TREND MILL A whole new abode You don’t have to pull down the house just because it was built long ago. Give it a new look just by changing your outlook & some walls & doors here & there Saurabh Malik YOU have cleaned the walls and the windowpanes, given the frontage a fresh coat of paint, replaced faulty electric fittings and the leaky pipes in the bathrooms and the kitchen, but you are still utterly discontented with the results…

OPEN UP: Knock down the kitchen wall common with the dining room & see it turn into a conversation central.

FLOWING SPACE: This homeowner knocked down the walls sealing off the living room for a spacious effect.

Policy Imperfect Buyers and sellers slam Haryana Urban Development Authority’s new guidelines for possession of plots Jagvir Goyal THE Haryana Urban Development Authority’s (HUDA) new plot possession policy has few takers. A survey of Panchkula, a high potential zone of HUDA, reveals that resentment is brewing among plot owners and property dealers, who term the policy “unilateral”.

Will they, won’t they?
Realty sector eyes Planning Commission meet for incentives
S.C. Dhall
IN its forthcoming mid-term appraisal, the Planning Commission is likely to unveil couple of new incentivised schemes for the real estate sector so that it acquires priority status in the middle of the meltdown and to provide for affordable housing.

Pranab to review home loan data
FOREIGN minister Pranab Mukherjee, on his first day in the finance ministry, called a meeting of heads of public sector banks on February 2 to review home loan data. The meeting comes days before the Parliament session and barely a month before the General Elections process begins.

Low-interest stimulus may not be useful for realtors
THE Centre’s stimulus package to help the crisis-hit realty sector may not be of much use for both developers and buyers in several cities as most of the housing projects were not expected to take off before the deadline for the scheme, says an industry body.

GREEN HOUSE Covering new ground Ground cover plants are low height, mostly sturdy & grow quickly, much to the gardener's delight Satish Narula IN this era of two-minutes noodles, gardeners are constantly looking for quick landscape features. This is particularly true for commercial projects where landscaping needs to be hurriedly completed.

TAX TIPS
S.C. Vasudeva

• Your share is yours, do anything with it

• Court can’t question Mother’s Gift

• CGT on transfer of agricultural land

• You haven’t paid excess tax

• Mutation advisable before making will