US Based Developer Donald Trump Plans Luxury Residential Tower in Mumbai

US billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump is entering the Indian property market with a luxury residential tower in Mumbai, more than two years after announcing plans to expand in the south Asian nation. Trump, who has joined with Mumbai developer Rohan Lifescapes Pvt for his first venture in the country, expects to start marketing the project by March, quoted Donald Trump Jr., Trump’s son and executive vice president at the Trump Organization LLC in the report.

“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.

Rohan Lifescapes focuses primarily on redevelopments. It has more than 60 projects spread across 54 sites, according to its website. It has developed more than 20 million square feet of homes and offices and is currently developing 3.45 million square feet of projects in Mumbai, according to its website. “Our entry has to be in Mumbai and that’s where everything is going on right now in terms of the high-end real estate,” the younger Trump had said earlier. The billionaire has branded buildings from skyscrapers in Manhattan to condominiums in Tijuana, Mexico, Trump World in the South Korean capital Seoul and the Trump Towers Istanbul

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.

Parsvnath to cut net debt by nearly 60%

MUMBAI: Realtor Parsvnath Developers expects to cut net debt to 7 billion rupees by December as revenues from projects start to flow in, a top official said on Monday.

“We expect the net debt to reduce further in the current financial year, but this would not be substantial. By the end of this calendar year, we expect a substantial reduction to around 700 crore (7 billion rupees),” Chairman Pradeep Jain told Reuters in an interview.

As on Dec. 31, 2010, the company’s net debt was 11 billion rupees, he said, adding the reduction would be affected through internal accruals and revenues from ongoing projects.

The company would also look at increasing property prices in select projects by 5-10 percent across north India . These would be in Delhi, National Capital Region and nearby areas, he said without elaborating. “Earlier, during the slowdown time, prices declined… and now, after the revival, the prices are expected to go up.”

Parsvnath has a land bank of about 195 million square feet (18.12 million sq metres), of which 80 million square feet has been on fast track for completion, he said.

STAKE DILUTION

The New Delhi-based developer is not looking at diluting stake or roping in private equity firms in the company. However, it would continue to look at investments at project levels. “Going forward, if any good opportunity comes, or any good private equity proposals come (at project level), definitely we are happy to look at it. It is not that we are very aggressively looking, and there is nothing expected to be concluded in the short term.”

The company is also planning to develop 4.5 million square feet of residential properties and 0.5 million square feet of commercial ventures on the recently won Railway land. In Nov 2010, Parvsnath had won a bid for 38.3 acres (15.50 hectares). Jain declined to comment on the investments for the project stating it as “confidential”.

The company is waiting for approval for the special purpose vehicle set up for the rail land development in which it is looking at roping in foreign direct investment. The company, however, has already engaged architects and consultants and started work on the project. “I think it would take another two months’ time to work out the planning, which needs to be submitted for approvals.”

Declining to provide an outlook for its Oct-Dec quarter, Jain said “the quarter looks good.” At 3.19 p.m., shares of the company were trading lower by 3.33 percent at 52.20 rupees in a steady Mumbai market.

Over 27-Fold Rise in India Bulls Consolidated Net Profit

Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd today reported more than 27-fold jump in its consolidated net profit to Rs 76.61 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010, against Rs 2.76 crore in the year-ago period.

Net sales rose to Rs 399.66 crore in the third quarter of this fiscal from Rs 37.46 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year, Indiabulls Real Estate said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange .

The total expenditure increased sharply to Rs 284.07 crore in the third quarter of 2010-11 fiscal against Rs 72.86 crore in the year-ago period, due to higher expenses on land, plots and constructed properties.

NRI’s Seek Better Policies for More FDI Inflow in Punjab

Punjab needs to follow Gujarat’s lead and improve its “poor” policies if it wants to attract more investment from overseas Indians, NRIs at an investment meet here today said. “I do not see any major schemes or major development from Punjab or the state government which really helps (in getting NRI investments),” said Punjabi NRI Satinder Dhiman, who migrated to the US from Jalandhar 22 years ago.

“It will be logical for the state government to look into it as lot of (NRI) money is out there,” he said at the 8th ‘Punjabi Pravasi Bharatiya Divas-2011′ NRI investors’ meet here, adding that real estate, education, services and IT are the potential sectors where NRI investments could flow in. Another NRI, Mahendra Khari , the President of the International Punjabi Chamber for Service Industry (IPCSI), pointed out that unlike other states like Gujarat, the Punjab government was not efficient in propagating polices or taking initiatives to attract foreign investment.

“In Punjab, they (Punjab government) do not have much PR exercise like Gujarat… I have not seen much support from state functionaries like NRI help centres, professional support, etc.. It (support) is at a personal level (rather) than any other level,” rued Khari, who is based in the UK. The Punjab government, too, thinks there is scope for more investment by NRIs in the state.

“I am not satisfied (with the scale of NRI investment in Punjab)… There is always a room on the top… There is a scope for improvement (in terms of investment)… I want more and more (NRI) investments should flow in the state,” Punjab Industry and Commerce Minister Manoranjan Kalia told reporters here. According to Kalia, Punjab has received Rs 5,000 crore of FDI in the last four years in several sectors.

The state accounts for just 0.42 per cent of the FDI inflows into the country, with the majority of the foreign direct investment witnessed in the manufacturing, warehousing (Bharti-Walmart), IT, real estate and pharma sectors. Though data on the investment by Punjabi NRIs is not yet available, the bulk of their funds went into the IT, real estate, education and agri-processing sectors. The strength of the overseas Punjabi NRI community is estimated at around 10 million, which is mainly concentrated in Britain, North America, South-East Asia and the Middle East.

DLF Delays Plan to Increase Maintenance Fee

DLF has deferred its plan to charge a hiked maintenance fee by three months, with the change likely to be implemented only from April. This decision was taken on Tuesday after RWA representatives told the developer that they would pay more only if they are satisfied and convinced that DLF can meet their expectations. A group of residents from different RWAs would meet the DLF officials next week and submit their demands pertaining to maintenance works in the residential colonies.

It is expected that the revised maintenance fee would be raised from Re 1 per sq yard to around Rs 2.70. Sources said residents’ committees would present a budgeted cost of amenities required in their areas so that the developer can take steps to improve them. Those who attended the meting said that DLF will have to provide desired quality services in the next two months and based on its performance, the RWAs would take a call on the revision of maintenance charges. Participants in the meeting registered their dissatisfaction over the present security and maintenance and suggested that residents should spell out the benchmarks for maintenance in their respective areas.

“We have asked the developer to prove that they are capable of providing quality services and only then we would allow the prices to be hiked,” said one of the participants. R P Singh, a representative from DLF-III RWA said they are ready to pay more, provided the developer ensures good quality services for residents. Sudhir Kapoor, general secretary of DLF City RWA added, “The next meeting will have the representatives with some more concerns of their respective colonies. The maintenance process in the DLF colonies need to be transparent so that residents feel satisfied about the revised fee that they are paying. At present, the maintenance is not satisfactory.”

On their part, the DLF officials reportedly told the RWA representatives that they need to hike the maintenance fee since the cost of everything has increased and even the labour wage, which was Rs 2,300 in 2004, has now increased to Rs 4,400. Parimal Bardhan, president of DLF-I RWA said, “We have told the developer that maintenance and security services are not up to the mark and need a lot of improvement. There has been an agreement that DLF would now join hands with the RWAs and provide quality services.”

Another RWA representative, J C Kapoor, said the developer has admitted that the services are not up to the mark. “We are going to discuss this issue in the next meeting. A committee has been formed by DLF and I, being a member of this committee, will raise the issues of our colony,” he added.

CCI Probe against DLF Gets Compat Approval

The Competition Appellate Tribunal (Compat) today refused to stay the proceedings of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against real estate major DLF and permitted the competition watchdog to go ahead with its inquiry. DLF had approached Compat against the CCI probe into the complaints raised by some of its customers over alleged “abuse of dominant position” by putting “discriminatory and abusive clauses” in the apartment agreements provided to the allottees of two of its high-profile projects in Gurgaon, Haryana.

Early this month, the Delhi High Court also refused to grant a stay on the CCI investigations against DLF. The petitions before CCI, filed by associations formed by some of the customers of premium residential projects like Park Place and Belaire, complain that DLF failed to deliver the residential projects on time and put “discriminatory and abusive clauses” in the apartment agreements provided to the allottees. It also says the builder is abusing its dominant position in the market.

The two projects are expected to have a total of 2,200 flats, priced between Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 3 crore each, making the total worth of the apartments in the range of Rs 4,500-5,000 crore. The projects, which started in August 2006, were expected to be completed in three years, but the developer extended the deadline to April 2011. The director general (investigations) of CCI, who gave his findings to the commission recently, is known to have endorsed the charges made by the allottees against DLF.