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TREND MILL Sanjeev Singh Bariana Ignoring the slump, developers ready with new offerings DESPITE the depression in the real estate market, infrastructure development companies won’t stay put. They are now turning towards the economically-sounder strata of society offering new luxe addresses for those looking for trendy lifestyles. The area around the national capital has recently witnessed the launch of several high-end projects promising a big upgrade in living facilities coupled with matching infrastructure. There are also reports of papers reaching the planners’ desk in infrastructure development companies for areas around Ludhiana, Mohali, Panipat, Sonepat and Agra. TDI Infrastructure Limited (TDIL), one of India's leading real estate developers, recently announced the launch of its two premier projects – the high-end lifestyle Kingsbury Terraces and the affordable luxury Urban Farms. Varun Soni, corporate communications officer of a leading infrastructure company, says lifestyle today has a whole new meaning in terms of luxury. “A clean porch with airy rooms and sufficient space are no longer enough. A gymnasium, swimming pool, bar and garden are fast becoming part of normal life,” he says.
Certain aspects being highlighted by different companies include spacious bedrooms, swimming pool, jacuzzi, spa, bar, gymnasium, meditation room, terrace garden, security systems like CCTV and other world-class ultra-modern amenities. The villas depict luxury, exuberance and extravagance at its best and will be the chosen address of the elite. While Urban Farms are tentatively priced Rs 2.75 crore onwards and will have limited edition villas to choose from, Kingsbury Terraces will entail lavish high-rise apartments starting Rs 70 lakh onwards. These houses will be located on NH1, Kundli. Built to be dream homes special in their own unique ways, both the villas and the apartments flaunt classic features exclusive to themselves. The projects will have world-class maintenance and a top-notch security system. One of the biggest advantages of the new farmhouses will be that customers will have a far bigger built up area on their plots. The farms will have the option to choose from 1,600, 2,700, 3,800, 5,000 and 7,000 sq. ft. The special terraces under the plans are exquisite high-rise apartments. Inter flowing green space and beautiful landscaping is a special highlight of the project. Residents of each of these apartments will have their select king size living space and style. This is ensured by exclusive gated access, with the block sporting modern amenities like gymnasium, swimming pool, billiards room and community club to name a few. The terrace apartments will have state-of-the-art international standard elevations, terrace garden, at least four spacious bed rooms with hall, a separate servant room and balconies all around. Both projects also give the choice of opting for fully furnished lavish settings.
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It’s SAD
As property prices plummet in Amritsar, realtors shift blame from global meltdown to government policy
Prices on Ajnala road and alongside the bypass road, once hot property among real estate developers, have witnessed a decrease of
30 to 50 per cent, much to the chagrin of investors, who invested huge amounts in the area after the commencement of international flights from the airport in the last couple of years. Prices of properties in the Civil Lines area of the
city have also taken a beating but by about 20 per cent with no major deals in sale or purchase being reported. In other areas, prices have shown constant stagnancy. Gurdhir Singh of Big Properties Associates said that the curtailment of international flights had little to do with the real estate prices. “There is a worldwide slump in the property market,” he said, confirming that prices of plot on plots Ajnala Road had indeed nosedived from Rs 25,000 a square yard to Rs 8,800. Another property dealer, Rakesh Bir, said that sale-purchase of properties had come to a standstill as investors were now hesitant to invest more in property. “Even rates of commercial establishments built by government agencies like the Nehru Shopping Complex on the posh Lawrence Road, which were selling at about Rs 70 lakh, have also shown a decrease of 30 per cent,”
he said, adding that government announcements of establishing mega projects had jacked up prices of properties, taking them out of reach of the common man. However, several other property dealers, on the condition of anonymity, rued the apathy of the present government towards the holy city and blamed it for the slump. They said the government had earlier announced setting up of a special economic zone, biotechnological park, a central university and other mega projects in the city, but its lackadaisical approach had a negative effect on the investors. Investors from outside the state had put in huge amounts keeping in view the area being developed as tourist hub with a number of mega projects and star hotels, including Radisson, coming up in city and adjoining the airport on Ajnala Road. As of now, the SEZ project has hit a roadblock, the biotechnology park has been shifted to Dera Bassi and there are whispers of transferring the central university to another area. Also, the Mohali Airport was being given top priority by the SAD-BJP government, disheartening investors, especially hotel chain owners.
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Property dealers exit THE dream run is over, at least for the time being. Property agents, who flourished with the Great Indian Property Boom in the past four to five years are now feeling the heat of the slowdown. Transactions have drastically declined, reducing incomes of agents, many of whom are caught between sellers still expecting a good price and an ever-shrinking group of buyers looking for a bargain deal. Finding a buyer is so difficult that almost three to four agents are involved in the deal of a ten-marla house in Sector 20, Chandigarh! And this is not an isolated case. Weekends used to be hectic for most property dealers /consultants as most working people wanted to go house hunting, but not any more. “There are properties waiting to be sold but no buyers. Today, only three persons came to our office in the entire day,” says a property consultant based in the city’s busy Sector 22-B market. The downturn has forced hundreds of agents out of their jobs across the country, where property selling is a largely unorganised sector and most agents are self-employed, working from small offices. “Sellers still insist on price buyers find impossible to pay. And it is not possible for the agent to persuade anyone to sell at a lower price, as this would amount to send the seller into the waiting arms of another agent,” explains a property dealer, on the condition of anonymity. The need to retain a seller has prompted agents to inflate prices unrealistically in most markets across the country. Usually agents get 1 per cent from both seller and purchaser. In most cities, property agents have created a false market by prodding clients to frequently buy and sell properties, promising good returns. But with new buyers staying away, and property prices hardly appreciating, many agents have started looking for other jobs.
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Walls that talk
It’s imperative to start right if you want smooth walls that glow in the sunlight. A good base makes all the difference, writes JAGVIR GOYAL
For starters, avoid painting your home during the monsoon or when humidity levels are high. Such conditions don't allow paint coats to dry up quickly. Moisture gets trapped between the surface and paint layers causing blistering. Ensure that surfaces to be painted are fully dry. Only for doing whitewashing and applying Snowcem, the surface need not be dry. If painting the interior walls for the first time, apply simple white wash and leave alone for six months. This action will allow the plaster to dry fully prevent patches and spots later. It will be much better if this six-month period includes a monsoon. After six months, wash the walls fully to remove dirt, dust and flakes, preferably with sand paper so that all the lime wash is scrapped thoroughly. Otherwise, paint will not stick to the walls. Now, apply primers and paint of your choice and the results shall be excellent.
Pidilite has recently launched colour concentrates that produce high tint shades when mixed with white wash. So use these if you don’t want to see white walls in the initial months. Pidilite colors come in liquid form and are double effective than powder colours i.e. instead of 100 gm of powder only 50 gm of liquid concentrate is required. Take care that no ‘neel’ is added to the lime solution if using a colour concentrate. For more, read on: White washing ALWAYS choose fresh, unslaked, non-hydraulic lime. See that it is of class C category or Dehradun or Narnaul quality. To prepare solution, add water to lime and not lime to water. Add 5 litre water per kg of lime. The final solution should look like thin cream not water. Leave the mixture for at least 24 hours, preferably 48. Use 150 gm lime per sq metre of surface if one coat is to be done. For two coats, let it be 250 gm per sq metre. In a newly constructed house, at least three coats are recommended. However, as you are using whitewash temporarily, two coats are sufficient. Add an adhesive like DDL or SDL to the mixture at a rate of 4 kg per cu m of solution. Fevicol or gum can be the second option if DDL is not available. This will prevent whitewash from sticking to your clothes and body. The solution: Add some ‘neel’, say 30 gm per 10 kg to the lime solution. It accentuates the whiteness and brings brightness. But the quantity of ‘neel’ must be restricted otherwise walls may give indigo reflection. For application of whitewash, use ‘moonj’ brushes. As a precautionary measure, tie gunny bags to the feet of ladders as their repeated pulling or shifting may leave marks on the floor. See that in each coat the brush passes every point four times — left to right and reverse; up to down and reverse. Take your pick FOR painting internal walls, choice is between distempers and emulsions. If you choose emulsions, there are extra premium acrylic, premium acrylic and acrylic ones to pick from. All acrylic emulsions are durable and give smooth finish to walls. You can choose glossy, semi-glossy or matt finish. Oil bound distempers too are durable, if applied the right way and economical in comparison to emulsions. Dry distempering: If you are choosing dry distemper for internal walls, see that it is IS 427 marked. Dry distemper comes in powder form and has no resistance to water. It can’t be washed. About 1.5 litre water is added to 2.5 kg distemper. Use lukewarm water instead of cold, allow the solution to stand for at least 30 minutes, stir well and use. It will cost not more than Rs 1.25 per sqft. However, it has a short life. It has been seen that sometimes people do first coat of whitewash and then apply distemper. Don’t. Use a white chalk solution in water as primer to distemper. Dry distemper should give a coverage of about 6 sqm per kg of distemper for two coats. Mix DDL or Fevicol to dry distemper for better adhesion. Golden Champion and Goldy are good brands. Oil bound distempering: Oil bound distemper (OBD) is washable, doesn’t come off on washing and scores over dry distemper. If you are choosing distemper, prefer OBD. It contains an emulsion of drying oil or varnish that resists water. See that it conforms to IS 428. Use thinned distemper itself as primer to OBD. Four parts of OBD are mixed with one of water to prepare its solution for application. Know that OBD shouldn’t be applied on new plaster for six months at least otherwise all its oils will be soaked by the plaster. However, if you can’t afford to wait, here is a solution. Get some ready mixed alkali resistant paint as per IS 109 and apply a coat of it. Now, you can do OBD after two days only. OBD shouldn’t come off 24 hours after its application. It will cost you around Rs 2 per sqft and give a coverage output of about 6 sqm per litre of paint for two coats. You need not mix DDL to OBD or plastic emulsion as these have a good grip. Emulsions: If using plastic or acrylic emulsions on internal walls, add water in the first coat only. For quantity of water to be added, follow manufacturer’s guidelines. Choose plastic emulsion of a reputed brand such as Asian, Berger, ICI or Nerolac. IS 5411 mark for these paints stands withdrawn, so don’t look for it. Use manufacturer’s putty to repair the wall if required before application of plastic emulsion. Further, rub the wall with 180 number sand paper on drying up of putty and apply a coat of primer over it. On drying up of primer coat, sand paper with 320 number. Now, apply the final paint and you will receive excellent results. Tell the painter to clean all plastic emulsion drops from the floor immediately as it may become difficult to remove them later. The first coat will dry up in four-five hours. Plastic emulsion paint should give around 8 sqm coverage per litre of paint for two coats. Watch this space for more tips and tricks! (This column appears fortnightly) The writer is deputy chief engineer, civil, PSEB. He can be reached at www.jagvirgoyal.com
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Where there’s a will, there’s no way S.C. Vasudeva Q. My father expired in January 2003 and as per registered will executed by him (in October 1992), immovable as well as moveable property was transferred in the names of my brothers in February 2003. Nothing is earmarked in the will for my mother, except routine legal wording. However, my mother gets family pension as a widow. Since the death of my father, my brothers, have been torturing my ill mother on one pretext or the other. Now, they have thrown her out of their home and she presently lives with me. I have provided all facilities required for a 70-year-old ailing person and am taking care of my father’s liability for nothing. Kindly advise if there is any relief/solution in Hindu succession/or any other relevant act for our problem. — Lakhwinder Kaur A. A male Hindu has a right to make a will in favour of anyone in respect of his self- acquired property. It is presumed that the immovable and movable property willed by your father was self-acquired. In view, thereof, it is not possible to take any action at this stage. It could have been done at the stage when the will was presented before the authorities for the issuance of a probate or mutation of immovable properties in the name of your brothers. Q. My father constructed a house within municipal limits from his own resources in 1956. He died in 1992. According to his registered will, I was to become the sole owner of the house after his death. I, however, got the house in question transferred in my name in 2007. I now intend to sell it. My question is whether the benefit of cost inflation index would be available to me with effect from 01.04.1981 (date of fair market value of the capital asset) or 1992 (year of expiry of my father) or the year of actual sale of the house? — D.R. Kohli A. The issue raised by you is debatable. This is because the provisions of explanation (iii) to section 48 of the Income-tax Act 1961 (the Act) provide that the benefit of indexation would be allowable from the first year in which the capital asset was held. As against this the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal Kolkata Bench (117 TTJ 121) has recently held that in such a case in respect of capital asset acquired prior to 01.04.1981, the fair market value as on 01.04.1981 should be taken and benefit of indexation be allowed from 01.04.1981. You may take a decision considering the above position.
No tax, conditions apply
Q. I purchased six marla ‘bhoomi’ (bhoomi as mentioned in sale deed in Hindi) in 1990 in a village adjoining Mohali. Now, I want to dispose it off. Please clarify if LTCG Tax produced in the process can be saved by following means:
— Dr Randhir Singh A. The answer to your queries is as under:
You can exercise an alternative of acquiring the capital gain tax saving bonds by investing the capital gain arising on the sale of plot within six months of the date of transfer of plot. This will enable you to save the levy of tax on capital gains. Q. We are a firm with three partners and are in a business as a small-scale sector establishment for manufacturing packing boxes of all types. The firm has suffered heavily on account of a fire that broke out due to short circuit in the factory building. We have now received the insurance claim towards the damage caused by the fire. Is the amount received as insurance claim towards the damage of the factory building and machinery taxable? If so, under which relevant section? — A.S. Raman A.
The Supreme Court in Vania Silk Mills (P) Ltd. Vs. CIT (59 Taxman 3) had held that insurance claim received on account of destruction of an asset is not chargeable to tax as the compensation does not amount to a transfer, one of the major ingredients for the purpose of applicability of section 45 dealing with the taxability of capital gains tax of the Act. However, position has been changed to some extent w.e.f. assessment year 2000-01 by introduction of section 45(1A) of the Act. This section gets attracted if following two conditions are satisfied.
The consequences of the applicability of above section are as under.
Sibling rivalry
Q. Three brothers — A, B and C — jointly pooled their resources (but nothing ancestral) and bought a plot in 1974 for Rs 78,000 incorporating the names of each. A’s contribution to family finances was spread over 22 years, B’s seven years and C’s four years. They kept earning and pooling their resources till 1979 when a silent unwritten division took place and coincidentally, each happened to occupy the portion nearly in proportion to their contribution. The present market value of the plot is around Rs 3 crore and we wish to sell it and distribute the proceeds. The problem is:
There is another hypothetical question: If it were ancestral property, how
— R.K. Arora A. Legal division of the property occupied by all of you will have to be on the basis of the amount contributed by each one of you towards the purchase of plot and the construction of the house. There is no provision in law whereby seniority of a brother is to be considered for the purposes of such division. However, members of the family, to avoid a dispute, can always enter into a family arrangement on a mutually decided basis. In case of ancestral property, rules are slightly different in as much as the share of the deceased will be inherited on the basis of testamentary provisions and the balance share would go to the co-parceners by virtue of survivorship. This is in accordance with the provisions of 6 of Hindu Succession Act 1956. There is no concept of seniority with regard to the transfer of property on the death of a person in case of an ancestral property.
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Agrees Garima Chowbey, a professional, "Facilities being offered in new compartments are wrongly being interpreted as luxuries. Everyone leads extremely busy lives and no one has time to travel to different facility centres. So if someone can afford it, why not? The spending power has increased and naturally, lives are changing. Whether the old generation or even the current generation accepts it or not, buildings with changed interiors, at least in terms of facility, will definitely permeate to the various strata in near future. " 
THE worldwide economic slowdown along with curtailment of flights from Amritsar’s International Rajasansi Airport has taken its toll on real estate as property prices have plummeted in the holy city and its surrounding areas.
THE last few write-ups focused on guidelines for painting exterior surfaces. Here are some precautions and guidelines to finish the internal surfaces.