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Monday,
January 21, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Tips for low-budget house buyer
Year starts with historic low inflation
Real estate returns are good |
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Markets lack direction
Will consumer demands find place in Budget?
Mico's buyback opens today
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Tips for low-budget house buyer WITH
complicated laws governing the real estate and virtual in unavailability of transferable freehold property in the City Beautiful for the low-budget buyer, the only way out left with this segment of buyer is to go for a plot house outside the city limits. The Punjab Government has gone way ahead in promoting real estate trade in the vicinity of Chandigarh. As a result a number of approved colonies, with ample basic amenities like parks, roads and sewerage have come up in the various notified Punjab areas on the periphery of the city. Having a "buy and carry" policy and with lot of other incentives like easy loan availability against freehold plots, lower rate of stamp duty, no covered area restrictions and better transport facilities, the low budget buyer prefers to go for his dream house in the newly developing colonies on the periphery.
Opt for approved colonies For the buyers intending to have a plot/house in these colonies, it is suggested to opt for only approved colonies. As per provisions of the Punjab Apartment Act, any land owner who wishes to sell his property in parts as a residential colony, will have to get the scheme approved from the local authority i.e., O/O the Town Planning by giving ample provisions for roads, parks, sewerage and water supply. A set percentage of land up to 35 per cent shall have to be left for these public utility services under this act. Apart from this certain unscrupulous developers also illegally sell the land on GPA basis without leaving the prescribed area for land of common utility services thus creating unhealthy and inhabitable conditions for the habitats later on. Whereas plots are available @ Rs 2,000 per square yard on inner roads and Rs 2500 per square yard on wider roads in approved colonies as compared to corresponding rates of 1500 and 1800 per square yard in unapproved colonies. In addition to the deteriorated quality of life in the unapproved/unauthorised colonies there is permanent risk of demolition in case of departmental action.
Form societies For a better community life the intending purchasers are suggested to constitute small group housing societies having members (as small as a group of ten people even less) from their own working circle. By pooling funds they can bargain with the coloniser for a fixed number of plots in one go and by entrusting the project to a single contractor they can save themselves from the construction hassles besides saving money on wholesale purchases. Sanctioning of loan cases will also be an easy process and the things can be processed on a single table. The buyers interested in going for built up flats/houses are also suggested to form small groups. Besides having a competitive bargain they can also ask the developer/builder for their particular requirement for a block of houses/flats.
Amenities Besides all this the intending buyers are advised to enquire from the promoter of the colony about the arrangements made for the supply of drinking water, provision for sewerage outlet, electric supply, width of roads and size of parks before going for a bargain. While selecting for the location of colony, care should be taken not to go for a location just on the main road, near the railway line and near the sewerage drain to avoid noise and pollution. Preference should be given to a colony having close proximity to the main road, a school and a dispensary. Builders and developers have also come up with the projects of built-up houses and flats in the areas adjoining big cities. With the easy availability of loans from a number of Indian and MNC banks and financial institutions and easy transferability of ownership as well, the proposition to own one’s dream house is now within the reach of a common man. Although the cost of construction remains the same as that in city limits yet the land cost brings the total cost of the house/flat considerably down to suit the buyer’s packet. Things have become more comfortable as the frequent bus service and availability of other mode of transport have made the distances much shorter and a distance of five to ten kilometres does not matter even to the daily office goers.
Blueprints Before going for a builder’s house/flat one must thoroughly study the technical blue prints and brochures of the builder. It is most important to ascertain what the builder is going to offer you in turn of your money. Various fittings, fixtures, facilities and services listed in the brochure may not turn out to be value-added services/items later while taking over the possession of the unit. One must also get conversant about the deceptive terminologies, such as of carpet area, covered area, plinth area and super area, being normally used by the builders. For example carpet area i.e. exact usable area is about 35-40 per cent less than the super area. Major details such as quality of material to be used, type of flooring, type of joinery and quality of timber to be used and kind and variety of paint polish etc must also be ascertained and taken into writing before going for a bargain. Proper and effective arrangements of future maintenance of the area such as its roads, sewerage, water supply, electricity and other civic services of the colony after the same is handed over to the occupiers should also be ensured before striking a deal. Usually such bargains are struck on self-financing basis i.e., the buyers pay the builder in instalments as the construction of the project progress through various stages. It becomes the foremost duty of the buyer to visit and supervise the construction activity of the entire project at different stages so as to ensure proper quality and workmanship. Nortwithstanding anything contained in the one-sided agreement to purchase, executed between the buyer and the builder, the buyer is protected under the consumer protection act. Still the purchasers are advised to have an expert opinion before signing any of such agreements.
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Year starts with historic low inflation
New Delhi, January 20 Industrial growth slid to 2.2 per cent in the first eight months of the current fiscal as against 6 per cent in the same period of previous year. The week ended January 5, 2002 saw commodity prices down by 0.06 per cent from 2.02 per cent in the previous week due to fall in the prices of vegetables, wheat, rice, tea, beer, groundnut and gingelly oil and alcohol. Following the footsteps of point-to-point inflation, the WPI fell marginally by 0.1 per cent of 161.5 from 161.7 in the previous week and the index was 158.4 a year ago period. The final WPI was slightly higher at 162.3 for the week ended November 10, 2001, as compared to provisional figure of 162 during the period, while the final inflation, however, stood at 2.66 per cent for the second week of November last year as against the provisional level of 2.47 per cent.
PTI
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Real estate returns are good A high risk investor, Mr A.S. Minhas who puts more than 90 per cent of his savings in equities, says he does so because he can afford to do so. And well, that is precisely what he advises others — do not invest in shares if you cannot afford to take risk and loose. Having worked as a marine engineer for almost ten years, he now is busy managing his investments, majority of them of course, in the share market and is also into multilevel marketing . His interest in the market is so ardent that he sits on the terminal right at 9.30 in the morning and sleeps only after Nasdaq closure around 2.30 am. Initial investments Equities I am a very high risk investor, and keep shares of blue chip companies only as a hedge against bad times. Currently I am holding shares of Colgate, Hindustan Lever, Nestle, Cadbury — to name a few. In the coming days I feel pharma and service based sector will do well. Right time to sell One mistake which even I frequently commit is waiting for a share to rise when it starts showing losses. However, I strongly feel that only if a person has a thorough knowledge of the market and sufficient money, high risk taking capacity, then should he invest in shares, otherwise not. Insurance Banks and real estate Your own house for living is a must in India. One might also buy some more property at good, location, because real estate returns are good, thought ofcourse it cannot give you the benefits like liquidity. If one has surplus money which one can afford to lock in for quite some time period, there is no harm in going in for real estate as an investment.
(As told to Shveta Pathak-TNS) |
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Markets lack direction Newton said: “Anything that goes up must come down”, and the Indian markets last week followed that law to the hilt. Every time the market goes up, the very next day profit booking clips its gains and it is back to square one. The market gained 15 points last week to close at 3377.05. Auto shares were the star performers on the bourses last week on the reckoning that the sector is on a recovery path. Major gainers were Telco, Bajaj Auto Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) and TVS.
Telco/M&M/Bajaj Auto The upsurge in Telco has continued and the stock has gained 11.1 per cent during the week to Rs 125.60. Telco saw surge in volumes with the scrip clocking an average daily volume of 13.52 lakh shares in the week’s five trading sessions its highest volumes in about two months. Telco also got a boost after the company unveiled the sedan version of its Indica car. The new model will hit the roads in September this year. This version of the car is likely to be priced at Rs 5-7 lakh. The tractor and utility vehicles major M&M has rocketed 23.22 per cent to Rs 115.40. The volumes on this counter too have soared. The stock registered a daily volume of over 14 lakh shares in the last two trading sessions on the BSE. The gain was based on general recovery in the auto sector. Bajaj Auto’s stock rocketed, when it declared the last quarter’s results on Wednesday. The company posted a 280 per cent jump in the third quarter’s net profit to Rs 108.17 crore as against Rs 28.21 crore in the corresponding previous quarter on a 30 per cent top-line growth to Rs 981.11 crore. The net profit exceeded analysts’ expectations even as the sales growth remained in line with the projections.
Digital Global Soft Digital Global surged 13.7 per cent last week to Rs 581.30 compared to its previous week’s closing of Rs 510.95. Market sources say that company’s excellent results have sparked off buying by the Alliance capital mutual fund. The company said that in third quarter ended December 31, 2001, the company posted a 48.5 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 24.62 crore on the back of a 65.83 per cent rise in the sales to Rs 87.28 crore. The Q3 results beat analysts’ projections. The stock has been soaring since it came to light the Packard family is opposed to the merger of Hewlett Packard (HP) with Compaq, the holding company of Digital Global Soft.
HDFC Bank HDFC Bank has posted a 43 per cent jump in the bottom line at Rs 75.45 crore and Rs 206.80 crore for the quarter and nine months ended December 2001, respectively. The results meet the top range of analysts’ expectations. The bank’s performance in each of its major business franchises has remained healthy. The total number of retail accounts increased from 1.4 million in March 2001 to over 1.9 million as of December 2001. The bank expects to grow at a healthy rate in future and increase its market share across multiple businesses. An investor can look to accumulate the stock with a six-month target price of Rs 300.
Coming fortnight The market has been lacking direction due to tension at the Indo-Pak border and because of mixed corporate results. In coming fortnight some of the important results such as that of Satyam Computers, HCL Technologies, Tisco and HLL are expected. These would decide the future course of the stock markets. Though there is enough liquidity and Indian institutions are picking up stocks at lower levels, investors must stay cautious and sell tech stocks on every rise and cover their positions on corrections. The activity should be sector specific as no general trend seems emerging. |
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by Pushpa Girimaji Will consumer demands find place in Budget? THE Ministries of Home, Defence and External Affairs may hog the limelight, but soon the focus will shift to the one that’s holding the purse strings — the Finance Ministry. And already the corridors of the North Block are reverberating with demands of different sections of the corporate sector lobbying hard for their cause. Last fortnight saw Yashwant Sinha meeting various interest groups as part of his pre-Budget consultations in connection with the coming Budget for 2002-2003. And representatives of consumer groups were also part of this consultation. The voice of the consumer groups is still feeble, but I do find a considerable improvement in the quality of their representations to the Finance Minister and one can certainly see the effect of this on the Minister. In fact in the past few years, the meeting would invariably begin with the consumer groups complaining vociferously about the Finance Minister ignoring their demands and the Minister saying that he has to keep the interests of all sections of the society in mind while drawing up the Budget. This year, the Minister himself brought up the subject and said the consumer groups may feel disappointed about some of their specific demands not finding place in the Budget, but they must remember that the entire Budget exercise itself is consumer-oriented. And this time they may also find some of their demands reflected in the Budget, he said. Responding to consumer concerns about the services sector, Mr Sinha said the consumers should insist on timely delivery of quality service, but should be prepared to pay user charges. The consumer groups who were invited to the meeting represented a cross-section of the society. There were groups working at the grass-root level in smaller towns and villages, there were those dealing with problems of urban middle class consumers and there were those representing consumer interests at international forums. And they were from different states. And accordingly, the wishlist that they presented to the Finance Minister reflected a wide variety of concerns. But there was a general support for the policies of economic liberalisation being pursued by the government and demand for accelerating the reform process in sectors like power and telecommunication and strengthening of the regulatory mechanism so that consumers received better quality of service at reasonable and fair prices. Another area of focus was the need for the government to cut flab, reduce its expenditure and introduce transparency and accountability, besides various measures aimed at eliminating corruption, particularly in the delivery of public services. There was also a demand for bridging the vast disparities in the basic services available to the rural and urban consumers and enhanced allocation for social sectors and for providing basic necessities to those living below the poverty level. Another area of concern was the absence of adequate protection available to small investors and the need for non-banking financial companies, plantation companies, chit funds, to insure the investments or deposits of consumers. There was also a common demand for allocation of funds to improve the functioning of consumer courts constituted under the Consumer Protection Act. There were also some specific pleas like constitution of an independent National Consumer Safety Commission to formulate and enforce safety norms in the delivery of public services, besides safety in public places and consumer products; transparency and accountability in the collection and utilisation of the petrol cess of Re 1 on every litre of petrol imposed in the Budget of 1998-99 to augment the corpus of the National Highways Authority of India and an effective mechanism to ensure that duty cuts provided in the Budget are actually and correctly passed on to the consumers. There was also a demand for budgetary allocation for a “facilitation fund” to help consumer groups participate more meaningfully in the process of economic reforms and for the announcement of a national consumer policy that would pave the way for better representation of consumer interest at the policy level. There was also a suggestion that SAARC countries should have a common consumer protection law in respect of imports and exports so that consumer interests are duly safeguarded, particularly in respect of quality and safety of consumer goods.. Another issue that came up during the meeting was the need for public sector banks to improve their efficiency and quality of service. Reference was also made to crores of rupees lying in different banks in the country as dead, stagnant or inoperative accounts. Banks should send registered notices to all such account holders giving them time to either operate or close such accounts and where there is no response, the funds should be transferred to the Consumer Welfare Fund, it was suggested. In conclusion one can say that the consumer groups may not have mastered the art of lobbying and lobbying effectively, but then, experience is a great teacher and they are certainly learning, albeit slowly. |
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Mico's buyback opens today New Delhi, January 20 The programme, which ends on February 4,2002, entails buying back these shares having a face value of Rs 100 in a bid to dispense with cash reserves, Mico Joint Managing Director V.K. Vishwanathan told PTI here today. The buyback offer price of Rs 2,500 per share is a premium of about 10 per cent over the present price of the Mico scrip which closed at Rs 2279 on the BSE on January 19. "We are deploying Rs 50 crore for this programme. Our intention is to give away the surplus cash and also return more value to the shareholders," he said. If totally successful, the buyback scheme would increase the stake of Robert Bosch to 60.5 per cent from the current 56.99 per cent, Vishwanathan said. Robert Bosch is not participating in the buyback offer. Therefore, its absolute holding in the equity capital will remain unchanged, but the percentage of holding in the total share capital of Mico will increase by 3.51 per cent to 60.5 per cent, he said. Financial institutions like LIC, GIC and UTI hold 27 per cent stake while nationalised banks, corporate bodies, public and others have 16 per cent shareholding in the company.
Havell's India Havell's India Ltd has posted a net profit of Rs 20.36 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2001, as against Rs 22.58 million for the corresponding period last year. Total income for the quarter ended December 31, 2001 is at Rs 386.63 million as against Rs 371.81 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2000.
Continental Coffee Continental Coffee Ltd has posted a net profit of Rs 33.52 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2001 as compared to Rs 28.87 million for the corresponding period last fiscal.
Dhanalakshmi Bank Dhanalakshmi Bank Ltd has posted a net profit of Rs 32.70 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2001 as compared to Rs 15.40 million in the quarter ended December 31, 2000. Total income for the quarter ended December 31, 2001 is at Rs 580.60 million as against Rs 492 million in the quarter ended December 31, 2000.
Agencies |
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