of Rs one lakh. “It is a difficult task because the construction cost is very high in the wake of rising prices of the construction material. But since the government want to build these houses at low cost we would try to complete the structure within the limit,” said a senior official.

Source://expressindia.com

PHDCCI to organise summit on real estate Chandigarh

Chamber of Commerce and Industry will organise a summit on investments opportunities in real estate and infrastructure in Chandigarh on January 12, 2007.

"The objective of the two-day summit is to identify opportunities in real estate and infrastructure investment in North India and to bring major stakeholders in various segments, including SEZ, housing, malls from the northern states - under a single roof," Convenor of the Summit R S Sachdeva said in a release here today.

The exposition would provide developers an opportunity to display their products to those wanting to invest in real estate, he said.

The year 2006 started on a promising note with the Government opening the construction and development sector in February and allowing 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment under the automatic route in order to spur investment in the infrastructure sector, he said.

Source://indiatimes.com

Up, up and rising

The real estate sector in India is on an upturn. In last 24 months, there has been an unprecedented growth where overall market has witnessed a 35 to 40% jump in capital values. Research estimates have it that the real estate market is expected to grow from the current $14 billion to a $102 billion in the next 10 years.

Forget the sizzling metros, even cities like Mohali,Chandigarh , Chennai, Rudrapur, Meerut, Pune and Kolkata have seen a price rise of 30 to 50% in the last one year. So what’s driving the realty market, specially in tier II & III cities? And are the prices real or there will be a correction in the market? Says Sanjay Chandra, MD, Unitech Group: ”The boom in the Indian real estate market during the last few years is a result of a number of positive macro and micro factors.

The macro factors are driven by the spectacular economic growth resulting in growing incomes as well as low inflation and interest rates. The micro factors include growing aspiration levels, availability of better quality real estate and a far wider range of choice for the same.”

The dynamics, however, seem to be changing on the ground now. There has been a 10-15% dip in real estate capital values in small cities in the last couple of months. And while some industry pundits attribute this to lesser number of transactions in some pockets, others say that this was expected in a market dominated largely by investors.

Says Kamal Taneja, MD, TDI Group: ”In certain locations across India, the residential market is witnessing a rationalisation of capital values because of which the market is finally establishing price thresholds. This trend is visible essentially in select locations, where new supply is being released in the market.
This additional stock will help feed the current demand and act as a stabilising factor to the continuous spiraling of values, over the next 8 to 12 months.” The huge disparity between the expected sellers and buyers price that was visible in the market over the last few months is dissipating, with an anticipated stabilisation of capital values, he says.

Developers, however, attribute it to uncontrolled land prices. “Land is our basic raw material. I do not rule out some corrections in the property market, but then developers can hardly do anything, given the prices most land owners have been quoting in tier II & III cities,” says Dr Devender Gupta, MD, DGS Realtors.

Source://indiatimes.com

Hilton-DLF venture to spend over Rs 600 cr

Global hospitality chain Hilton Hotels will form a joint venture with real estate company DLF Limited to build 75 hotels and service apartments over the next seven years in the country.
The joint venture firm, which will be 74 per cent owned by DLF, will invest Rs 643 crore over the next five to seven years.

Initially, 20 hotels will be built in cities like Calcutta, Chandigarh and Chennai.
The chandigarh properties will sport brands such as Hilton Hotels, Hilton Garden Inn, Homewood Suites by Hilton and Hilton Residences.
“India is an outstanding market for hotel development, given its powerful combination of economics and demographics,” said Ian Carter, chief executive officer of Hilton International Operations.

Hilton said the deal needed a formal written approval from the government. Last week, the cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) approved the proposal.
Union finance minister P. Chidambaram said Hilton had also been allowed to form a separate wholly-owned subsidiary at an investment of Rs 130 crore for the operation and management of its hotel business in India.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) had cleared the proposal after putting it on hold initially since the foreign investor did not have a no-objection certificate (NOC) from its JV partner, the Oberoi group, with which it has a marketing agreement.
“Since the foreign investment exceeded Rs 600 crore, the FIPB sent the proposal for the CCEA clearance,” said Chidambaram.

Source ://telegraphindia.com