The greenest pocket in the NCR

Spurred by affordable property prices, better connectivity as well as locational and infrastructural advantages, Sector 150 of Noida has emerged as one of the most promising real estate pockets in the National Capital Region.
Sector 150 is strategically located at the union of Yamuna and Greater Noida, which gives this region a huge potential; if this is harnessed well, the region can be a hit in the real estate market. What sets this area apart in the NCR is its sustainable development which focuses on making the area a green zone with lots of open spaces and lush green landscapes. Along with this, Sector 150 is also registering some great infrastructural developments with contemporary characteristics.

 

Experts say that Sector 150 is an ideal destination for buying one's dream home and have a healthier lifestyle because of its pollution-free environment. In fact, the Noida authority is all set to make this sector the greenest region in NCR. It is the only sector in this region which has 80% green land, as only 20% of the whole area has been earmarked for construction. Projected as a Sports City, it has the lowest FAR, at 1.5, which translates into plenty of space; with plans for the best sporting facilities, which will not only attract tourism and develop New Age sports stars, it is a great incentive for residents to stay fit and healthy. This sector will be a 100% wire free zone and be home to the biggest park of the country.
Another plus point of this sector is connectivity. Along with its well-developed and meticulously planned urban infrastructure, Sector 150 is well connected by three expressways--Yamuna Expressway, Noida-Greater Noida Expressway, and the FNG Corridor.

Source: MagicBricks

Allow infra firms to access medium term foreign debt: Centre tells RBI

The government has asked the Reserve Bank to reconsider its external commercial borrowing (ECB) norms to allow foreign currency debt to infrastructure sector for medium term also. In a letter to RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, Road, Transport and Highways Secretary Vijay Chhibber has urged him to examine the ECB policy to allow overseas borrowings under medium term also. The RBI, in November, allowed infrastructure companies to access long-term foreign currency denominated ECB with maturity of 10 years (Track II) and Indian rupee-denominated ECB with average maturity of 3 to 5 years (Track III) .

 

 "Limiting ECBs in the infrastructure sector in Track II and III only is restrictive and international lenders including JBIC in the current scenario, may not be forthcoming to provide long-term ECBs to Indian companies in the infrastructure space," Chhibber wrote in the letter. Sources said Chhibber has written that "many export credit agencies are required to follow OECD arrangements wherein a member is not permitted to extend export credit beyond a period of 10 years for all categories (except non nuclear power plants) for a category II country such as India, whereas the revised ECB framework allow Indian infrastructure companies to access long term foreign currency borrowings with a minimum average maturity of 10 years (under Track II)". The central bank on November 30 announced its revised ECB norms -- Track I for medium term foreign currency denominated ECB with minimum average maturity (MAM) of 3 to 5 years; Track II for long term foreign currency denominated ECB with maturity of 10 years and Track III for Indian rupee denominated ECB with average maturity of 3 to 5 years.

 Indian infrastructure companies are eligible for accessing ECBs only under Track II (long term foreign currency borrowings with a minimum average maturity (MAM) of 10 years) or under Track III (Indian rupee denominated ECBs with a MAM of 3/5 years). Chhibber wrote that under the circumstances there would be limited scope for OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development)member countries to extend export credit to Indian infrastructure companies as per the revised ECB framework of RBI. The Secretary has mentioned JBIC's request to reconsider the policy also. To attract more overseas fund, the RBI relaxed the ECB norms with fewer restrictions on end uses and allowed loans from sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and insurers. The revised framework also includes a more liberal approach for rupee-denominated ECBs where the currency risk is borne by the lender.

Source: Credai NCR

Government spent Rs 7,637 crore for metro projects so far this fiscal

The Urban Development Ministry has shelled out Rs 7,637 crore towards metro rail projects in five states and the national capital in the current financial year till November, Lok Sabha was informed today.
 

Naidu said during the Question Hour that various measures are being taken to improve public transport and parking spaces in various cities.

In the current fiscal till November, the Ministry spend Rs 7,636.98 crore for metro rail projects in the national capital and five states -- Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala and Gujarat, he said.

For Delhi, the expenditure stood at Rs 4,160.82 crore and for the project in Chennai, it touched Rs 1,773.59 crore, the Minister said.

He said the Ministry's expenses towards Bangalore project (Karnataka) stood at Rs 857.97 crore.

For the metro rail projects in Kochi (Kerala) and Ahmedabad (Gujarat), the expenditure till November stood at Rs 599.08 crore and Rs 100 crore, respectively

In Maharashtra, there are metro rail projects in Mumbai and Nagpur. For Mumbai project, an expenditure of Rs 108.52 crore has been incurred by the Ministry till this November, while for the Nagpur project, the expense stood at Rs 37 crore during the same period.

According to the Minister, metro rail projects are implemented in partnership with the states.

To a query about the fourth phase of Delhi Metro Rail project, Naidu said the proposal is pending with the Delhi government.  Source:  Times of India

After witnessing sliding profits over the past three years, the residential real estate market is in desperate need of a stimulus to revive the sector.
While the government’s decision to relax the foreign direct investment norms in real estate last month is expected to play a critical role in addressing the concerns on the supply side, the recommendations of the Seventh Central Pay Commission is being termed a potential game changer on the demand side. The pay panel proposes a hefty salary and pension hike for Central government employees and pensioners.
According to experts, with the real estate market burdened with a large volume unsold inventory, just removing the supply-side bottlenecks won’t help as the lack of demand will keep the markets under pressure. However, the demand might witness a surge as a higher disposable income in the hands of a substantial chunk of the population might just motivate investment in residential property.
A report prepared by Neelkanth Mishra, Prateek Singh and Ravi Shankar of Credit Suisse says that the Pay Commission recommendations will have a significant impact on the real estate cycle in small towns as more than 80 per cent of Central government employees reside in tier II, III cities.
The Pay Commission boost
The report analysing the impact of the recommendations point out that as state governments and Central PSUs follow through the CPC (recommended hike of 23.6 per cent) proposals, almost 3.4 crore individuals (employees and pensioners) will witness increase in their incomes. The housing and transportation sectors will be the biggest beneficiaries of the rise in income and spending capacity of government employees.
“Altogether around 80 per cent of the beneficiaries would see an increase of less than Rs10,000 per month and account for 50 per cent of the payout. The rest would get around Rs 24,000 more every month on an average,” said the report.
According to Credit Suisse, out of the total state and central employees, the 6O lakh, who will see around Rs 24,000 salary increase per month, are likely to be instrumental in lifting the housing sector demand.
The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) classifies the country’s population into 12 classes (fractiles) demarcated by monthly per capita income.
The report states that while spending on food and transportation goes up the most when disposable incomes rise for those between the 10th and 11th fractiles, it also pointed to the fact that as households move from the 11th to the 12th fractile (8.3 per cent of households), the spend on rent rises 3.1 times and there is a similar impact on home ownership too.
“Most of this impact is likely in the smaller cities (only 20 per cent of central government employment is in the tier I cities). The Pay Commission recommendation, in our view, is an important milestone in the real-estate cycle in the smaller towns, recent weakness was likely the effect of the last pay commission fading,” said the Credit Suisse report.
While the Centre may take six months in implementing the recommendations, a 3-5 per cent higher increase than recommended would take the hike in the comprehensive wage bill to Rs 4.5-4.8 lakh crore which is expected to be spread over a period of two years starting from June 2016 as states and Central PSUs take their decisions. “We estimate 75 per cent of the increase should occur in FY17, and the rest in FY18,” said the report.
While the report says that impact on housing and real estate will be substantial and lift demand, there are some who feel that the benefits may not be huge.
“I think the Pay Commission recommendations will also be inflationary so the actual benefit that may come to employees may only be around 10 per cent as against a hike of 23.5 per cent. And if the developers decide to increase the price then it would be a dampener,” said Samantak Das, chief economist & national director, Knight Frank India.
The supply side effect
While the government had, in 2005, eased the foreign direct investment norms for real estate sector and allowed 100 per cent FDI in townships, housing and built-up infrastructure and construction developments, it had imposed certain conditions.
However, with ambitious targets like ‘Housing for All’ and Smart Cities in the pipeline, what the government needs is a thriving real estate market and thus, in November, the Centre decided to do away with some of the restrictive conditions.
While the earlier policy required a minimum of 20,000 square meters of development and a minimum capital of $5 million, the government has now removed those conditions and it is expected that these will result into higher investment flow into city-centric developments where the condition of 20,000 square metres was a dampener.
Along with this, the need to bring in investment within six months of commencement of the project has also been removed.
Das, however, said that FDI will not flow in till the time demand for residential housing picks up as investors will only come if the market is good.
“While the office market has picked up, residential market is expected to take at least 12 more months to pick up. The market is still full of unsold inventory and till the time it gets absorbed, the sector will remain weak,” said Das.

   While the government’s decision to relax the foreign direct investment norms in real estate last month is expected to play a critical role in addressing the concerns on the supply side, the recommendations of the Seventh Central Pay Commission is being termed a potential game changer on the demand side. The pay panel proposes a hefty salary anddwrwerfwetwepension hike for Central government employees and pensioners.

According to experts, with the real estate market burdened with a large volume unsold inventory, just removing the supply-side bottlenecks won’t help as the lack of demand will keep the markets under pressure. However, the demand might witness a surge as a higher disposable income in the hands of a substantial chunk of the population might just motivate investment in residential property.
A report prepared by Neelkanth Mishra, Prateek Singh and Ravi Shankar of Credit Suisse says that the Pay Commission recommendations will have a significant impact on the real estate cycle in small towns as more than 80 per cent of Central government employees reside in tier II, III cities.
The Pay Commission boost
The report analysing the impact of the recommendations point out that as state governments and Central PSUs follow through the CPC (recommended hike of 23.6 per cent) proposals, almost 3.4 crore individuals (employees and pensioners) will witness increase in their incomes. The housing and transportation sectors will be the biggest beneficiaries of the rise in income and spending capacity of government employees.
“Altogether around 80 per cent of the beneficiaries would see an increase of less than Rs10,000 per month and account for 50 per cent of the payout. The rest would get around Rs 24,000 more every month on an average,” said the report.
According to Credit Suisse, out of the total state and central employees, the 6O lakh, who will see around Rs 24,000 salary increase per month, are likely to be instrumental in lifting the housing sector demand.
The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) classifies the country’s population into 12 classes (fractiles) demarcated by monthly per capita income.
The report states that while spending on food and transportation goes up the most when disposable incomes rise for those between the 10th and 11th fractiles, it also pointed to the fact that as households move from the 11th to the 12th fractile (8.3 per cent of households), the spend on rent rises 3.1 times and there is a similar impact on home ownership too.
“Most of this impact is likely in the smaller cities (only 20 per cent of central government employment is in the tier I cities). The Pay Commission recommendation, in our view, is an important milestone in the real-estate cycle in the smaller towns, recent weakness was likely the effect of the last pay commission fading,” said the Credit Suisse report.
While the Centre may take six months in implementing the recommendations, a 3-5 per cent higher increase than recommended would take the hike in the comprehensive wage bill to Rs 4.5-4.8 lakh crore which is expected to be spread over a period of two years starting from June 2016 as states and Central PSUs take their decisions. “We estimate 75 per cent of the increase should occur in FY17, and the rest in FY18,” said the report.
While the report says that impact on housing and real estate will be substantial and lift demand, there are some who feel that the benefits may not be huge.
“I think the Pay Commission recommendations will also be inflationary so the actual benefit that may come to employees may only be around 10 per cent as against a hike of 23.5 per cent. And if the developers decide to increase the price then it would be a dampener,” said Samantak Das, chief economist & national director, Knight Frank India.
The supply side effect
While the government had, in 2005, eased the foreign direct investment norms for real estate sector and allowed 100 per cent FDI in townships, housing and built-up infrastructure and construction developments, it had imposed certain conditions.
However, with ambitious targets like ‘Housing for All’ and Smart Cities in the pipeline, what the government needs is a thriving real estate market and thus, in November, the Centre decided to do away with some of the restrictive conditions.
While the earlier policy required a minimum of 20,000 square meters of development and a minimum capital of $5 million, the government has now removed those conditions and it is expected that these will result into higher investment flow into city-centric developments where the condition of 20,000 square metres was a dampener.
Along with this, the need to bring in investment within six months of commencement of the project has also been removed.
Das, however, said that FDI will not flow in till the time demand for residential housing picks up as investors will only come if the market is good.
“While the office market has picked up, residential market is expected to take at least 12 more months to pick up. The market is still full of unsold inventory and till the time it gets absorbed, the sector will remain weak,” said Das.
- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/7th-pay-commission-fresh-hope-for-realty-demand/#sthash.Mvokk8X7.dpuf

While the Centre’s easing of FDI norms last month was a positive development on the supply front, a new report says that the pay panel’s recommendations will provide a much-needed boost to the demand side. - See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/7th-pay-commission-fresh-hope-for-realty-demand/#sthash.Mvokk8X7.dpuf

Property can be registered below circle rate, rules Delhi HC

In a landmark verdict that will benefit thousands of land owners in Delhi, the high court on Wednesday allowed registration of properties even if valued below the minimum circle rate of the area.

A bench of chief justice G Rohini and justice R S Endlaw relied on provisions of the Indian Stamp Act to revive discretionary powers vested with the state government under Section 47A to register sale of property below the local circle rate. Over time, the government had come to treat circle rate as the absolute measure of registering properties, despite the Stamp Act giving room for maneuver.

The bench has provided property owners an opportunity to convince the Collector of Stamps why their asset should be valued below the circle rate of the area. The registrar/sub registrar will now accept such sale/conveyance deeds and forward it to the Collector of Stamps before whom the property owner can appear and explain the reasons for lower valuation of his property.

The HC recognized that there may be various reasons for low valuation, such as a property being disputed, having unauthorized occupants, poor location etc.

Till now, if the valuation of a property was lower than the prevailing circle rate, the registrar summarily rejected it.

Section 47A says, "If the registering officer while registering any instrument transferring any property, has reason to believe that the value of the property or the consideration, as the case may be has not been truly set forth in the instrument, he may, after registering such instrument, refer the same to Collector for determination of the value and proper duty payable." It also empowers the Collector to give a chance to the owner to give an explanation, and then conduct an independent enquiry before determining the actual worth of the property.

The HC made it clear that circle rate circulars issued by Delhi government from time to time since 2007 can no longer come in the way of registration of a property. Its directions came on a bunch of PILs filed by Manu Narang, Amit Gupta and Atul Gupta arguing that "no absolute benchmark can be fixed and dictated for determination of the minimum price of any property since prices of property vary from place to place, person to person and due to various other factors."

The PILs challenged Delhi government's circulars issued from 2007 till 2014 hiking circle rates after every revision.  Source: Times Of India

Realty Bill Catches a Winter Chill

The real estate bill, which had cleared all hurdles including parliamentary committee scrutiny and cabinet approval, won't be passed in the ongoing winter session of Parliament, delaying one of the government's key reform initiatives.

Facing formidable opposition in the Rajya Sabha and persistent disruptions, the government has decided against moving the amended Real Estate (Development and Regulation) Bill in the current session and will seek to get it through parliament next year, said people aware of the development. The government wants to use the remaining two days of the session to push through other crucial legislations that are not controversial. The real estate Bill is likely to be challenged by the Opposition, even though the government has sought to incorporate its suggestions.
The Bill had been referred to a select committee, which had given its report in July. However, Congress, Left and AIADMK had expressed reservations on the report through dissent notes. Given the opposition, the government had formed an informal group of ministers to formulate a politically acceptable Bill.
The ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation, which is spearheading the legislation, accepted all changes suggested by the select committee and the Cabinet gave its approval with further amendments on December 9. A ministry official confirmed to ET that the Bill won't be introduced but denied that it would go back to the drawing board because of reservations expressed by real estate developers.
Source: Magic Bricks 

Real estate bill won't be passed in ongoing winter session

Facing formidable opposition in the Rajya Sabha and persistent disruptions, the government has decided against moving the amended Real Estate (Development and Regulation) Bill in the current session and will seek to get it through parliament next year, said people aware of the development.

 

The real estate bill, which had cleared all hurdles including parliamentary committee scrutiny and cabinet approval, won't be passed in the ongoing winter session of Parliament, delaying one of the government's key reform initiatives.
Facing formidable opposition in the Rajya Sabha and persistent disruptions, the government has decided against moving the amended Real Estate (Development and Regulation) Bill in the current session and will seek to get it through parliament next year, said people aware of the development. The government wants to use the remaining two days of the session to push through other crucial legislations that are not controversial. The real estate bill is likely to be challenged by the Opposition, even though the government has sought to incorporate its suggestions.
The Bill had been referred to a select committee, which had given its report in July. However, Congress, Left and AIADMK had expressed reservations on the report through dissent notes. Given the opposition, the government had formed an informal group of ministers to formulate a politically acceptable bill.
The ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation, which is spearheading the legislation, accepted all changes suggested by the select committee and the Cabinet gave its approval with further amendments on December 9. A ministry official confirmed to ET that the Bill won't be introduced but denied that it would go back to the drawing board because of reservations expressed by real estate developers.
The decision was taken by Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu after opposition in the Rajya Sabha business advisory committee (BAC), said those cited above.
"The passing of the Bill would have to be looked at afresh," said one of the persons. "After the Rajya Sabha passes it, it would have to be sent to the Lok Sabha as there have been amendments. Seeing the opposition even in the BAC meeting, the government realised it would not be a cakewalk. Also, Lok Sabha members would want a debate."
The government had worked to make the legislation politically acceptable, including suggestions made by Congress in the select committee dissent note.
 Source: ET Realty

REALTY LOOKBACK AT 2015 AND OUTLOOK 2016

     Being one of the prime contributors towards Indian GDP and employment generation, a lot is always expected out of the real estate sector. This sector alone is responsible for being a user for over 30 allied industries and sectors. As we bid a goodbye to 2015 and gear up for 2016, a lot has changed since the beginning of this year where several major announcements were made for infrastructural developments and the country in general that will highlight realty sector as its backbone. Much was delivered during the course with still some left in pipeline for the next year.

 

After RBI’s push in the beginning of the year, budget session was near where industry status was hugely in demand from this sector’s players. Single window clearance system, Land acquisition bill and RERA bill had also started to make rounds as the dreams of next level infrastructure was pretty much on the cards. “Industry status for the realty sector has been long in the wishlist of the players along with a regulatory body at the centre to curb the problems pertaining and bring much needed transparency. First budget by the new government was unable to meet sector’s expectations on this line, but talks are still going on with chances looking bright of its execution by next year. With Smart India Mission underway, it will become crucial to pass these bills and give an industry status to the realty sector soon”, explains Mr. Mukesh Khurana, MD, Rudra Buildwell.