Vikas Rikhye, Real Estate Blogger

The commercial property in Gurgaon, under present market conditions, is expected, if not on downward trend, then surely, it has to undergo slow and a static phase, for next few years. The investors in rat race to earn quick money, got swayed away by enthusiastic builders and promoters who had been responsible of developing commercial real estate in most unplanned manner.

In absence of “Real estate Regulatory Authority”, neither any survey has been conducted to determine the demand and supply ratio, nor the planned methods have been adopted to ensure the safety of the investor. The builder and promoters continue to develop commercial property with their ultra motives ignoring the responsibility of social justice, as a result several commercial properties in Gurgaon are giving a deserted look.

The commercial property can broadly be categorized as following:

• Commercial office space
• IT Business Parks
• Shopping Malls
• Shopping complexes open court yard style

About a decade and a half back there had been a great demand commercial office space in Gurgaon and Noida, as Delhi was unable to meet with rapid growing demand of MNCs, who had then just started moving to India for their operations for Indian as well as for the other Asian markets, as some of the MNCs opted Gurgaon for their regional headquarters, which had the advantage of close proximity to International Airport. With fresh demand the requirements were huge as several MNCs required large floor plates as a result, the companies like DLF & Unitech swung into action, as these professional companies had the ability and resources to deliver the results in a time bound schedule. Over a period of time the companies started settling and the demand gained stability. But having seen the success rate of DLF and Unitech, suddenly, there was a awakening call for new player in the field, who also attracted the investor and had their share of prosperity as well. While the demand was settling down, the enthusiasm of the investor and builder continued, resulting into several lacs of commercial office space lying vacant on prime locations like Golf course Road, Sohana Road and other prominent areas of Gurgaon.

IT industry offered new era of opportunities starting with Call centers BPOs, KPOs, setting a new avenues of employment opportunities. At that time Gurgaon was a good destination for IT MNCs because of cheaper office space and manpower. Suddenly Gurgaon witnessed the mushrooming of call centers. It is understood, foreseeing the massive demand the builder approached the authorities to approve more of FSI/FAR (more of coverage) for IT Building and after getting such approval again swung into action resulting into worst fate compared to commercial property as over a million of IT Space is lying vacant on NH-8, Udhyog Vihar, Sohna Road etc.

In as early as 2002-2003 Shopping Mall was a thrilling concept for residents of Gurgaon as well as Delhites as Gurgaon was pioneer in starting Shopping Malls. Loads of people would visit these malls to experience and share the unique experience of shopping world class brands, Food courts and PVRs. As soon Shopping Malls were commissioned in Delhi (Vasant Kunj-Saket-West Delhi), the foot-fall from Delhi visitor reduced and with availability of Metro residents of Gurgaon had an comfortable option of visiting Saket Malls. The Gurgaon-Mall fever was reducing amongst the visitors but it did not deter the enthusiasm of investors and builder as in the case as stated above Commercial and IT Space, and has met the similar fate as most Shopping malls on Sohna Road are giving deserted look, A well known developer has not been able to commission its malls on NH-8 and Golf course road. Even on prominent location of MG Road, while, one project seems to be abandoned while other two projects seems to be creeping towards its commissioning.

Besides Shopping malls there has been quite a noticeable growth of shopping complexes through out Gurgaon, Besides shopping areas as provided in HUDA Sectors , South City, DLF City and Sushant lok, it is understood that present estimated growth is over 2500 shops in the areas of Mayfield, Nirwana Country, South City-2, Malibu Town and Sohna Road, whereas, most of them are giving deserted look.

Seeing the gloomy picture of Commercial Real estate scenario it is suggested more thoughtful efforts should be made by all concerned for a balanced and purposeful growth and development.

Vikas Rikhye, Gurgaon Real Estate Consultant and Blogger

• Affordable Homes: Keeping in mind sky-high prices of land in Gurgaon, the price offered seems to qualify the category of Affordable Homes.
• Better Options : The offers provide of One, Two & Three Bedroom apartments.
• Easy Payment Plan: Projects being “Bank approved” have the option of housing loan with EMI repayment facilities .
• Gurgaon Master Plan 2021: Projects falling in line with “current development plans” of HUDA are right choice.
• Landscaped greenery, Security, Club House, Gymnasium & other essential services remain a common factor.

The following are some of the New Residential Projects in Gurgaon:

Uniworld Resorts by Unitech

Just off the NH-8,located on Sector 33 & 48 by the side of Sohna Road offers the options of 1BR+Study 825sq.ft 2BR 1060-1100 sq.ft,3BD+SQ 1535 &1545 sq.ft. Price Starting from (INR) Rs 36.08 Lacks & above.

Emaar MGF

Emaar MGF a JV between Emaar PJSC of Dubai one of the world’s largest infrastructure & Real estate development company and MGF, a well known name in Real estate sector in India, now presents low rise “Emerald Floors” at Emerald Hills in Sector-65 on extended Golf course road Gurgaon.

Offer: Choice of Independent Floors on Two different plot sizes as follows:
Plot Size- 267. sq.yds 3BHK, 3Toilets + SQ
Plot Size-350.sq.yds 4BHK ,3 Toilets, Family Lounge +SQ
Price :Rs 44.40 onwards

Some other New projects:

• Pioneer Urban - “Pioneer Park” Sector-61
• “Tulip Orange”. Sector-69-70
• “Centrum Park” Sector-103

In the current scenario, when companies are offering lucrative incentives & commissions , it is more important to check all the facts about the property/ promoter, than to be carried away by small temptations.

Vikas Rikhye, Gurgaon Real Estate Consultant and Blogger

The historic Global meltdown has also shown nationwide fall of Real estate prices. After a bubble like boom the bubble bust has claimed more than 30% drop in prices. It is also observed,that some of the builders are at the point of insolvency.Government is strongly adopting positive methods to restore the “confidence of common man” to acquire an affordable home.

Since, in the real-estate market has been hit most at the higher segment, therefore, it is felt that prospective buyers are showing interest in Low Budget houses / apartments, mainly in the range of 30-35 lacs & in some cases even lower.

It is understood from sources that in the month of January 2009, “the builder lobby” had expressed to the media that affordable houses were unviable.

But, after having sensed the market demand, many of Gurgaon Based builders and developers are being seen, launching new Projects , offering various low budget options.

With a most interesting observation, it is felt that, while under the Wave of Recession some of the prominent builders who had put their existing projects on hold , the same builders, now on other hand are launching new Projects , offering various low budget options.

All as stated above gives us a food for thought as to how: “affordable houses which were unviable are viable now”

Disclaimer

The Author is a freelance Blogger and real-estate consultant. The readers are advised to do their own research & analysis before taking any action. The author is not responsible for any consequence good or bad . The author is only delivering his views & inviting response in the way of comments/views from the readers.

This is a guest post by Mr. Saurabh Dhawan of India Medi Treat. You can get in touch with him at saurabh [dot] 3767 [at] gmail [dot] com.

The Article by Mr. Vikas Rikhye is a bitter truth which every Gurgaon resident mall realizes but somewhere doesn’t want to agree that the Retailers in Gurgaon are truly striving for existence. A lot of times while going towards Delhi from my old Gurgaon residence I feel like having a burger and ice tea but I don’t reason being are many, firstly the traffic, secondly the economy (spending Rs.30 as parking for a Rs.20 Burger is scary) and you cant stop your car for five minutes even as the recovery vans can take your cars. These are very basic things but this is what is eating the customer from the malls.

The builders sold the shops in mall at a time when stock market, economy, real estate market all were roaring high which meant higher purchasing power of people and the fact is that people in Gurgaon had good money and were willing to spend for good products. This lead to increased rentals for shops along with a heavy maintenance for upkeep of the mall. But no one was complaining as cash was the king.

Repercussions of financial meltdown on Gurgaon Shopping Malls

Now in post Sub-prime era the things have changed the real estate market has corrected badly, the Stock market is below 10,000 points and the big builders are looking for some shelter. The US sub prime has effected jobs in India, people have been given pink slips and uncertainty is prevailing among people who are in job whether there job is safe or not. This hysteria has resulted in reduced consumer spending and there is no doubt that the next two years are going to be tough for retailers and only the fittest will survive.

The retailers need to re-look into their marketing strategies. While walking through these deserted malls I realized that everyone had one thing in common. SALE yes guys SALE. From 20% to 70%, 50%+40%, buy 1 get 1, buy 2 get 3, buy 2 get 6 and so on. But I thought does their target market really knows it. The answer I guess is no. these malls don’t have heavy foot falls to attract there prospective customers.

I liked the way Kishore Biyani made money on our republic day. The Big Bazaar’s SABSE SASTE 3 DIN 24,25,26 January was a super hit. Big Bazaar advertised heavily from internet, mails, newspapers and YELLOWPAGES and community portals. The guy can surely make people run for money. What he did was buy in bulk and sell in bulk by passing the profits to customer. What was interested to note was that a good proportion of its sales came from its Online portal. Mr. Biyani was always sure that his Online store will be a hit among people in Metros and I guess he was true.

Now coming onto the small retailers I guess the need of the hour for them is to reach their customer desperately. They cannot go in for Signage as it is not affordable, a front page of news paper is too expensive for small to medium retailers but YELLOW PAGES sites( like www.yellowpagesgurgaon.com ) can be a comparatively cheap and effective medium. The customers who shop in malls are generally youth and people working in and around Gurgaon who are generally well read and computer savvy. By advertising there Special offers and seasonal discounts and sending mails to their customers through internet marketers the retailers can easily reach their customers. This is not something new and retailers in cities like New York and Melbourne have practiced with success. This out of the box effective medium can be a good savior for the retailers in the city. As it is said that winners don’t do different things but they do the things differently. Both have to reach the customer but it depends how you reach and how effectively you reach.

This is a guest post by Mr Saurabh Dhawan. Saurabh is promoting medical tourism through his website www.indiameditreat.com

The slowdown in global economy has pushed the medical budgets of the Americans and Europeans towards south. They industry veterans have revised there estimates of inflow of patients into India and they expect it to shoot up. The reasons are very logical. The meltdown has affected everyone.

The banks have been affected badly, the insurance companies which were covering the banks sub prime risks have suffered a severe blow, the people don’t have money to spend high for medical treatment there. I would like to quote this statement by Barack Obama “Computerize all health records within five years. The quality of health care for all Americans gets a big boost, and costs decline” , so the American Government has realized that it has to look for cost cutting measures in order to manage the crisis situation. In a nut shell the very obvious situation is that the people are looking for more budgeted avenues.

 We expect more people to follow suite for medical treatment in India. If we look at the stats we see that India actually comes out to be the most cost effective as compared to Thailand and Singapore with the same expertise and facilities. I think it’s the best time for India to pull up its socks. All the external indicators have fallen at the right place and now all the hospitals and medical tourism companies should be looking forward to market India as a global health tourism spot.

 When I talk about Health Tourism I talk about the Rejuvenation courses in Himalyas, Yoga in Uttranchal, Indian ethnic Spa’s (Eg. Ananda) and of course medical treatment. The problem in India is that we are still not able to market our products well. A good and planned marketing strategy can help us be pioneers in Medical Tourism and the BE THE DOCTORS TO THE WORLD.

Vikas Rikhye, Real Estate Blogger and Promoter

In absence of regulatory authority or a governing body, the real estate activities in India had been in highly un-organized manner but with socioecnomic awareness the real estate sector is also moving toward a positive direction.

Professional attitude of real estate companies and the presence of MNCs like CB Richard Ellis,Knight frank, Chesteron Meghraj & fast growing trend of property portals like 99Acres, Magicbriks,Indiaproperties etc are the indicaters of a “Professional Real estate” of tomorrow.

Still there is a large section which remains unorganised and non-professional. Add on of property dealers and so called Property conultant, who neither have proper knowledge nor experience in this field are making this profession as “Third Rate”. They seem to be a preffered choice of that sectionof society that believes in parellal Economy, as both can understand each other’s language very well.

Real Estate is a backbone of every economy be it a developing economy or a developed economy. In most of the developed countries real estate is a organized sector with licensed real estate agents who act as a very important intermediary between buyer and seller. The real estate agents is a specialized and organized work in developed countries where proper licenses are issued to real estate agents after going through a training procedure.An un-organized sector with no regulating authority /governing body reduce the transparency in transactions make them shady, speculative with uncertain market conditions thus making it a distant dream, for a common man, to own a property

Remedies suggested:

• Form a governing body: It is very important to form a governing body whoch has direct influence on the real estate players and which can give direction to the real estate market for its growth. 
• Fix the brokerage: there should be fixed brokerage for sale, purchase and rent deals etc in the market and no broker should charge a price above or below the market rate at any time. The prevailing rate of sale and purchase is anywhere between .5% to 2% of sale/purchase price.
• Education: learning is a very important tool for innovation and growth of an industry. If an Insurance agent is needed to clear an IRDA paper, an mutual fund seller needs to pass an AMFI exam and even a stock broker needs to clear a minimum no. of papers in order to exercise hid ticket in the stock market. So it is very important to device a paper which has a mix of mathematics and legal issues so that a real estate agent has proper knowledge on various obstacles or legal issues which can surface in a deal.
• Give License and code: After an agent is able to clear his exam then he should be issued a real estate agent license along with a code eg. xxx1986xx. Each and every agent should be provided with a unique code which will ascertain his identity and thus lead to reduction of frauds by brokers to buyer/seller.
• Get them in the Tax net: As the real estate sector was unorganized thus there is high level of tax evasion by the real estate agents. There is a remedy to prevent this. The unique code given to the real estate brokers will be given registered on legal papers of the deal and the records of same can be given to IT department. As each and every deal will be registered the brokers will be bound to disclose their brokerage.

Some of the thoughts & remedies as stated above have come from Mr. Saurabh Dhawan. Saurabh is 22 years of age and is pursuing MBA from IIPM. Saurabh is a Blogger, is promoting Medical Tourism in India

Vikas Rikhye,India Real Estate Blogger

Gurgaon is a city that is rapidly moving towards Globalized economy, but it the city requires, an effective planning for improvement in basic infrastructure to truly transform into be “world-class city” in coming years.An effective Transport system is the base for any infrastructure development.

Although eight lane toll expressway between Gurgaon and New Delhi, that provides non-stop connectivity to the I.G.I and the Domestic Airport and to Dhaulakuan in Delhi over a distance of 28 kilometers (18 miles), and includes 7 flyovers and 5 underpasses along the stretch, has made a remarkable comfort level to the commuters, still for main city of Gurgaon , a well planned efficient surface transport planning seems to be the basic need of the day.

While the road layout in the city is quite well-planned, but a drives to improve the condition of roads is very badly required.

Besides roads, the main problem of the city is its virtually non-existent city public transport. A handful of local buses plying on a few routes & besides cycle rickshaw the only other form of public transport is shared auto- rickshaw which are generally overcrowded.

Mainly Taxi service in Gurgaon is limited to Airport/Railway Station dropping/ picking. Besides taxis for the use of the ever growing call center and information technology industry. Gurgaon currently has 5 types of taxis. Normal Black top yellows taxis, auto rickshaw(the cheapest form of taxis in Gurgaon), tourist taxis, radio taxis and white taxis.

Generally, people in Gurgaon prefer cars to two-wheelers because of the dusty nature of the region, extreme weather condition, and frequent two-wheeler accidents. Most of the people in new township, own cars as the cream of the delhites have moved to Gurgaon. But an average white collar job person is desperately looking forward to improved means of transport system.

There seems to be only ray of hope when “Delhi Metro Rail Corporation” starts its operation to Gurgaon as expected by January 2010.

To be continued…

Vikas Rikhye,Real Estate Blogger

As we are aware that quite a few real estate companies had launched their IPOs in 2007,but major share of the cake was taken by DLF ,who bagged over Rupees 9000 crores.

Now it seems to be turn of Emaar MGF Land, a JV between one of the world’s largest Dubai based real estate group & MGF Group from India.

It is understood that The Motor & Finance Limited (MGF) one of the oldest finance company of India was incorporated in 1930 under the leadership of Shri Ved Prakash Gupta, the founder chairman of the company and under his guidance MGF became a leading Finance company of the country.

While Emaar Properties, Dubai - based Public Joint stock enjoys the reputation of a very successful track record of growth. Emaar Properties had been the Recipient of Best Developer” award in the year2006 in UAE for 2nd consecutive year.

With joining hands together Emaar MGF have acquired land bank of over 12400 acres,Spread over 22cities in 16 states of India. The company is developing properties in Residential, Commercial & Hospitality sectors across India. They have their ongoing commercial projects in over eight major cities in India.In near future, they have identified to get into Healthcare , Education & Infrastructure project as well.

It is understood that Emaar MGF has got the approval from ” Securities and Exchange Board of India” (SEBI) to launch its Initial Public Offering (IPO) This IPO seems to be the 2nd largest IPO in the country as it is expected to raise over 6000 crores. With offloading over Ten crore shares in the market & the share price is expected to be between Rupees 500-600 per share.

Emaar-MGF after bringing largest FDI in Real estate and now with this IPO makes it one of the strongest Real estate companies in India.