These awards would serve as the national recognition as the “The best real estate business” in the country and is the best chance to promote your real estate business and a platform for networking and validation for your business. An opportunity to benchmark your business against competitors, ongoing publicity and business lifetime of high-achiever credibility, extensive media coverage and PR with the partners are other added advantages.

The  nominations are open only to real estate companies, brokers, builders, developers registered and based in India. Ernst & Young will be the official tabulator for the awards.

The event is designed for all professionals with an interest in Indian and international real estate and can be interesting for : real estate service providers , contractors, developers, investors, fund/ asset managers, brokers /traders, builders, consultants, trade associates, lawyers, accountants.

Sources at Unitech revealed that money from the escrow has been handed over to IBFSL on Monday. After this, collaterals that Unitech had pledged with Indiabulls to secure the debt will be released to the company. With this payment, the company does not have any outstanding debt towards IBFSL. Indiabulls founder Gagan Banga confirmed that Unitech has cleared its loan, which was taken 45 days back (early October) within the stipulated time.

“Unitech had pledged some flats and hotels against the loan,” informed Mr Banga. He, however, did not confirm the amount of loan that was raised. Unitech’s total net debt as of June 30, 2008, was around Rs 7,700 crore. Earlier this month, the company had put its 2,00,000 square feet commercial office building in Saket, New Delhi, on the block, which is expected to fetch upwards of Rs 600 crore.

Sources said that Unitech is also looking for buyers for its underconstruction hotel in Gurgaon, which is valued close to Rs 300 crore. Unitech’s stock has dropped from a 52-week high of Rs 546.80 on January 2 to a low of Rs 26.60 on October 24. Its shares closed at Rs 42.75 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, down 6.56% from its previous closing of Rs 45.75.

The overall slowdown along with the increased home loan rates has translated into gradual slowing down of sales in the real estate sector. Most real estate developers today are cash-strapped and are looking at avenues of raising capital.

With bank lending becoming tight over the months and private equity players getting overcautious, the only way out for real estate companies has been to monetise their assets. Market sources indicate that a number of such deals are in the market, but investor interest is very low at the moment.

suggests Unitech is in talks with HDFC to sell the property.

Both Unitech and HDFC admitted the property was on the block, but refused to confirm the deal. “I cannot confirm till we sign a deal,” Unitech chairman Ramesh Chandra said.

HDFC joint MD Renu Sud Karnad said Unitech wants to sell the property but HDFC was not interested in buying it. She said the Saket property was mortgaged with HDFC as collateral for the Rs 30 crore her firm had lent to the real estate developer. HDFC has a much larger debt exposure to Unitech, said Ms Karnad.

But a Unitech executive told ET that HDFC had agreed to buy the Saket property for Rs 450-500 crore and a formal agreement is likely to be signed by the end of this month.

Most real estate firms have been facing a severe cash crunch as sales have slowed down and credit has become tight. With the crisis deepening in the real estate space, rating agencies have been downgrading realty firms.

New Delhi-based DLF’s planned $255 million share buyback is “ill advised” and the funds would be better used for new projects. Its stock price target was cut 48% to 342 rupees.
Sobha Developers Ltd. and Parsvnath Developers Ltd. were also cut by Agarwal and Noorani. Unitech’s price target was cut to 175 rupees from 353 rupees. Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd., the nation’s fourth-largest developer, was upgraded to “neutral” from “underperform”.
Sobha fell 1.4 percent to 248.95 rupees in Mumbai trading. Parsvnath shed 1.1% to 112 rupees.

The DDA offer, set to come up in the next two months, is certainly not enough to satisfy the huge demand for a flat in Delhi. Still, for 6,000 lucky ones it will be the big opportunity of not having to shift out to the suburbs.

Although these flats will cost more than in the past, the rates will be much less than those charged by private builders. As such, there are bound to be many more applications than 6,000, and the eventual allottees would be selected, as always, through lottery.

More than 2 lakh people applied for 3,000 flats when DDA last offered a new scheme in 2006. Clearly, this time too, supply will far outstrip demand.

The scheme aims to allot two- and one-bedroom apartments. ‘‘DDA is finalizing modalities for the new scheme. The agency is likely to invite applications within two months,” said a senior DDA official.

The fresh infusion, officials feel, will bring about a modicum of stability in localities where housing prices have rocketed of late. DDA flats in localities like Vasant Kunj command prices close to Rs 1 crore with their interiors completely redesigned by owners.

Danat will invest in a real estate development project near New Delhi, targeted at the expanding middle class of India.

India, presently one of the foremost rising markets is predicted to be the world’s 3rd biggest economy by 2050, ahead of Japan, the UK and Germany.

In a statement Khaleeji Commercial Bank chief executive officer Ebrahim H Ebrahim said that theyt are extremely delighted with the response to Danat, which is their first foray into the Indian Sub-continent.

“With a target return on investment of 83pc over a 3-year period, Danat wants to fullfill the requirement of middle income residential properties driven by increasing urbanization, rising disposable income and trouble-free financing alternatives. It offers our investors a chance to potentially advantage from the continued growth of the Indian economy, specially the demand from its burgeoning middle class.”

Oliver Rolf Kahn, the famous German football goalkeeper, will be playing his farewell match on the same day making it one of the greatest matches in the History of International Football.

On this occasion Mr. Kumar Shankar Bagchi, Managing Director, Bengal Peerless Housing Development Company Limited, said,” We are privileged to partner with the IFA to bring in the FC Bayern Munich team for the first time in India to play with Mohan Bagan, one of the oldest clubs in India.”

Talking at the event Mr. Utpal Ganguli, Secretary, Indian Football Association added, “We consider it to be an honour for Indian Football Association to be a part of the Farewell football match of Oliver Kahn to be held in Kolkata. We really look forward to make this match one of the Greatest ever played in the entire Football history.”

According to the group head Brij Mohan Munjal his revenues exceeding $3 billion. “We are working on several projects around the country in the real estate area and plan to enlarge in a big way,” Sunil Kant Munjal, son of Brij Mohan, told TOI.

According to one member of group the initial investments in the real estate venture will come from the Munjal family. It has been observed that potential investors , bankers and private equity players are very much interested in the plan.

A new project of the real estate diversification is coming up around Hero Honda’s new Haridwar factory. Arrow Infrastructure, a new company, will develop township and industrial park around the plant, and this is one of the many projects that are in the pipeline.

Apart from the project at Haridwar, the group is developing an IT park at Gurgaon while looking at resorts development in Himachal Pradesh and residential townships in Punjab.

Elaborating on township plans, one member of the group said the company would provide housing options across price points. “Our idea is to provide mid-level to high-end housing and price points on the lower side could be even less than Rs 20 lakh.”

The two entities would be listed separately on the stock exchanges in India.

ET had initially reported plans of a separation of the real estate business last November.
Commenting on the progress, GTC Industries chairman Sanjay Dalmia  told that the separation would unlock distinctive shareholder value across both verticals, tobacco as well as  the real estate. The company is in the process of probing different options for working out a suitable scheme of separation keeping the interest of shareholders in mind.”

As reported earlier, GTC Industries had been looking forward to separate its real estate assets spread across Mumbai, Baroda and Hyderabad into a separate company.

The separated entity would then become a real estate development company while GTC would remain the cigarette manufacturer with brands like Panama and Chancellor. The separated companies would form joint ventures and develop real estate assets.

Uppal Group is New Delhi based Housing Company. It is owned by Manish Uppal and Bhushan K. Uppal. The company has appointed Goldman Sachs (India) Securities Pvt. Ltd as one of its merchant bankers. Company might hire more merchant bankers.

Uppal Group plans to launch a public issue. The public issue of Uppal group is expected to hit the market in the second half of the year. Company has also planned to sell shares to private equity firms before the IPO. The total dilution through private equity and IPO is expected to not to exceed 20 percent.

Uppal Group has planned to use the proceeds of the IPO to part finance its special economic zone (SEZ) projects and they need funds for that. Apart from that, they also need funds for their expansion plans. The company has decided to invest around Rs 1500 crore by March this year to expand its operations outside New Delhi. Uppal plans to expand into big cities like Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and into small cities like Chandigarh. Uppal Group already has running projects in these cities.

The company is planning to either sell the property as duplex flats of 8000 sq ft in 40 crores or as single flats 4,000 sq ft in 20 crore.

The company is in talks with property consultant Cushman and Wakefield for sale of the 112,000 sq ft residential property it has developed. The going rate in the area is close to Rs 50,000 per sq ft and the company hopes to realize similar rates.

It has signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Chattisgarh government for setting up a thermal power plant with a capacity of 1,200 mw and another with Maharashtra for setting up a 1,000 mw power plant. Construction of a 110 mw captive power plant at Dolvi (Maharashtra) plant is underway.