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Building expectations
Ground Realty
Are builders really quality-conscious? Punjab may miss revenue target
Housing prices fall Agni properties is now
IndiaHomes Tax tips Launch pad
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After grappling with slowdown blues and clouds of fiscal crisis, the Indian real estate sector expects Budget
2012-2013 to herald fair weather, writes
The demand for industry status for the sector, which is the second largest employment generating sector and contributes 5 per cent to the annual GDP of the country, is among the top-most demands. "Real estate is the prime mover of the Indian economy and has a major role to play in the 'India Growth' story. It is high time that it gets the required fillip and the much awaited industry status. Union Budget 2012-2013 can be a turnaround story if sufficient attention is paid to bringing in reforms that will energise the entire sector", says Ravi Saund, COO, CHD Developers Ltd, while echoing the sentiment prevailing in the sector.
The grant of industry status would ensure easier access to funds for developers who have seen their debt burdens become menacingly heavy over the past one year. The total debt burden of top 12 builders of the country is close to Rs 51,000 crore and banks and financial institutions have also tightened their purse strings to release funds for realty projects. With finance being a major hurdle at present, the industry mavens are hoping for better norms for repatriation of FDI in real estate as Anuj Puri, Chairman and Country head, Jones Lang LaSale India, puts it "the market environment needs to be rendered more investment friendly". "FDI in real estate currently has a three-year lock-in period. This causes barriers and should be re-looked at. Increased FDI will ease the sluggishness in the sector", adds Amit Gupta, Managing Director, Orris Infrastructure Private Ltd. Boosting residential demand Mounting home loan interest rates have been another thorn in the flesh. RBI's record 11 revisions last year scared many a buyer to shelve plans of buying a home making it tough for developers to maintain sale volumes. Seeking concrete steps to stimulate residential demand, Rahul Mehta, Executive Director, DLF (North) says, "Two main areas should be given due consideration this time and these include: reduction in the interest on housing loans, thereby making loans cheaper, and increase in income tax relief limit for interest payment towards housing loans, thereby making investments towards housing easier on the pocket of salaried individuals. Both these steps would boost the investments into Real Estate segment from individual home seekers". New home loan buyers as well as the existing ones are hoping that the current limit of Rs 1.5 lakh on interest payment would be increased to at least Rs 2 lakh or more to make buying homes more attractive. But it has been a long-pending demand which has been overlooked by the FM over the past few years causing a lot of heartburn among the salaried class. The one high water mark of last year's budget and a well-appreciated step in giving a boost to affordable housing was the 1 per cent interest rate subsidy for loans for affordable housing. This positive move has been well received by the industry which is expecting the FM to go one step ahead in this direction this time. Commenting on this Puri says, "It is necessary to continue last year's interest rate subsidy and rather its scope should be broadened include a wider price range of budget housing to eventually benefit the end consumer, especially in the middle and lower middle income groups". Last year the priority sector lending limit for housing loans was also raised to Rs 25 lakh. But in view of high prices of home across the country and particularly in Tier 1 and 2 cities, the above limit also requires revision. The sector is looking for this limit to be enhanced to at least Rs 50 lakh. "Considering the high prices of residential properties in urban centers, the current ceiling of housing loans eligible to be considered as priority sector lending should be increased. This will play a critical role in stimulating residential demand, particularly in mid and low range housing segments", says Anshul Jain, CEO of real estate advisory group DTZ. As the residential segment remains the main growth driver of Indian realty, there is urgent need for special measures to boost this segment. These include special incentive policy for growth of Tier II and III cities and for special residential zones. Highlighting the need for development of Special Residential Zones (SRZs) Jain says , "The Central Government should consider extending benefits, on lines similar to Special Economic Zones (SEZs), to notified mass housing / residential townships. Tax concessions coupled with relaxation in development norms (eg. Floor Space Index) will make development of such projects attractive and viable from developers' perspective. Such an initiative will also help in creating new nodes of developments in the peripherals of the city and ease existing pressures on the city's support infrastructure. When implemented, such initiatives will significantly reduce the cost and give access to housing to a much larger section of the population at affordable prices".
Commercial & retail segment With overall sentiment being subdued, the commercial and retail segments are also in need of some extra policy boost to retain their Midas touch. Relaxing FDI up to 51 per cent in multi brand retailing and incentive based IT policy for Tier II and III towns is proposed as a remedy for this by Puri, while rationalisation of various taxes like the Service Tax, Works Contract Tax, VAT and state level taxes like stamp duty and controlling costs of building material etc is also on the wish list of industry mavens.
Ease monetary policy
Pradeep Jain, Chairman, CREDAI
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Ground Realty
Every storey in a house has many lintel beams and projections provided at door top and window top levels. Doors and windows create big openings in load bearing walls. Therefore, the load of the walls and floors above the door and window openings needs to be transferred to the side portion of the walls for its further transfer to the foundations. The lintel beams serve this purpose. The projections are provided at lintel level, either as sun shades or to make the elevations look attractive. It has often been noted that lintel beams and projections are not paid as much attention to as one pays to the RCC slab or roof of the house. But these are important components of a house and certain features related to these need to be paid full attention to ensure trouble-free living in the house. Here are some guidelines:
The design
Lintel beams and projections should be designed properly by keeping their span in view. More span invites provision of more steel in them. The present trend is to provide big-sized windows in the bedrooms. The lintel beams over them may require steel bars of 20 or 16 mm diameter for bearing the load above and for its smooth transfer. The projections need to be designed as cantilevers.
The bearing
Lintel beams should be given sufficient bearing over side walls. The bearing should preferably be kept as 9 inch. In case of any constraint, it should be minimum 6 inch on each end. As the brick units are 4.5 inch wide, a bearing of 4.5 inch on each side over a header course of bricks is not proper. Prefer to provide plaster over brickwork in the bearing area, before the placement of steel on it. Masons are often reluctant to do this as they are not habitual of providing this plaster.
The anchorage
It is very important to provide sufficient anchorage to the projections. At roof slab level, it is possible to crank the steel bars provided in the slab and extend them to the cantilever portion. Such a thing is not possible at lintel beam level. Therefore, at lintel beam level, U-shaped steel bars are provided in the projections by taking them around the lintel beam. In common language and to make the bar binders understand, these bars are known as chimta.
The reinforcement
Wrong placement of steel reinforcement despite its correct design is the main reasons behind failures of balconies and cantilevers. In a cantilever projection, the main steel bars are placed near the top face and not near the bottom face. This point should be ensured to reduce the chances of failure of projections. The steel laid in the projections and its anchorage should be specifically got checked from the architect's engineer before placing concrete in position.
The counter weight
Ensure to provide sufficient counter-weight at the support level to stop overturning of the overhangs and projections. The cantilever projections are normally of 2 feet, 3 feet or even up to 5 feet, without any supporting column below. Unless restricted by the bye laws, people have a tendency to provide longer overhangs. It is very important to add enough load over the supported ends of cantilevers to hold them against overturning by building the wall portions above them.
Removal of shuttering
The shuttering and supports provided below the projections, overhangs or cantilevers should not be removed till the time sufficient load has been added over their supported ends. The labour contractors have a tendency to remove the supports and shuttering at the earliest as they have to pay rental charges for the same. They should be restrained from removing it. These days, the window height is often taken up to 9 feet level and there is hardly any wall load over the support end of cantilevers. In such cases, the shuttering supports below the projections should be removed after the laying of slab and transfer of its load to the lintel beam.
The lintel band
A RCC band is added these days at lintel beam level from earthquake resistance point of view. In general, this band comprises two bars of 10 mm diameter running along the walls and bound by 8 mm diameter semi-rings of steel, laid in 2 to 3 inch thick concrete. It is not possible to lay the concrete of this band together with main lintel beams and projections as end supports of lintel beams interfere with it. For continuity, steel bars should therefore be projected out of lintel beams and continued into the lintel band to be concreted next day.
The pipes
A number of pipes to drain out rain water, waste water and the water closets are provided in the walls. Some of these are often found interfering with the lintel beam ends. These pipes should be well extended above top level of lintel beams and projections before the laying of concrete. Otherwise, concrete may enter these pipes and block them, defeating the very purpose of their provision.
The side shuttering
Special attention should be paid to the side shuttering of the lintel beams. Unless this shuttering is well fixed and supported, it becomes impossible to apply vibrator to the concrete laid in the lintel beams and it doesn't get compacted properly. Similarly, it should be ensured that there are no crevices in the bottom shuttering of projections. Such crevices allow loss of vital cement slurry from the concrete.
The concrete
The concrete laid in lintel beams and projections should be rich, preferably of 1 part cement, 1.5 part coarse and 3 parts stone aggregate. Water proofing compound should be added to the concrete laid in the projections. A number of good quality water-proofing compounds are available in the market in liquid form. These are added to the concrete at a rate of 200 ml per bag of cement. A mixer should invariably be used to mix concrete. Sometimes, the quantity of concrete being small, use of mixer and vibrator is avoided. This tendency should be curbed.
The curing
It is very important to cure the concrete well. Pools of water should be created over the projections the day after laying the concrete. The concrete in lintel beams is best cured by covering them with jute bags and sprinkling water on them liberally. Jute bags retain water for a long period. Simple and even frequent application of water directly to the lintel beams doesn't yield desirable results. So buy some jute bags and use these to cover lintel beams now and later, for inverted beams in
slabs.
— This column is published fortnightly
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Realty bites Delhi-based South Asian Real Estate Homes (SARE) will be developing 40 mn sq ft of land across the country in the next five years. The company, which is promoted by UK-based Duet Group, said most of the development would take place in the major cities in the country. "We are looking at developing an additional 40 mn sq ft over the next five years. We are focusing on seven major cities in the country," said SARE Homes Chief Operating Officer Vineet Relia. He, however, did not elaborate any financial details. Currently, the company has invested in eight projects n Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Navi Mumbai, Chennai, Amritsar and Indore, representing around 36.5 mn sq ft, the company said. "In the near future, we plan to launch projects in Navi Mumbai and are looking to acquire land parcels on the growth corridors of large cities in India," SARE Homes Executive Director David Walker said. The company recently launched Green Parc II, the fourth phase of its 65-acre integrated township in Gurgaon. Higher tax likely on properties near Metro lines The people residing in close proximity to Metro lines may have to shell out more by way of property tax if the urban development ministry suggestion to state governments is implemented. The ministry has sought the state governments' opinion on levying additional taxes on land transactions near the Metro corridors. "This is one of the innovative methods to generate funds for the development of infrastructure of Metro as we cannot maintain Metro by just printing the currency," Urban Development Secretary Sudhira Krishna said. According to the proposal, people who own property within 500 metres of Metro line should pay the extra tax. Krishna said it is only a suggestion to the state governments as the central government has not taken any decision on this. It is also proposed that 10 per cent property tax may also be imposed on additional floor area ratio (FAR) permitted along the Metro lines. Sobha Group spreads
wings to Dubai Indian developer Sobha Group has obtained eight million sq ft of land at Dubai's Meydan City for an undisclosed amount to build a mixed-use project. The project, Sobha City, will be located at Meydan City's Godolphin Parks area and will include a cluster of luxury signature villas. Saeed H Al Tayer, chairman of Meydan Group, said the deal reflects renewed investor interest in Dubai's real estate sector. "This is the biggest sale that we have concluded so far and it reflects a new era in the development of Meydan," Al Tayer said at a press briefing. "This is a pivotal step in the overall development of Meydan City and we are pleased to forge this relationship with the Sobha Group. This investment and the commitment of Sobha Group chairman P.N.C. Menon is an indication of the international confidence in Dubai and its significant infrastructure," he said. Details of the project, including the sale value of the property and the development value of the proposed Sobha City, were not revealed. Company officials said the project is scheduled to be completed in 8-10 years. Menon, the owner of the group, is a non-resident Indian (NRI) businessman from Kerala. "The scale of development and opportunities that are available in Dubai continues to attract the international market," he said. Assotech’s FDI venture Real estate developer Assotech will raise Rs 75 crore from private equity firm Sun-Apollo India Real Estate Fund by selling 49 per cent stake in a housing project in Gurgaon. "We will divest 49 per cent stake in a project to Sun-Apollo to raise Rs 75 crore. This investment is only for a specific group housing project in Gurgaon," Assotech Managing Director Sanjeev Srivastava told PTI. The National Capital Region-based company is developing the 12-acre project - Assotech Blith. "We have acquired the land for Rs 152 crore, out of which Rs 75 crore will be coming from Sun-Apollo for the acquired stake," Srivastava said. He said the total estimated project cost of Assotech Blith is around Rs 500 crore. The money coming from Sun-Apollo will be a foreign direct investment to the project. "This FDI for our project in NCR will allow us to enter highly respected and profitable real estate market in Haryana," Srivastava said. Assotech is currently executing projects worth Rs 3,300 crore in the NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh. Sun-Apollo is a $630 million real estate PE fund, which is dedicated to India. The investors of the fund include the US, European and Middle Eastern institutional investors, multilateral agencies and high net worth individuals.
— Agencies
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Are builders really quality-conscious? As per realty experts it has been observed that when there is good demand in market and the volume of work is extensive, there are many realty firms which don't mind sacrificing quality. Therefore, it leads to substandard workmanship. However, O.P. Aggarwal, Chairman, Lotus Infra Projects Pvt. Ltd, maintains that the quality of a project is directly connected to the reputation and image of the builder in the market. If a developer doesn't deliver quality projects, it will affect its goodwill. In order to keep his reputation intact, a builder always believes in delivering quality projects. But buyers have a different tale to tell. There is no dearth of people who are disappointed when they move into their new apartments. They are dismayed to find that the quality of construction is a far cry from what they were promised by the marketing guys of developer. Cracks and leaks become an everyday routine as most people have no choice but to learn to live with bad tiling in bathrooms, leaking sewage pipes, badly aligned doors and windows etc. According to Sanjeev Garg, who has recently shifted to an apartment in Faridabad constructed by a noted realty firm, "The quality of construction work is abysmal. The plumbing work is really terrible. Leakages are there in all apartments because of the poor quality of water and drainage pipes used." Rajni Gulati, a resident of another apartment in Vaishali, also has many complaints against her builder, "The developer has provided beautiful landscaped gardens and excellent common facilities. But the quality of construction is woeful with cracked walls, crudely finished and aligned doors, badly laid floors. It is clear that scant attention was paid to quality and only stress was on cosmetic features of the project and this is sheer fraud with the buyers." Experts say that the end result depends on effective supervision and quality and skill of the labour used in construction. According to Sanjay Khanna, Director of Kailash Nath Projects Pvt. Ltd, "While detailed monitoring is done to ensure quality compliance, our approach is extremely focused on the project in execution. The volume of our projects is kept at manageable proportions to enable higher levels of supervision. But the clinching factor is the level of commitment that successfully eliminates questionable quality." Builders have to ensure good quality as poor construction can endanger their future projects also. Vijay Jindal, CMD of SVP developers says, "We have a dedicated department to ensure quality standards. Supervision is done at the micro level and this detailing eliminates possibility of substandard quality. When unsatisfied with the workmanship, the specific area is reworked and is executed even if it means slipping up on a deadline." It is also often said that when disappointed buyers try to hold the developer accountable, they are told that the developer's liability ends after one year of handing over the apartment complex. When attention is drawn to the promised quality, fingers are pointed towards sub-contractors. As this is not enough, the penalty clause for the sub-contractor is again one year after completion which means that he is not accountable for any problem beyond the one year period. Sadly, it is the customer who pays a staggering price for his dream house with so many defects and with no place to appeal. If developers insist that top priority is given to ensure quality construction, why then are developments increasingly coming up with substandard quality? This is true with not just small builders who are yet to make an impact but with established and highly reputed developers. "While this is not my concern what others do, we have devised a monitoring system to ensure quality compliance. We hire one of the best contractors to execute our project. we have an efficient purchase team which procures materials like cement, steel, bricks, paint, sanitary ware, light fixtures, tiles and marble," informs Gaurav Mittal, Managing Director of CHD Developers," adding, " Apart from the quality check lab at the site we have built a series of checklists with a quality control audit system. The head office works in coordination with site engineers to monitor workmanship." Defends another realtor, "They get materials like cement, steel and granite, tiles, sanitaryware by leading companies after all quality controls. Our own experts ensure quality control. Site engineers are assigned to monitor workmanship. We have blacklisted a couple of suppliers when we found them wanting." All said and done, one thing is sure that if a developer fails to ensure quality in his projects, he will not able to remain in the market for long.
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Punjab may miss
revenue target Although the state government officials maintained they were hopeful of meeting the revenue target, they attributed the significant drop in property buying and selling to the Election Commission's tough measures for curbing misuse of money in elections last month. "There has been a significant impact on business transactions in the real estate market in Punjab because of heavy seizure of unaccounted cash on the directions of EC last month," a senior official of the Punjab Revenue Department said. Till December, 2011 the collection from stamp duty and registration fee stood at Rs 2,349 crore. Property experts pointed out that in the wake of sluggish market conditions, it would be tough for Punjab to collect Rs 550 crore in three months (January till March) to meet revenue collection target. During the last fiscal, Punjab failed to meet the revenue collection of Rs 2,300 crore from stamp duty and registration fee with actual collections reaching about Rs 2,200 crore. Confiscation of huge amount of unaccounted cash by surveillance teams to curb misuse of money power in Punjab elections had almost paralysed the real estate market, with buyers refraining from entering into any business deals. "Seizure of cash ahead of elections in Punjab hit the property market hard because people were scared of making any investment. There was hardly any property transaction taking place in the month of January," Punjab Property and Colonisers Association Chairman Anil Chopra said. Even after the polls that were held on January 30, things have not improved for the real estate sector as majority of investors, including NRIs still not committing investments until next state government comes in. "Property investors are waiting for the formation of new state government before putting in their money into real estate projects," said Chopra. Spiralling interest rates coupled with slackening demand for property has already made a significant dent on property market in Punjab, with sales prices of real estate products dipping by 15-20 per cent in the past six-seven months, property experts said.
— PTI
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Prices of houses in Kolkata and Mumbai declined by 0.5 per cent in October-December period of 2011-12 compared to the previous quarter. Among other cities, the maximum decline was observed in Kochi at 15.5 per cent followed by Hyderabad at 6 per cent, Jaipur 1.5 per cent and Patna 0.7 per cent. NHB, which is the housing finance regulator, said, "The movement in prices of residential properties has shown an increasing trend in nine cities and decline in six cities covered under NHB Residex during the quarter October-December, 2011 in comparison to the previous quarter. The property prices during quarter have not witnessed significant fluctuations or corrections due to moderation in demand, real estate firms or construction agencies holding land banks and slow down of launching of new residential projects and/or progress of the existing projects," it added. As per the Residex, which tracks property prices movement in 15 cities, residential property rates in Surat rose by 9.4 per cent followed by Chennai at 9.2 per cent, Pune at 8.9 per cent, Delhi 8.4 per cent and Bengaluru 7.5 per cent. Besides, property prices in Lucknow during quarter rose by 7.1 per cent, and Faridabad 5.8 per cent The index has taken into account the price trends for residential properties in different locations and zones in each city as per classification devised for the purpose, NHB said in a statement.
— PTI
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Agni properties is now
IndiaHomes Real estate brokerage firm Agni Property recently re-branded itself as IndiaHomes. It will invest $10 million over the next one year to foray into new areas and is scouting for an acquisition in the IT space to boost online transactions. "Seeing the demand from the consumers, we are expanding very aggressively in India as our company is the first professionally managed realty brokerage firm. We are now investing an additional $10 million to foray into new areas," IndiaHomes Managing Director Samarjit Singh said.. Two private equity firms — Helion Venture Capital and Foundation Capital — which are the promoters along with Singh, have have already put in $4 million and the rest will come in during the next one year, he added. IndiaHomes also launched property pricing software — Goldmine, which will take into account factors like luxury, market demand, availability and positioning of the flat.
— PTI
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Tax tips The plot was sold in November, 2011 for Rs 42,57,000 and thereon the capital gain works out to be Rs 29,37,100 i.e. (42,57,000- 13,19,900). I purchased a flat in January, 2012 within Municipal limit area for Rs 35 lakh and thus spent the entire amount of capital gain within two months in the purchase of residential flat. This is the only immovable property in my name at present. Kindly clarify whether or not any income tax is payable by me and in what manner it should be explained in the IT Return and what will be the indexed cost. — Asha Sharma A.
According to the provisions of Section 54F of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (The Act) dealing with the exemption from the taxability of long-term capital gain arising on the sale of a capital asset other than a residential house, the net consideration accruing or arising on the sale of the capital asset is required to be utilised for the purchase or construction of a residential house within the specified period so as to claim the exemption. You should have, therefore, invested the consideration of Rs 42.57 lakh so as to claim the exemption of the entire amount of capital gain. The exemption would now be available on the proportionate amount of Rs 35 lakh. You would thus be liable to pay tax on the amount of long-term capital gain which is not exempt from tax on account of such partial exemption. It is not possible to compute the indexed cost as you have not indicated the year wise payment of installments and interest. You have also not indicated the year of execution of the Conveyance Deed so it is not possible to compute the indexed cost of improvement also. Society charges not part of total cost Q. I have a flat in Vaishali, in Ghaziabad district. It cost me around Rs 16 lakh in 1992. As the flat has been lying vacant since then, I am paying the CMC charges to the society. Now I want to sell the same which could fetch me Rs 70 Lakh. My query is: Can I add the amount of CMC which is Rs 24000- per annum to the total cost of the flat to ascertain the true cost of the flat for determining the long-term capital gain. — Nripander Parkash Khanna A.
The maintenance charges paid to the society would not be includible as part of the cost of the flat. It may also not be possible to argue that the maintenance charges so paid can be termed as expenditure incurred on improvement to the capital asset. The cost for the purpose of computation of capital gain would be taken as Rs16 lakh which would be indexed up to the year of the sale. The applicable index for the financial year 1992-93 is 223. The amount of Rs 16 lakh for the purpose of computation of long-term capital gain wound thus be multiplied by 223 and divided by the index applicable for the year of the sale. This would give you the indexed cost. Such indexed cost would be deducted from the sale price of Rs 70 lakh. The balance would be the amount of long-term capital gain.
Owner has absolute right to make a Will Q. Father made a Will bequeathing his self-acquired property to one son and one daughter (50 per cent each) in 1988 out of his six children (3 brothers and 3 sisters). Both the beneficiaries are unmarried. The unmarried daughter, one of the beneficiaries, died leaving behind an unregistered Will duly witnessed by two doctors bequeathing her share to a religious institute. One of her nephews (son of a deceased elder brother) has challenged this Will on frivolous grounds. Please advise, if he has any right to this property and also please clarify, if there are any legal heirs in the case of an unmarried daughter. — C.A. Deepak A.
The unmarried daughter has an absolute right to make a Will in favour of anyone. Her nephew may, therefore, not be able to succeed in the court with regard to his claim unless he can prove that the Will has been obtained by fraud or coercion. Inheritance to the property has to be on the basis of the Will and the provisions of Section 15 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 with regard to inheritance of property owned by a female Hindu dying intestate shall not apply in a case where a Will has been executed properly. I may add that Registration of a Will is not compulsory under the provisions of the Indian Succession Act, 1925.
The writer can be contacted at sc@scvasudeva.com
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Launch pad The country's largest realty firm DLF is understood to have earmarked an investment of Rs 8,000 crore to develop a 450-acre integrated township at Gurgaon within two-three years. The proposed township - DLF Garden City - will be spread over sectors 86, 87, 90, 91 and 92 (new Gurgaon), and will comprise group housing, commercial and plotted development. The project was officially launched earlier this week."This project will create the landscape of new Gurgaon. The company has estimated the project cost at Rs 8,000 crore," a source said. As per plans, the project will offer plots of different sizes ranging from 250 to 502 sq yd. Besides, the institutional sector will house educational, cultural, religious, healthcare institutions are proposed. "In fact, land has already been demarcated for five hospital sites and three colleges in the area. The realty giant has also ensured premium location for the Garden City that will be close to sectors 74A and 75A, the new commercial hub in Gurgaon," another source said. The Garden City will have plotted development projects, namely The Primus, Regal Gardens and New Town Heights, besides housing a commercial complex - Galleria 91. A company spokesperson said, "As of now, DLF has ongoing development of group housing colonies in over 100 acres in sectors 86, 90 and 91, and 3,200 apartments are under construction." Last week, DLF had said its net debt declined by Rs 169 crore in the third quarter of this fiscal to Rs 22,758 crore and it expects to raise about Rs 6,000 crore by March 2013 from sale of non-core assets for debt reduction.
— PTI Eldeco township in Jalandhar Eldeco launched an 80-acre township Eldeco Greens in Jalandhar earlier this week. This is a joint venture of Eldeco and Xander. The township will offer a range of housing options like built-up villas, low-rise floors, plots, and high-end apartments. This township will also offers plots for shopping facility, and schools. It is located on Nakodar road closed to the major residential area of Jalandhar city. Giving more information about the project Harbinder Singh, Associate Vice-President (Marketing), Eldeco Infrastructure & Properties Ltd. said, "This integrated township will introduce a new lifestyle to the people of Jalandhar and will set a benchmark for well planned development in Punjab."
— TNS 'Connaught Place' in Mohali Taneja Developers and Infrastructures Ltd. (TDI) recently announced its plan to come up with a new commercial complex on Landran-Banur Road, Sector 111, Mohali. Christened 'Connaught Place', this up-market shopping complex and business centre has been conceptualised to offer most exclusive office and retail spaces in the proximity of the TDI's residential periphery. The layout of the commercial complex focuses on the highest quality of architecture and construction, coupled with world class safety and security features in showroom and office space. Speaking on the occasion Sanyam Dudeja, COO-Punjab, Taneja Developers and Infrastructure Ltd. said, "Connaught Place offers a brilliant opportunity for high street brands, retailers and business investors. Mohali is an upcoming business hub and our project will definitely suit
the needs of corporate and businesses as it has all kinds of infrastructure and facilities."
— TNS
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After grappling with slowdown blues and clouds of fiscal crisis, the Indian real estate sector expects Budget
2012-2013 to herald fair weather, writes Geetu Vaid
After a tough year which saw low sale volumes, piling inventories, rising debt burdens and land acquisition rows, the realty sector is still struggling to find a firm footing. And with Union Budget just round the corner there are a lot of expectations as the buyers as well as industry big wigs want favourable policy and fiscal norm 'winds' to put the 'realty ship' on its growth course once again.
"Reduction of CRR by 50 bps by the RBI is a signal that interest rates will now ease. As the continuous rise in input costs does not leave any space for reduction of price, we can hope that the forthcoming Union Budget will leave RBI room to address the issue of easing monetary policy aggressively. I am confident that the Budget will focus primarily on two important issues: providing incentives for economic growth and maintaining fiscal balance. We are confident that the Finance Minister will consider extension of tax holidays for housing projects under Section 80IB (10) of IT Act, enhancement of the benefit to individual home buyers and extending income tax benefit to affordable housing projects".
Are builders really quality-conscious? Do they always ensure top class tiling in bathrooms, perfect sewage pipes and up-to-date plumbing work?
It will be difficult for fund-starved Punjab to achieve the target of Rs 2,900 crore from property transactions for 2011-12 as Election Commission's tough measures for curbing misuse of money in elections led to a big drop in property buying and selling, officials said.
Prices of residential properties in Mumbai and Kolkata witnessed a downward movement while Delhi prices firmed up during the third quarter of the current fiscal, as per the latest Residex released by the National Housing Bank (NHB).
Q.
I was allotted a plot by HUDA in April, 2004. The total cost of the plot is Rs 11,72,328 (Rs 6,10,071 original cost + Rs 5,62,257 enhanced cost). The entire cost of Rs 12,61,275, including interest there on, was paid in installment from April, 2004 to November, 2011. The possession of the plot was taken on October 8, 2007. The conveyance deed was got executed and stamp duty of Rs 58,625 was paid. Thus the total amount paid is Rs 13,19,900.