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.

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.

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

Banking on the growing economy and rapid infrastructure development in India, international mid- scale hospitality chain Choice Hotels plans to open more than 60 hotels in the country over the next three years, a top company official said. The chain plans to add around 20-30 hotels in the country every year. “Our target is to open 20-30 hotels every year in India for the next 2-3 years. In 2011, we plan to open 14 hotels mainly in tier II cities. All are in various stages of construction. We are looking at a double-digit growth in India,” said Vilas Pawar, CEO, Choice Hotels 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.

These hotels are in various destinations, including New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kodaikanal, Lucknow, Faridabad, Amritsar, Pune, Nashik, Haldwani, Tuticorin and Vijayawada. Choice runs 6,200 hotels across 12 brands globally — Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality Inn, Sleep Inn Clarion, Cambria Suites, Mainstay Suites, Suburban Extended Stay Hotel, Ascend Collection, Econo Lodge and Rodeway Inn.

Carlson to Open 100 More Hotels in India by 2015

Global hospitality major Carlson, which runs 5-star hotel Radisson, plans to open 19 more hotels in India by the year-end and 100 by 2015 with a total expected headcount of 30,000 by then, a company official said. The US-based hotel chain currently employs around 10,000 people across its 34 hotels (3,234 rooms) in India.

“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).

Park Plaza is in 3-4 star hotel segment and Country Inn and Suites and Park Inn are in the mid-segment. About 90 per cent of the hotels are operated, globally, through management contracts and franchise model. “We are quite optimistic about the India’s tourism and travel growth story. We see India as a strategic destination with enormous opportunity and hence plan to scale-up our operations here,” Joly added.

Scam Hit Adarsh Housing Society Faces Demolition Threat

The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has ordered the removal of the scam-tainted Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society building in Mumbai within three months. In a press release issued on Sunday, the Ministry said it has decided to remove the entire structure as it is ‘unauthorised’ and as no clearance under the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification, 1991, was obtained.

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’.

The Adarsh society, which was originally meant for allotment to Kargil war heroes and their families, has been the centre of a controversy on charges that several politicians, bureaucrats and army men were allotted flats there. It is also alleged that the building got speedy approvals for land allotment. Post the revelation, Ashok Chavan, the then Maharashtra chief minister, was forced to step down from his post. The matter is being currently investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

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

NEW DELHI: Realty firm Ansal Properties and Infrastructure Ltd today said it sold properties worth about Rs 1,714 crore in the first nine months of this fiscal and its sales realisations improved by 24 per cent compared to the year-ago period.

“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.

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.