India Real Estate Monitor » Commercial

Residential property becomes cheaper

rajani — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:08:05 +0000

Residential property prices are expected to fall by about 10% this year. Residential property rates declined by 18% to 20% in this March. Despite this drop, buyers are watching market scenario with ‘wait and watch’ policy. This trend is likely to continue through 2009. Mr. Sudhir Nair, Head, CRISIL Research says, “Demand in the commercial and retail segment is likely to remain under stress for the next two years owing to excess supply and weak off take.”

It is believed that lower home loan interest rates would help to revive demand in the residential segment. Hence, capital values are likely to stabilise in the first half of 2010, and increase during the second half of the year.

LnT To Develop Bombay Dyeing Complexes

rajani — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:42:28 +0000

Larsen & Toubro is planning develop nine million square feet at Bombay Dyeing & Manufacturing Company’s Textile Mills and Spring Mills complexes at Worli and Wadala at a cost of Rs two thousand crore.
Mr K.V. Rangaswami, Director and President (Construction), L&T, said that it would be an all-commercial project, comprising retail, IT and hospitality space, with no residential component in it.
The built-up area at Worli would be about 44 lakh square feet with 13 lakh square feet of IT space and a hotel of about six lakh square feet. The Wadala development would be of 53 lakh square feet, having 20 lakh square feet for IT, besides six lakh square feet for hospitality.
Brushing aside any presumptions that L&T was increasing its focus on realty projects, Mr Rangaswami said that the project exposure to infrastructure and construction for L&T’s ECC division was identical, at about 30 % each. He added “Even in airports, a major portion of the work is building the terminal”.
In response to queries, Ms Carolina Bajaj, the Bombay Dyeing spokesperson, said, “Bombay Dyeing has entered into a framework construction and building contract with L&T to construct mixed-use developments at Spring Mills, Dadar and Textile Mills, Worli. Considered the best construction company in India, we are confident that L&T will deliver an international quality of buildings in line with our building programme braced over a period of three to four years.”
Mr Anand J. Gupta, General Secretary of the Builders Association of India, said that any addition of floor space in Mumbai was welcome. However, despite the size of the commercial venture, it would have no significant bearing on the market as over five crore square feet were being built annually in Mumbai.

Indiabulls realty purchases majority stake in Dev Property

rajani — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 10:32:23 +0000

MUMBAI: Indiabulls Real Estate(IBREL), the real estate division of the Indiabulls group, has decided to take greater part stake in Dev Property Developers, the London-listed property fund, in order to gain best part control over two of its prized properties in Mumbai. IBREL has bought over 90 percent in DPD for about Rs 1,100 crore.

DPD, which is listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market, in turn holds a minority stake in various realty assets, a majority of which are owned by Indiabulls group, like Jupiter Mills, Elphinstone Mills and the 6,000-acre SEZ at Raigad in Maharashtra. It is expected that the deal would help IBREL launch its Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) in the Singapore Stock Exchange (SSE). IBREL had received the approval to list REIT at SSE and initiated steps to create a property trust prior to the listing.

Jupiter and Elphinston Mills were purchased by Indiabulls in a series of high-profile transactions in 2005 from state-owned textile firm NTC. Indiabulls plans to convert them into commercial complexes.