Monday 27 December 2010

Godrej Properties expects to double sales in FY11


MUMBAI: Godrej Properties expects sales to double in the current fiscal from a year ago, a senior official said on Friday.
The firm has sold 1.5 million sq.ft in the first three quarters of FY11, Pirojsha Godrej, executive director told reporters.
Earlier in the day, the firm posted a 25 percent dip in December quarter net profit to 132.52 million rupees.

Thursday 25 November 2010

Realty report: Mumbai, Pune, Delhi


Recently, a 1,650-sq ft, 3-BHK apartment located at Cuffe Parade in Mumbai, was transacted at a price of around Rs 8.40 crore which was inclusive of a covered car parking space. This is a secondary sale trans-action. The apartment located on the 9th floor of the building has an exclusive view of the Arabian Sea.
Cuffe Parade is an up market and most sought after residential and commercial locale in South Mumbai which houses many old residential buildings quoting rates in the range of Rs 34,000-85,000 per sq ft, depending on the location, floor, view from the apartment and age of the building . Prominent commercial projects located here are the IDBI Towers, World Trade Centre, Maker Arcade as well as the Vivanta by Taj-President .
PUNE
A garden-facing, 3-BHK apartment with a saleable area of 1,500 sq ft at the project Yuthika by Paranjpe Schemes was sold for a total amount of Rs 83 lakh. This comprises charges for registrationstamp duty, society formation, MSEB, as well as an exclusive parking space. The premium residential project at Baner consists of 2- and 3- bedroom apartments with good layouts, specifications and opulent amenities at an affordable price range.
The project is currently quoting Rs 4,300 per sq ft for non-garden-facing apartments and Rs 4,600 per sq ft for garden-facing ones. The project assures possession in the next 24-30 months from now. The area has seen good amount of development in the past few years and scores on approachability from the rest of the city, making it a good residential option.
DELHI
In one of the recent transactions in Defence Colony a 2,050 sq ft apartment located on the third floor of a three-storey building, was transacted for Rs 6.15 crore which is inclusive of a car-parking space. The owner of the house has exclusive terrace rights. This unit comes with luxury bath fittings, Italian marble flooring and imported kitchen fittings. Defence Colony, located in the southern part of the city, is one of the key residential zones.
The location commands a premium in terms of property prices as it is well connected with other parts of the city and has a mature F&B retail market. Defence Colony has witnessed an 36% appreciation in capital values over 2009 end.

Thursday 21 October 2010

Hospitality Chain Choice Hotels to come up with More than 60 hotels in India


The US-based firm, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Choice Hotels India (CHI), currently operates 28 hotels in the country through the franchise route. “The mid-scale segment has a huge potential in India and is expanding due to rise in the number of budget conscious domestic business and leisure travellers,” Pawar said. The hotel chain, with a tariff size ranging from Rs 2,000-7,000 per night depending on the location, operates in the country across five brands — Sleep Inn, Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, Clarion and Cambria.

Wednesday 22 September 2010

Carlson to Open 100 More Hotels in India by 2015


“We plan to open 19 more hotels this calender year. These hotels will help generate 6,000 employment opportunities,” said Hubert Joly, president and CEO, Carlson Hotels. The company has already signed management contracts for about 54 hotels, of which 19, with a total of 2,670 rooms, will open this year. The total project cost of these 19 hotels is estimated at around Rs 2,250 crore.
Of these 19 hotels, 11 are Radisson to be opened in Agra, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Chennai, Ghaziabad, Goa, Greater Noida, Haridwar, Hyderabad, Ranchi and Rudrapur, Joly said. While two Country Inns will come up at Gurgaon and Mussourie, one Park Inn will be opened in New Delhi (CBD) and five Park Plazas will open at Bangalore, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, and New Delhi (Dwarka).

Friday 20 August 2010

Scam Hit Adarsh Housing Society Faces Demolition Threat


The Ministry had considered the other two options of removal of that part of the structure in excess of the floor space index or recommending that the Government take over the building for a public use to be determined later. Jairam Ramesh, minister of state for environment and forests, said the option of removal of part of the structure was rejected since it would have been ‘tantamount to regularising or condoning an egregious violation of the CRZ (Coastal Regulatory Zone) Notification’.
The other option was rejected on the grounds that even though the final use may be in the public interest, it would still be tantamount to regularising a violation of the CRZ Notification. Besides, there would be substantial discretionary powers that would vest with the State or Central Government in case of takeover. Ramesh said that any other decision would have diluted the strong precedents that have been set in judgments of the Supreme Court and different High Courts and that ‘ignorance of law can never be an excuse for non-compliance’.

Wednesday 14 July 2010

Ansal sells properties worth Rs 1,714 cr in Apr-Dec 2010


“The total sales booked in the first nine months of the 2010-11 fiscal is 15.81 million sq ft aggregating sales value of Rs 1,713.79 crore,” the company said in a presentation, outlining the operational updates.
The average sales realisations have improved by 24 per cent to Rs 1,084/sq ft in the first nine months of this fiscal as against Rs 872.81/ sq ft in the year-ago period.
The company had set a target to book sales of 16 million sq ft in the current fiscal, out of which 15.81 million sq ft has already been booked, it added.
Out of the total sales booked, the hi-tech township ‘Sushant Golf City’ in Lucknow and ‘Esencia’ in Gurgaon contributed 8.63 million sq ft and 2.31 million sq ft, respectively.
In terms of location, Uttar Pradesh accounted for 60 per cent of the sales booking, followed by Haryana at 33 per cent. The sales was maximum in plots at Rs 623.54 crore, followed by villas at Rs 475.4 crore.
Ansal API has a 301.78 million sq ft of total saleable area in-hand, out of which 83 million sq ft valuing Rs 6,926 crore has been sold till the third quarter of this fiscal.
In the first six months of the current fiscal, Ansal has reported 54 per cent increase in its net profit to Rs 61.55 crore against Rs 39.89 crore in the corresponding period of this fiscal.

Saturday 19 June 2010

Realty companies’ financial woes to mount


MUMBAI: The woes of realty developers may not ease anytime soon as pressure to repay debt and redemption of quasi-equity instruments continue to be a major task for them.
Repayment of structured quasi-equity instruments totalling Rs 3,000 crore held by foreign investors is due in the next couple of months and this is expected to stress already cash-strapped developers.
Redemption of these instruments is likely to coincide with developers’ loans that were rescheduled by banks two years ago and are now expected to come up for repayment around March.
As external commercial borrowings are not allowed in the realty sector, some cash-strapped developers had placed non-convertible debentures with non-banking finance companies, listed these debentures and then offered these to foreign investors.
At least four developers, three from Mumbai and one from Bangalore, had raised over Rs 1,000 crore almost a year ago through this route. These funds raised by some realtors through quasi-equity instruments around three years ago went to supporting their ongoing projects and land acquisitions.
However, most of these foreign investors may not be interested in converting these instruments into equity and hold stake in these realty projects, given the weakening demand for residential units and possibility of a fall in prices, analysts said.
“Builders will find it difficult to repay overseas investors since few local banks are willing to take large exposures. With the stock market entering a bearish phase, the prospects of IPOs are also dim,” said a senior official of a realty fund.
In a few cases, the matter may boil into legal disputes. “However, many of the structured papers are not enforceable debt and foreign investors may be left with little recourse,” he said.
Consensus on a fall in realty prices hereon is getting stronger as almost all the market participants, including consultants who undertake sales of these projects on behalf of the developer for a fee, have also estimated at least 15% correction.
Mumbai, the country’s financial capital that led the appreciation in realty prices in the past 12 months, is now expected to lead the correction in property prices owing to buyers’ resistance to higher prices, rising interest rates, tightening of credit, and an excess supply scenario.
An indication of this has already come through falling numbers of registrations at stamp duty and registration offices across Mumbai. After gaining nearly 40% in the past one year, residential property prices in Mumbai have already surpassed their last peak witnessed in 2007 and scenarios are almost similar across major locations such as the National Capital Region , Bangalore and Hyderabad.
Interest rates that have started moving higher are impacting affordability and delaying decision making and all of this is not allowing the demand to get converted into sales since the past two quarters.

Tuesday 18 May 2010

Parsvanath Aims Big-Plans to Generate Revenues Worth Rs 13000 Crore by 2013


“About 80 million square feet (msf) is on fast-track execution, which we plan to complete by March 2013. Out of this, 40 msf is pre-sold and will generate Rs4,000 crore for us. The remaining 40 msf will generate another Rs9,000 crore. So as of now, we are focusing to complete the 80 msf and generate large cash for the company. The moment we achieve this, our balance-sheet will be completely debt-free with large cash reserves,” said Pradeep Jain, chairman, Parsvnath. The company owns a total of 195 msf. The properties are mainly located in Delhi and the National Capital Region.
On debt reduction plans, Jain said, “Our debt position is very comfortable. From a peak of Rs2,200 crore, we are almost half at around Rs1,100 crore as of now. By the end of this calendar year, we hope to bring the debt at around Rs500-600 crore.” The current debt-equity ratio of the company stands at 0.43%.
“Debt servicing will be done completely through internal generations and no fundraising at the parent company level is on the cards as of now. Also, funds already raised on the special purpose vehicle level and through the forthcoming deals will not be utilised for the repayment of the debt. We may monetise non-core assets if required,” Jain said.

Monday 15 March 2010

US Based Developer Donald Trump Plans Luxury Residential Tower in Mumbai


“We are doing a very luxury project with Rohan Lifescapes and we’ll be in India later this quarter to launch it officially,” he added. He declined to give further details on the project. The Trump development is being built on the site of a former hospital in south Mumbai, in a neighborhood dotted with jewelry stores, the only Porsche showroom in the city and next to a Mercedes showroom, said two people familiar with the matter, who declined to be identified before an official announcement.

Saturday 16 January 2010

Arabian co, Simplex Infra get contract to build World One


MUMBAI: Lodha Developers has awarded civil construction contract of its proposed world’s tallest residential building, World One, to a joint venture of West Asia-based Arabian Construction Company and Simplex Infrastructures  The contract is worth 450 crore and is scheduled to be completed in 38 months.
The project at Lower Parel in central Mumbai has been in the news ever since it has been launched in June. There have questions over the status of approvals from the ministry of environment and the director general of civil aviation.
However, according to the company, the construction contract for the tower has been placed as it has received the approvals. “We have all the necessary approvals, including from the ministry of environment and the director general of civil aviation and the construction of World One will kick off from the first week of February,” said Abhisheck Lodha, managing director of Lodha Developers. The DGCA nod is needed because of the builiding’s height.
With a height of 450 metres, World One will surpass the current tallest residential building Q1 at Gold Coast in Australia that is 323 metres high.
Arabian Construction has constructed some of the tallest buildings in the world, including 100-storey Princess Tower and Pentominium in Dubai.