Surabhi Chemicals, one of the leading textile chemical developers, has signaled that they would enter real estate market by buying out land parcels in Nagpur, the city where the firm is based.

It was very recently that Surabhi Chemicals got new management team. Along with the new management team the group has decided to enter into new areas including real estate development segment.

The firm plans to develop a realty project in Nagpur where they have purchased a piece of land. However the firm has not revealed what kind of project they are yet to develop in this plot. The group officials say that the firm has plans to develop either a residential project or a commercial one.

Though the group has not yet decided on their first project as what it should be, the group has started buying out land parcels in other areas and cities like Surat and Vadodara.

Surabhi Chemicals & Investments Ltd.’s MD Manish Patni, while disclosing the group’s plans to enter into real estate sector, said that along with the change in the management the group plans to enter into other sectors including real estate. He was speaking to the media.

The group MD said that the group aims to become one of the leading developers, especially in the western India, where they are focusing now. Currently the group will focus on the realty in Maharashtra and Gujarat, informed one of the officials of the firm.

Projects are to be developed with an estimated investment of Rs.30 Cr. The group, for time being, plans to meet the fund from its internal accruals. The firm hopes to raise Rs.20 Cr in this way. The group has not yet said how it will raise the remaining fund.

As part of the promotion of Aurangzeb, one of the latest Bollywood releases, Arjun Kapoor will live in Gurgaon the location of the film. Though this is part of the promotion, the actor will have to stay in this suburban city in the NCR for a week.

Earlier various actors had done similar things for the promotion of their movies. For the promotion of his film Delhi Belly, Imran Khan had lived in Delhi for a while, renting a flat.

Sonam Kapoor is another heroine who also has shifted from Mumbai to Delhi for a few couple of months. She stayed at her aunt’s home and not in any rented homes.

Moreover her shift was not any part of her films, but because most of her films were shot in Delhi. Thus to avoid travelling from Mumbai to Delhi so often, she decided to live in Delhi for a while. Unlike her stay, Arjun Kapoor is staying in the millennium city entirely for the promotion of Aurangzeb.

Aurangzeb speaks the story of real estate business in Gurgaon. This is the reason why the producers of the film thought to have a promotional event in Gurgaon, which has grown as one of the top real estate destinations in India.

The growth of power and real estate business in Gurgaon is the main thrust of the film. This is one of the first films shot outside in any of the big cities in India. However this shows how the NCR suburb has grown as one of the top cities.

While living in Gurgaon, Arjun Kapoor plans to spend his leisure watching movies. He will live like a Gurgaonite, eating and playing with them. He also plans to go to clubs with them in the city.

Though high rises have become common in Mumbai and other top-cities, where the land scarcity is severe, Bangalore was not having many high rises, especially because the city did not lack space for residential development.

The situation is changing. Now builders are coming up with various high rise apartment projects.

Among the upcoming high rises, DSK Pinnacle by Mantri realty, Equinox Water’s Edge and Sobha Indraprastha are some of the top ones.

Mantri DSK Pinnacle is a 46 storied project. Probably this has the highest number of floors in Bangalore. Yet, in comparison to Mumbai, where 60 storied projects are common, this project is not anything higher.

There are five blocks, each having 40 floors, in Equinox Water’s Edge. Hebbal’s Nagavara Lake –facing project offers the residents a scenic beauty that is absolutely marvelous.

Though only 37 floors are in Sobha Indraprastha, this project also is included among the high rises. The top two floors are completely dedicated to the club and terrace pool facilities.

All these projects show that the housing tendency in Bangalore is undergoing vast changes. If earlier, the housing projects were built up to 15 floors maximum, now it has gone three times larger.

Property experts say that the demand for high rises is to rise in the coming years. The builders are looking for ways to cash in this upcoming trend for high rise apartments.

As the sky-views remain marvelous, the prices too go higher according to the height of the flat. If the lower floors are highly demanded in normal projects, the top floors are highly demanded in high rise apartment projects.

Most of these projects are costlier than others. The prices, starting at Rs.2 Cr, go upward up to many crores, according to the facilities and amenities.

Mumbai has been one of the costliest property markets in India. Property prices in the city have always been in the sky and still they are moving upward, leaving the home buyers hopeless.

Due to the higher property prices, the buyers are not able to purchase any property now. This has adversely affected the home sales in the city and so the property experts were expecting a price correction soon in Mumbai.

Against the expectation of the experts, the situation is getting worse as the prices have again soared. There is no chance for a price correction in the near future.

The experts now say that the property rates are shooting up mainly because the city experiences scarcity of land for development. This has affected supply as well. In the city centers, there is no property available. This few or limited number of vacant properties or properties for sale, has boosted the prices.

Jones Lang LaSalle India reported that during the last four years, the prices in the city have gone up by 66 percent. This is against the expectations of the experts.

Recently the city witnessed weak home sales. Thus the experts thought that the property prices would be corrected to attract home buyers. In some of the areas, the developers had started offering their new projects at lower prices than the existing property rates.

JLL West India’s MD Ramesh Nair explained that the prices are always dependent on the number of unsold properties. These properties are pictured as precursor of corrections. If this is true, the residential market in Mumbai had to correct the prices at least three years back, said Mr. Nair.

Property rates in Thane and Navi Mumbai also rose. While the former saw a rise by 70 percent, the prices rose by 74 percent in the latter one.

Owning a sea-facing home has been a dream for Katrina Kaif. Having this dream in mind, she has seen over a dozen apartments in Mumbai alone. However it seems that none of these flats could satisfy the dreams of the Bollywood heroine.

Katrina also had a plan to build a bungalow in Juhu. She is reported to quit this plan as the neighborhood area of Juhu faces various problems related to water. Thus she finally decided to renovate her apartment in Bandra.

Katrina Kaif has a flat in Bandra’s Guldev Sagar on Waterfield Road. This apartment was not up to the expectations of the Bollywood actress. The apartment was affected by water-leakage and so on. This is, in fact, one of the main reasons which prompted her to set out on home-hunt.

When asked about the renovation plan, Katrina Kaif said that she had now no time to spend on home-hunt. She is busy shooting various pictures like Dhoom 3.

Katrina Kaif plans to convert her 3 BHK Bandra Apartment to her dream home. The renovation will be done entirely. Interiors, floors, paint, etc. will be renovated, she said.

Mumbai based interior designer Soni Tanna will be redesigning the apartment in a way the Bollywood throb wants. He is a family friend of Katrina who knows him for the past few couples of years.

Once she had expressed the desire to own a sea-facing home; everyone was expecting her to buy out a new home. She too had plans to buy out a new home.

However as none of those homes which she saw could impress her, she finally decided to renovate her home. Actually what it matters for her who lives in abroad most of the times?

Godrej Properties is the real estate arm of Godrej Group. The real estate arm of Godrej has announced its plans to raise a new fund.

The new fund worth Rs.700 Cr will be mainly used for developing new projects. Some part of the fund will be used for completing the ongoing projects. The fund is proposed to be raised through rights issue.

The plan to raise a new fund was announced by MD and CEO of Godrej Properties Ltd Pirojsha Godrej. He announced the launch of new fund when he was publishing the fourth quarter numbers of the firm.

When asked about the time of the new fund, Pirojsha Godrej said that it would be launched soon. He said that it would be launched most probably in the April-June quarter itself.

Despite the fact that the last year was a year of sluggishness for the real estate market, we could receive good response from the buyers.

This has really made us think of further developments, said MD and CEO of Godrej Properties Ltd. He was answering to the questions related to the possibility of success in raising a fund when the market is dull and sluggish.

He said that the last financial year was a good one for the group. The realty firm wants to continue this.

Right now Godrej Properties is developing around 15 new projects. These projects are being developed in various cities across India. Their main current projects are in Bangalore, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai.

The group plans to launch projects later on in Chennai and Pune. The new fund is meant for completing these projects.

Pirojsha Godrej hopes that the current year will be a good one for realty. He admitted that the last year was a bit sluggish. But this year will see surging demand for housing units, he expressed his hope.

Under the new property tax, Babu Naik will have to pay an additional of Rs.7000 per year. When he questioned the civic body officials, they explained to him that the value of his property has increased over the period and so does the tax.

However he could barely believe that his apartment would worth so much that was almost three times higher than the amount for which he bought it  a couple of years ago. One thing he was sure that in his location there will be no one to buy a home at this price.

This is not the sole story of Babu Naik alone. The builders say that this sis common in many of the cities in Bengal including Kolkata.

The builders blame the civic body for valuing their properties very highly. Due to this higher valuation, there is also a rise in the tax. Thus stating the irregularity and higher prices, the developers demanded the removal of the new property tax system.

The prices may be small or big. The main issue is that the buyers will have to pay additional stamp duty while buying any property. Thus it adversely affects the property transactions in the state.

Bengal Chapter of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association argues that the new property tax system will affect the realty sector. The apex body of developers says that the property transactions are sure to fall in Bengal.

The new property tax was included in the Finance Bill. The bill however was welcomed with strong disappointment and anger by the developers in the state. One of the main problems with the new system is that the property valuation is not done properly. In most of the cases, the prices remain far higher than the actual market price.

Nasir Hussain, the renowned filmmaker, is the grandfather of Imran Khan. Though he has passed away a few couple of years back, he is not forgotten by his grandson. This was proved when Imran Khan named his new home NH Bungalow after his late grandfather.

The home is actually a renovated home. It was originally owned by Nasir Hussain. Stating this reason, the Bollywood’s youth Icon rightly called his home after his grandfather.

Since the renovation work started, he has been searching for some stylish names. His friends and family mates came up with various options. However none of them satisfied Imran Khan.

One of the suggestions was IK Bungalow, reflecting his own name. However, he did not prefer this too. Thus finally he selected the name which will turn out to be a loving tribute to his grandfather. The old name was Pali Hill bungalow.

Imran Khan is the nephew of Aamir Khan. Thus he is not so new to Bollywood. This was visible on the occasion of his house warming ceremony which was attended by many Bollywood actresses and actors.

Besides his Uncle Aamir Khan and his aunty Kiran Rao, wife of Aamir Khan, there were a good number of familiar faces.

Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan reached the site in their new red-colored car. Then came Riteish Deshmukh and Genelia D’souza. Sonam Kapoor and Anushka Sharma made the ceremony more colorful; more glamorous so to say.

Director Vishal Bharadwaj and Rekha Bharadwaj, Alia Bhat, Salman Khan’s sister Alvira, Varun Dhawan, Filmmaker Kabir Khan, etc. made the ceremony more alive.

The newly renovated home of Imran Khan is located in Pali Hill area in Mumbai. This area is one of the popular addresses for Bollywood industry.

Banks that had earlier loaned Kingfisher Airlines have served the carrier a legal notice which stated that they will attach the realty assets of the carrier. The airlines had submitted their realty assets as collateral to these loans.

As the lenders have not received the loans back, they have decided to send legal notice to Kingfisher Airlines.

Among the lenders, State Bank of India is the largest. SBI had lent huge amounts of money. The loans are still to be repaid.

Commenting on their plans to attach the realty assets of debt driven carrier, SBI’s Deputy MD Shyamal Acharya said that the bank has already sent the notice to the carrier.

Kingfisher Airlines Ltd is owned by Vijay Mallya. His properties also are expected to be attached. Besides this, the carrier’s parent company UB Group also may face attachment other than the other subsidiary firms of Kingfisher.

While speaking to the media persons, a senior bank executive confirmed the plan. He affirmed that the banks are moving ahead with their attachment plans.

Kingfisher Airlines’ realty assets include its office in Mumbai and a posh villa. The villa is in Goa. Besides these, some properties of UB Group and its chairman Vijay Mallya also are likely to be attached.

Indian Government had cancelled its license last year. After losing the license, it grounded in October 2012. The debt of the firm amounts to over $2.5 billion.

Besides the lenders and banks, the carrier has to pay huge amounts to its employees as well as to the Indian Government. The banks, with the permission of HC, had sold the shares of UB Group for recovering their funds.

Analyzing the realty market of all major cities, real estate market research firm Liases Foras reported that the property sales have fallen sharply.

The realty market research firm adds that the market is sluggish. The home sales have fallen sharply. This has added troubles to the developers who are already facing mounting-debts.

With the aim to improve property sales, some developers are reported to offer their new launches at lower prices. However this also has not improved the sentiments of the buyers.

The market remains still sluggish. Besides lowering the prices, some freebies and discounts are also offered by the developers. These too have failed to impact the sales.

As per the report of Liases Foras, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune are the top three cities which witnessed lowest property sales. The situation in other cities is also not anything different.

Though overall level there is a fall of property sales, some of the cities saw improving home sales. Improvement in sales was visible in Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi-NCR.

Among all the cities, Hyderabad faced the highest fall in sales. The city witnessed a fall by 46 percent.

Bangalore, facing a 16 percent decline, stood second. Pune holds the third lowest spot with a fall of 7 percent.

On the other end, prices soar in most of the cities. While prices in Bangalore rose by 6 percent, it was 3 percent in Mumbai. The sales in the city rose by a mere one percent.

In the first quarter of 2013 10.45 million square feet were sold in Mumbai. This is slightly above the 10.3 million square feet sales in the quarter-before.

Delhi-NCR and Chennai are other two cities which saw rising sales. Chennai saw rising sales by 36 percent. The rate of growth in Delhi is 24 percent. Pankaj Kapoor, managing director of Liases Foras said that price escalation has adversely affected the property sales in Bangalore and Pune.

The finance ministry and the Central Bank plan to initiate some relaxations in the ECB norms. By this, they aim to boost affordable housing development.

The decision will be taken in the meeting which will be held by the end of this week. The officials of finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India will attend the meeting.

External commercial borrowing is an easy way for the developers to raise fund for their projects. Moreover it is more economical as they are able to raise fund from the foreign investors who seldom charge higher amounts. In most of the times the cost of these borrowings are lower than the loans from India.

Last year too, RBI had relaxed some ECB norms for boosting affordable housing segment. This relaxation was implemented in December 2012. As per this revised ECB policy, the builders were permitted to raise funds through ECBs. They could raise funds up to $1 billion.

The available data with the Reserve Bank of India, Indian companies have raised $2.1 billion till February this year. However this is lower in comparison to the same period in the previous year. During this period, $2.6 billion was raised.

ECB is used mainly by the big corporates. However the public companies also use these schemes to raise fund.

One of the main attractions of this kind of borrowing is that they are more economical. While the interest rates are higher in India, it is lower in many other countries. So receiving loans from these countries, the big corporate and public sector undertakings can save a good amount.

The decision to relax ECB norms is highly significant in the current situation. The prime aim is to boost affordable housing. But the Indian economy as a whole may benefit from this decision.

Century Group is on the verge of gaining a windfall. The group, entering into final-round talks with Bharti Walmart, has made it sure that the group will clinch the deal with the retail major.

Bangalore has become the pick of the hour for cash & carry stores. Now there are many such stores in the city.

The German retail brand Metro Cash & Carry is one of them. Their stores are operational in the city for more than some couple of years.

Indian retail major Reliance Market too has recently launched its stores here. Now the city has become more sensitive to this kind of stores.

Seeing this upcoming trend in the city, Bharti Walmart has decided to launch their first store here. The retail major has now plans to launch its first store in the high tech city on the new airport road.

Century Group has land parcel in this area. This makes them more favorite for the retail major.

If the deal turns good, both Bharti Walmart and Century Group will benefit. Though details of the deal are not yet publicized by any of them, some sources with direct knowledge said that the deal is on the final stage.

Century Real Estate Holdings owns huge land bank in the city. This is considered as a benefit for the group.

When contacted for comment, officials of both the groups did not respond. They declined to comment. Senior officials of Century Group concluded the comments by saying that the deal is likely to be finalized soon.

The Bangalore based group is reported to have signed the term of the deal. Yet, it has not been finalized. Discussions are still on the move. The developer hopes that the deal will come on their way.

Endorsement is never a new thing for the Bollywood actors and actresses. Like many others like Karishma Kapoor, Sushmita Sen, Shahrukh Khan and so on, Sagarika Ghatge too had signed a contract of endorsement with a real estate firm.

Without any doubt, endorsement remains one of the main sources of income for them. On the other end, the developers are marketing their projects, using the popularity of these stars.

It was almost four years back that Sagarika Ghatge signed the endorsement deal, which came to an end by the mid of 2011.

Though the endorsement deal came to an end, the realty firm continued to use her photos for advertising their projects. Seeing this, the Bollywood Actress decided to sort the issue amiably.

Regarding this, though she sent many notices to the realty firm, she received no response. Thus she finally decided to file a case against the firm.

Commenting on the issue, Sagarika Ghatge said that on her absence her manager will handle the case. She is now away from Mumbai, with some Bollywood projects.

Though she had appeared in a good number of films, Chak De! India remains her top hit. She was well-applauded for her performance in the film as a member in the Indian women hockey team.

‘Miley Naa Miley Hum’ is another Bollywood movie of Sagarika. Still she is best known for her role as Preeti Sabarwal in Chak De! India.

Speaking about the case, she said that the case will be handled by her manager. She might be hoping that she gets the endorsement again from the same firm. Why leave any stone unturned?

Even when they are daily tortured by the SEBI, the Sahara group thinks of only expansion. The group seems least worried about their attached properties and the huge number of cases against them.

Adding to their troubles, recently SEBI has requested the Supreme Court to hear all cases against the Sahara firms and its chief Roy.

The cases will move in one side. The plans of expansion cannot be postponed in any way. A good businessman expands when he sees that the market is the best for him to expand. This is what Sahara is doing.

By gaining nearly 25 acres of land from Asset Reconstruction Company of India, Sahara has proved that they are not worried over any cases.

Earlier the land was owned by BPL. However once the firm defaulted their loan payment, the land was auctioned off by the financial institutions and banks. The land was placed in the auction under the SARFAESI Act.

ARCIL acquired the land parcel when it was auctioned.

The land is located in Whitefield. The land may soon be turned to be a commercial project, said sources with direct knowledge. Sahara Group also has plans to develop a hotel project in the land.

Currently Sahara Group is one of the largest land bank holders. The group owns over 27000 acres of land across India.

The group has sold some of its projects in Mohali and Chennai. Some Bangalore projects are also included among the sold projects.

Due to SEBI’s attachment order, many of their projects are halted. The case is still in the Court. The group will be able to complete their projects only after the case gets over.

Securities and Exchange Board of India continues to be aggressive against Sahara firms. Recently SEBI has requested the Supreme Court to hear all cases against the Sahara firms.

Filing its new petition against both Sahara firms and Subrata Roy, SEBI has signaled that it is in no mood to calm down. It on the other side is turning harsher against the firms, which (in the words of SEBI) ‘have not followed even a single line in the SC order.’

The SC order dates back to August 31, 2012. On this day the Supreme Court had fined both the Sahara firms to repay the investors over Rs.24000 Cr.

The same order had invested power on SEBI to attach the properties of the firm, in case if they fail to comply with the order.

Following the order, SEBI attached the properties of Sahara in last February. The attached properties included some properties of its chief as well.

The attachment order affected the under-construction projects of these firms. Aamby Valley project is one of the main halted projects.

On the other side, Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd and Sahara Housing Investment Corp Ltd questioned the attachment order of SEBI. The firms argued that they were not given any show case notice, prior to the attachment.

SEBI replied that the SC order itself was self-explanatory. No further explanations were required for proceeding with the attachment order.

Against the attachment, the firms and Roy appealed to the Securities Appellate Tribunal. Though SAT was to hear the petition in the first week of April, it postponed its hearing.

Some of the cases against the firms were heard by Lucknow High Court. So fi the SC decides to hear the plea of market regulator, all these cases will be transferred to the Apex Court.

Some of the real estate firms are alleged of forgeries. Besides the charges of forgeries, some of them are alleged to conduct dubious schemes of investment.

Receiving numerous complaints from various sources, the central government has decided to probe into the charges against the real estate firms.

The government will scan all the alleged realty firms and their schemes. Their investment schemes and policies also will be under scrutiny.

Last Friday, while disclosing the details of the alleged firms, Namo Narain Meena, the minister of state for finance, said that the government will investigate the charges. He was giving the answer to a question raised in the Lok Sabha.

Soon after the government said that it will investigate the matter, ten of them were given clean chit by SEBI.

These firms have not been running any sort of collective investment schemes, said the statement of The Securities and Exchange Board of India.

Remaining real estate firms are now under the scrutiny of the market regulator. While examining these firms, SEBI has found two more firms running dubious investment schemes.

SEBI stated that it will initiate action against Ecogreen Real Estate India Ltd and Ken Infratech Ltd, the two firms found guilty of conducting dubious schemes.

Delhi-based Ken Infratech Ltd denied the charge. The group MD Sukhchain Singh stated that the group is not running any collective investment schemes. All the more we have not received any related government notice, Mr. Singh added.

Taneja Developers and Infrastructure Ltd (Panipat) is another accused. AC Michael of the group also said that his group has not received any letter from the government.

Right now nearly seven real estate firms are under the scrutiny of the market regulator. If any of them is found guilty, actions will be taken against that firm, affirms SEBI.

Property buyers remain reluctant to buy any property as the property prices have reached the sky. Due to this, the property sales have fallen, affecting the developers severely.

In fact the developers find no way to offload their unsold properties. Recently a report came up from Delhi-NCR where the number of unsold homes alone reaches around 1.5 lakh.

Though the developers deny this, the truth is nothing much. In most of the cities, the number of new launches has also been cut short. All these are considered as side-effects of low property sales.

By reducing the number of new launches, developers expect to sell off their remaining unsold properties. However this has not yet found the desired aim as still the property sales are down and show no improvement at all.

Lower property sales have pushed the developers into financial crises, besides affecting their financial stability badly.

As per some of the latest reports, many of the developers have defaulted payments. Defaulted payment by four developers has been verified.

Mantri Realty is one of the worst affected by lower home sales. For paying the interest of a Rs.19 Cr loan, the Mumbai based construction firm has asked a non-banking financial firm to issue its FD worth Rs.4 Cr.

While the developer sought the employment of a judicial arbitrator, SE Investments has moved the court to prevent the developers from selling some 32 flats. The news was reported by Economic Times.

Interestingly the report came on the same day in which Mantri Realtors Group announced its new investment plan.

The group recently announced that it will raise over Rs.1500 Cr for developing 2300 housing units under six residential projects. The group plans to complete the projects within 3 -4 months.

Once the news came out about the plan of Mukesh Ambani to build a home worth a billion dollars, many people started thinking of this awesome home of Mukesh Ambani. Many rumors spread about Antilla.

While many stated that this was an unwanted expense and he could avoid this. Yet many of them still wish to see what Antilla really is.

There are only 27 stories in this awesome home. But the height of it is equal to 40 stories as some of the stories are built with the height double the size than the normal.

Though many reported that this is situated in the suburbs, this is not true. Antilla is set on Altamount Road, one of the most aristocratic areas in Mumbai.

There is parking space for 168 cars in the garage which is built in many stories. For those who want to reach Antilla by air can reach so as there are three helipads on the roof.

Luxury facilities like spa, lobby, ball rooms, guest suites, terraced garden, etc. makes this home really marvelous and priceless. For watching movies, there is an in-built 50-seater theater. While there are nine elevators in the lobby alone, the number of servants is also not less.

Recreation center is built in two stories. Mukesh Ambani has built a temple inside the home. It is in this temple that he, along with his family members, prays daily.

This is our sole home in the world, said Mukesh Ambani’s wife Nita Ambani, the owner of IPL franchisee Mumbai Indians. Earlier we were living at a home which was co-owned by his mother and brother.

In an interview with Vanity Fair magazine, Nita Ambani said that they prefer living in the topper floors. Their preference is based on the provision of sunlight. So to say these are only a few interesting facts about Antilla.

After hearing the contempt petition submitted by SEBI, Supreme Court has ordered two Sahara firms and the chairperson and managing worker of Sahara Group Subrata Roy to reply the petition of SEBI within a week.

Securities and Exchange Board of India filed the contempt petition when they found that these two firms and Roy had not obeyed any singly line of the August 31 SC Order.

As per the August 31 Order, both the firms were asked to repay over Rs.24000 Cr to its investors. While the firms claim that they have repaid the amount to the investors, the market regulator says that the firms have violated the order.

In the filed petition, SEBI states that none of the firms have followed the order at least by one percent. It states that each and every single line of the order is violated by them.

The order was issued when the Supreme Court found some irregularities in the details of the investors. These firms had raised over Rs.24000 Cr through OFCD investment scheme. Nearly three crore investors had invested in the fund.

Finding irregularities, Supreme Court ordered them to refund the amount with interest. As per the order, these firms had to refund the amount through the market regulator which was also authorized to attach the properties of the firms in case of failure from their side.

Once the market regulator saw that the firms have default payments, it seized their properties. However the market watchdog could not find out the deeds of any of the property.

Sahara Housing Investment Corporation and Sahara India Real Estate Corporation were the two accused Subsidiary firms. The market regulator also demanded Subrata Roy to surrender his passport. This demand was vehemently opposed by his counsel C.A. Sundaram.

The sale of housing units in Vasundhara Enclave Delhi is lower compared to the previous months. While the experts say that this is due to the sluggish momentum existing in the market, others say that this is visible mainly in this locality.

Vasundhara Enclave Delhi holds a prime location. The residents of this locality can easily move up and down to many prime sectors in Noida. Moreover the residents have easier access to East Delhi as well.

With all these better connectivity features, the locality is expected to be one of the hot residential locations in the NCR. However it does not become so. Nor it shows any sign of it.

On the other side, home sales in the locality are falling. The builders are finding no takers for their projects.

The presence of a good number of hospitals, elite schools, etc. also does not help Vasundhara Enclave Delhi. There is a Zilla Parishad in the locality. All the more the locality is close to many other residential hubs like Mayur Vihar.

Still why? Property agents of the area say that the market is not up to the expectation. They say that there is no one approaching them for buying any property in the locality.

Sandeep Sharma of Asian Estate, a local real estate agency, said that the property market in the area is really sluggish. However he adds that this is common to all property markets in Delhi.

Anurag Kapoor who runs another real estate agency Kapoor Associates in the area, agrees with the former. While saying that the property market is sluggish, he adds that there is no taker for any properties in the area.

Steelcase has leased 50,000 sq. ft. of office space in IndoSpace Industrial and Logistics Park. The group plans to set up their first production unit in India here. Steelcase is a US based furniture major.

IndoSpace Industrial and Logistics Park is located at Chakan in Pune. By leasing out 50,000 sq. ft. of office space in this project which is a joint a venture of Everstone and Realterm Global, the furniture developing major has signaled its India entry.

IndoSpace Chakan is managed by Realterm Everstone Development Management Ltd. The project is one of the latest commercial developments in the area. The project is adorned with world-class facilities and amenities.

The project remains one of the best locations where the top retailers can have their headquarters even as the project offers office spaces which are adorned with world class amenities and facilities.

Managing Partner of Realterm Brian Oravec, in a press release, said that the project is suitable for the international brands like Steelcase. He added that the project is designed in a way that best suits the expansion policies of the foreign retailers.

Once the unit becomes operational, this will hallmark the Indian entry of the furniture major. Though this is their first production unit in India, this is their third unit in Asia. Previously they have set up production units in China and Malaysia.

Once the new production unit is ready, it will provide job opportunities to almost 100 people.

Commenting on the lease plan, UliGwinner said that the company aims to provide better services to its clients by setting up more production units. Steelcase’s Asia-Pacific Regional head adds that their customer base in India is growing and this is what prompted them to set up production unit in India.

E-Payment of Property Tax was expected to reduce the overburden of the property owners to pay the tax. In many of the localities inside Bangalore, this has become successfully initiated. However there are a few cities where online property tax facility is not yet available.

Residents of Byatarayanapura, Dodda Bommasandra and Vidyaranyapura have no access to online property tax. Most of them are still paying their tax directly in the BBMP office.

As per the statistics, around 50000 people in Bangalore are not having the access to online property tax. An official of BBMP said that this inconvenience was due to the fact that the civic body could not enroll these areas.

The civic body officials were busy with the election work. Thus they could not provide PID numbers to nearly 50000 people in these areas.

The official said that the civic body is striving hard to provide this facility to the people of these areas as soon as possible.

The collection of property tax for the year 2013-14 has been started. While majority of the people prefer to pay tax online, there are some who never wishes to pay tax online.

They are not bothered about having no access to the online facility. They are ready to stand in long queues and pay the tax directly. This is one of the main features which the residents are looking for. They remain keen to avoid this long queue.

Online tax payment was initiated in Bangalore to take away the over burden of the property tax. As long as these residents are not having access to the system it will not take away their burden. The property owners in Bangalore expect to gain access to e-payment of property tax by next year at least.

NEW DELHI: The proposed amendment to the Master Plan 2021 will make green norms mandatory for construction of homes in the acquired plots. However the green norms will be applicable only for the plots above 3000 sq. meter. It means that the green norms will not be applicable to smaller plots.

Master Plan 2021 does not include any provision for making green norms mandatory. However this will be changed with the new regulations.

Some recent studies have reported that the green buildings are the sole idea to meet the power shortage. As green buildings are consuming less power and water, they will help India to face power shortage and water shortage.

This might be the fact which prompted DDA to bring an amendment in the existing Master Plan 2021. Besides, the authority is expected to impose penalty on those who violate the green norms.

Meanwhile DDA is not in favor of raising FAR. The civic body has discarded the idea to raise FAR by 5%.

The suggestion came up during the meeting of advisory group. The meeting has suggested the developers to follow green norms and develop more eco-friendly homes which consume less power or energy and water.

Normally green buildings are rated on the basis of its power and water consumption. Waste generation, waste water recycling, etc. are also measured. The recycled water could be used for either gardening or for washing the vehicles.

The modification to the master plan includes rain water harvesting system which will keep up the level of ground water.

Some sources have reported that the solar power system will be provided for those buildings with roof area of over 300 sq. m.

Compared to the last quarter of the previous year, this year the new launches in the Mumbai residential market are lower, say experts. While the last quarter received higher number of new launches, the first quarter received only a few new launches.

Still the experts are optimistic. They say that the new launches will be more in the April-June quarter. The first quarter receives normally few launches because there is no festival.

Ram Navami and other festivals fall in the second quarter spanning from April to June. This will boost the buyers’ sentiments. Additionally in many of the states, local New Year also is celebrated in this quarter.

The Marathi New Year Gudi Padwa is celebrated during this quarter. Thus the experts say that the developers will be keen to launch more new projects to grab the buyers’ sentiment.

In the same way the last quarter is also the festival season. Festival like Diwali is falling in this quarter. Normally the home sales are the maximum during this period.

According to a Liases Foras report new launches were at its peak point during this quarter. Most of the cities witnessed higher numbers of new launches. Mumbai residential market too received a good number of them.

Commenting on the lower new launches in Mumbai, Liases Foras’ MD Pankaj Kapoor said that this was because the developers, being cautious of the weak home sales, are suspending their new launches.

Home sales in the Mumbai residential market are weak. This is one of the main reasons why the developers are extending the dates of new launches. By reducing the number of new launches the developers expect to cut short the number of their unsold inventories.

The buyers’ sentiments are really hurt by the delayed projects. This is, thus, one of the main reasons which have affected the housing demand in Delhi-NCR.

According to a recent report NCR Residential Market is severely hit by delayed projects. Due to this unfavorable delay, home sales also have dipped in the city.

As per Knight Frank’s findings project launches have fallen by 31% in Delhi-NCR. The supply of new launches has been reduced by the builders who remain cautious to launch new projects. Most of the builders have restricted new launches to sell off their unsold inventories.

There are over 1.4 lakh unsold residential units in the NCR. Out of this, more than one fourth is under construction. It means that there is more number of delayed projects than any other cities of the country.

In the second half of last year, nearly 33500 housing units were launched in the region. This is 31% down.

Global property consultants warn that the new launches will be less in the coming months too. The slowing down of new launches along with the delayed projects, will affect the residential market in the NCR.

Financial issues are one of the main hurdles which builders face now. Most of the delayed projects are halted by financial crises.

Developers say that they are no more able to cop up with the escalating land prices and other prices of raw materials. All these factors force the developers to invest more in the projects which they are not capable of doing in many circumstances.

Though financial crises are there, the main reason for delayed projects is not this. In the opinion of many developers, delay in clearance is a bigger issue for delayed projects.