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. 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,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.

Mr. Vikas Rikhye,Real Estate Blogger

Why invest in India ?

The liberalisation in FDI Policy where Foreign investors other than NRIs allowed to invest only in development of integrated townships and settlements either through a wholly owned subsidiary or through a joint venture company in India along with a local partner has made it Foreign investor friendly.

It is an amazing fact that India is the 4th largest economy, in terms of purchasing power parity and Tenth most industrialized economy moreover. Political stability and broad consensus on reforms and also liberal and transparent foreign investment regime has made it a strong investment destination.

A very well developed banking system and vibrant capital market, with National Stock Exchange being the third largest, and Bombay Stock Exchange the fifth largest in terms of number of trades and also a Strong and independent judicial system,brings the comfort level to all concerned.

A strong blend of scientific and technical manpower specially in IT sector ,where over 50000 IT professionals are added each year, has attracted over 255 Fortune 500 companies getting services resulting into a remarkable increase in number of BPOs & call centres.

The massive progress in development of infrastructure can be seen as:

• Over 13,000 Kms of Highways being developed.

• Major advances in telecommunications sector and sharp decline in telecommunications costs.

• For easy commuting Metro -network is on its expansion.

• With opening of Modernized and well equipped Hospitals the progress on health care is remarkably visible.

• Development of Ports ,Shipping upgradation ,operation of cruise terminal and Operation of Dry Port at Mumbai.

With some of the points covered as above, it seems to give an open invitation to Foreign Investors to participate in booming sectors of growth like Roads & express highways , Urban Infrastructure, Ports , Power projects , Telecommunications and many more with Opportunities at glore……..

Mr. Vikas Rikhye,Realtor and Real Estate Blogger

Will the Dreams really come true…………………….

The master plan 2021 has earmarked 58 new Sectors covering over 14500 hectares of land as Residential Zone which includes a very large segment for Malls and commercial space.

There is a wave of happiness & prosperity with the implementation of Gurgaon master Plan 2021 as the original land owners are the 1st beneficiaries to get the best prices for their land from private Builders & Promoters thus bringing them prosperity overnight resulting into Swanky Cars parked in place of cattle & cows.

The common man for a with a ray of hope is looking for a niche in this Master Plan to own a small dwelling unit for his dreams to come true.

The Private Builders can envisage a heavy windfall of profit arising out of land acquired by them at right moment and the right time, as they are already being offered more than 10 times of their purchase price by the New Players in the Market.

According to sources, Group housing projects with total area of more than 490 acres have been granted licenses & hundreds of Licences are awaiting approval ,where some of them have been issued letter of intent (LOI).The sources add that more than 600 licences are including commercial projects, are under consideration.

*Some of the private builders and promoters have already started booking Apartments with a Price Tag of 2300-4500 plus per sq.ft.( the hidden cost of Car Parking ,PLCs etc being extra. On visiting the sites , there are no encouraging signs of developing the Basic infrastructure .

The existing Township of Modern Gurgaon is suffering from acute shortage of Power Supply & lack of Basic infrastructure having Sky High prices beyond the reach of a common man.

A common man still hopes for a small dwelling unit for his dream to come true………?

Mr Vikas Rikhye,Realtor and Real Estate Promoter

The History of Pre launch goes as back as about four years that is late 2004, when the real estate business was about to “Take off’. Some of the masterminded Broker Turned Builders (BTBs)wanted to enter the real estate market as New Players for New Real Estate Project.

Having a basic support of the large client/investor-base & Fellow Broker Network they designed a scheme to raise funds from profit hungry small investors from the market with a very clear objective to generate interest free money to implement the project.

Usually in real estate the word Pre launch means that the Builder/ Promoter has purchased the land on which a project is to be developed (& in some cases, the builder may not have the possession of the land, he might have an agreement to sell/collaborate with the owner of the land).

The promoter/builder offers to sell the property at discounted price (directly or thru Broker net-work) before the formal launch.

It means the following:

• At this stage Regulatory, legal and formal Government approvals are awaited.
• Land title might not be clear.
• Due to some other Legal reason its Formal Launch can not be done

It is also undermined that Builder instead of utilizing his own investment resources, is trying to raise interest free monetary reserve from investors, to pay off the Land owner Govt .fees, Initial infrastructure/construction cost etc.

Many experts feel that there is no wrong as the investor is aware of the risk involved.

In many states pre-launch bookings have been banned to Curb the malpractices by dubious operators. It is also understood that the Promoters /Developers have been banned to release advertisements about projects that do not have necessary approvals.

It is noticed that “Reputed Real estate companies” have never launched any of the luring Pre launch schemes.

The Pre-launch fever started spreading in other part of Northern including prominent towns like Amritsar, Patiala,Luhiana,Japur,Bhewadi,Neemrana,Alwar,Rudharpur and many more are under its grip.

While many of the smart investors made a quick buck at the same time where “Fly by Night Operators “have disappeared or Builder/ Promoter has failed to deliver the project, many of the victims are either running from pillar to post for refund or some accepted it as a bad luck/wrong decision.

Mr Vikas Rikhye,Real Estate Blogger

Gurgaon Progress/ Prosperity vs Common Man (The CM)

Someone has to monitor the progress/ growth of this New Township of Gurgaon in more balanced & Planned manner having Prime focus on the following:

• Housing : While Prominent Builders are competing with each other in offering Luxurious Villas & Apartments with a price tag ranging 50 lacs to 2.5 crores and above leaving no scope for a common man to even own a simple shelter, as the uncontrolled land prices are much beyond his means.

• Education: The most modern education systems are being introduced in best of institutes finding their place in Gurgaon, making Education a luring business but what is in store for a child who is studious but does not have resources.

• Health care :With appearance of well known expensive Hospitals & Medicity, remarkable progress is noticed , awaiting the Financial boom from “Medical Tourism”. Yet ,hundreds of poor patients are left to their fate for the want of resources.

• Local commuting/Transport: Speeding Swanky Cars reflect of an affluent culture prevailing all around, forgetting the basic need of a humble commuter who is the one of the pillars of today’s Glittering Gurgaon.

Time is warning us that we are not far away from the crucial stage of “Haves & Have-nots” ……………… which can be disastrous for the society.

Unitech Limited aiming to be Number-1 real estate developer is spreading its wings now to South India. I understand from some sources that very soon M/s Untitech Limited would be announcing its two Joint-venture deals in Chennai and Hyderabad .

The sources add that these JVs would have the main focus on Binny land near Perambur in north Chennai & Shamshadabad around Hyderabad. involving over 1,400 acres of prime land.

The sources also highlight the following:

• Unitech would shortly announce its 50:50 joint venture deal with serial entrepreneur Prasad V Potluri’s PVP Enterprises that owns around 1,300 acres of land bank in Hyderabad’s Shamshadabad region.

• In the next few weeks, Unitech may also unveil, a 55:45 joint venture deal for developing 8.8 million sq ft of residential property on the 70-acre Binny land near Perambur in north Chennai, owned by SSI

• It is believed that development on the Binny land alone involves construction of over 5,000 residential flats, besides retail and commercial space. Even at a reasonably price level of Rs 5,000 per sq ft, the sale proceeds of developing 8.8 million sq ft comes to around Rs 4,400 crore.

• It is understood that the environment clearance has been obtained for the project.

With the information perceived as stated above, “Adds a feather in the cap” of Unitech’s progressive approach towards becoming India’s Number One Real estate developer.

Mr Vikas Rikhye,Realtor and Real Estate Blogger

Mushrooming growth of shopping malls in Gurgaon creates a question mark in the mind about the negative future of the shopping malls in Gurgaon.

In NCR Gurgaon was one of few first Towns to witness the modern trend of Retail selling & Multiplex culture.

The excited youth and fashionable shopper found their destination at MGF Metropolitan & DLF City Centre ,While moderate & price conscious found their place in Big Bazar in Sahara Mall . Stylish day today shopping got attraction at Spencers and specialized fashion shopping found its place in Grand Mall.

DT and PVR Cinemas attracted people from all walks of life. While on one side one could see elite & hi fashion crowd at the same time one could also see escalator-shy rural crowd looking dazed at modern shopping glamour. Making it most happening place.These Malls were attracting crowds not only from Delhi & Noida but also from distant rural areas of Haryana.

While all this was happening a very few noticed that on this prominent MG Road only while one Mall project was abandoned by the builder and other three malls(under construction were put on slow speed for the lack of market Demand.

Not only on MG Road, but shirking market trend was also felt on Golf course Road &NH-8Where proposed shopping malls gave a deserted look.

On Sohna Road the scene is no different as beside one operational mall, where more than 50% shops are still to open. ( despite the fact that this mall has been so called operational for more than 15 months ). Yet another Marriage mall stand complete in isolation awaiting to be occupied.

And to my utter surprise I see still about seven more malls under construction under such a bleak future .

Mall fever is not yet over it is spreading to Rewar,Dharuhera Bhewadi and as remote places as Punahna etc