Realty majors found cause to cheer the budget on concessions extended to other sectors.
Ravi Ramu, Director, Puravankara Projects Ltd, said reverse mortgage proceeds not to be treated as income tantamount to a tax free pension for home owners post-retirement and should provide a fillip to home builders, since owning a home in old age has now become more attractive from a return, and an old age financial security perspective.
The introduction of a right of set-off of dividend distribution tax paid by a direct subsidiary of a parent company with the DDT paid by the parent will be a large benefit to real estate companies who have, or intend setting-up subsidiaries.
Construction costs are expected to come down due to duty and Cenvat reduction. The housing sector will take a boost due to the increase in income-tax exemption limit and new tax slabs will increase affordability of EMIs.
The Jewel in the Crown for Investors
• 1,500 sq. ft. apartment "Colonial Art Deco Buildings" - 
MLS® Rs5,500,000 INR - Price yet to be Announced
Mumbai Pune Expressway , Panvel - Hirco Plc (AIM:HRCO.L), the investment vehicle for Hiranandani, India’s largest developer of prestigious mixed-use townships, is shortly announcing a £150 million Residential Township (“Panvel Residential”) development project located in Panvel, in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region of India.
The township itself is strategically located near the planned second Mumbai International Airport, major railways and is within driving distance of Mumbai’s central business district.
Panvel Residential is a development consisting of 18.3 million buildable square feet of residential and retail space on total of 1200 acres of land in Panvel, a rapidly growing corridor in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. It would be the biggest in terms of Township size surrounding Mumbai.
The preliminary master plan of the township development calls for a mix of flats, townhomes and villas, designed to capture the increasing pent up demand for these types of residences. The large acreage allows for attractive, large open spaces with park-like settings and pedestrian corridors, offering a premium lifestyle at affordable prices.
The Panvel development will certainly be one of the foremost communities in Mumbai and the country.”
Highlights of the Residential Township
The township is expected to benefit from the strong growth in the Mumbai – Pune corridor, which is becoming a preferred location for Mumbai’s growing middle class segment. Key features of Panvel Residential are expected to include primary and secondary schools, healthcare facilities, a hospital, community centres, sports centres, and socio-cultural activity venues.
In line with Hiranandani’s sustainable building philosophy, the township will also have a backup power substation, and will have its own water storage and wastewater treatment facilities. The all inclusive township will have its own bus terminal and will boast sufficient parking to support its population. Further luxury features include entertainment centres
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Mumbai Pune Expressway , Panvel - Announcing launch of new project Panvel, Near to The New Proposed International Airport, a 1,500 sq. ft. apartment "Colonial Art Deco Buildings". Now MLS® Price yet to be Announced.
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Office Premises on Lease
• 15,000 sq. ft. commercial "Brand New Building" - MLS® - lease rent Rs. 75 - 80
Shantivan , Borivli - Commercial premises very conveniently located off western express highway, walkin to borivli station
Brand New Commercial Bldg
Well Planned, Ample Car Park in surrounding
Each flooor - 5700 sq.ft
Total = 16500 sq.ft available
Ready for fitouts in Sept 2007
Call now for inspection
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Prime Location, Walk to Station
• 2,100 sq. ft. commercial "Huge Glass Facade" - MLS® Rs600,000 INR Monthly - Exceptional Value
S.v.road , Andheri West - Premium Location, Off the S.V.Road, Nr Andheri Station
Ideal for MNC's, Financial Institutions, Banks for their Branches, offices
Total 12,500 sq.ft on Ground Floor & First Floor
Part premises can be given
100 feet signage
Excellent Visibilty for your products with large Glass Windows on first floor
Only for LEASE
Ready Possesion
Call now for Inpection.
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• 1,150 sq. ft., 2 bath, 2 bdrm apartment "17 Storey Tower" - MLS® Rs60,000 INR Monthly - Depost : 5 Lacs
Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road , Andheri East - Centrally located on JVLR, you are minutes away from Western Express Highway, and just 6 kms from Eastern Express Highway.
The Best Apartment block on the Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road
Constructed by B. Raheja Builders.
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Furnishing as per Clients Design
• 1,375 sq. ft. commercial - MLS® Rs331,500 INR Monthly - Fully Fusnished Office
Andheri Kurla Road , Andheri East - Andheri Kurla Road, Andheri [East]
Dynasty Business Park
1275 sq. ft. Built Up area
Fully Furnished as Per Tenants Design in 6 weeks
Full Glass Façade with AluBond Panelling, Cafeteria in Building, Basement Car Park
Corporate tenants in the building : Regus, Hindustan Times
Restaurant in surroundings : Pizza Hut, Subway, Dominos Pizza
Financials :
Lease Rent :
Rs. 260/- per sq. ft. per month inclusive of Current Taxes (with Furniture and Air-con)
Rs. 3,31,500/- Per Month
Approx US$ 8,547 Per Month
Office Space would be fully furnished as per your design in 6 weeks time
Parking Charges : One Covered parking in basement @ Rs. 10,000/- per car/per month shall be payable
Deposit :12 Months Rent
Rs. 39.78 Lacs
Approx : US$ 101480
Above Rent is valid as on 21st January 2008 and is subject to change as per market trends and this proposal is Subject to prior deal.
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Andheri Kurla Road , Andheri East - Furnished Office at Dynasty Business Park, Andheri Kurla Road, Opp Pizza Hut, Andheri East, mumbai, a 1,375 sq. ft. commercial. Now MLS® Rs331,500 INR Monthly - Fully Fusnished Office.
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Where Good Living takes new Meaning
• 1,377 sq. ft., 2 bath, 3 bdrm apartment "Trendy Apartments" - MLS® Rs13,500,000 INR - Lifestyle Homes
Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road , Andheri East - Is your Home here ?
Located in the choicest zone of the western suburbs of Mumbai, your are minutes away from SEEPZ and the Andheri Kurla Road - the emerging commercial hub of Mumbai.
Nestling on the peripherial expanse of Lush Green Aarey, you would surely welcome the whiff of Fresh Oxyigenated Air..
A Healthy living is yours for the asking..Need we say more..
Call me now for a preview of the finest home on offer..
A must see before you finalise elsewhere.
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Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road , Andheri East - Announcing on JVLR, Near SEEPZ, Off Western Express Highway, Andheri East, a 1,377 sq. ft., 2 bath, 3 bdrm apartment "Trendy Apartments". Now MLS® Rs13,500,000 INR - Lifestyle Homes.
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Andheri Kurla Road , Andheri East - Announcing New Office Premises at Meadows, Inside Sahar Plaza, Andheri Kurla Road, Near Kohinoor Hotel, Andheri East, a 1,300 sq. ft., 1 bath commercial "Brand New Building". Now MLS® Rs300,000 INR Monthly - Rentals can VARY.
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Raheja Estate , Borivli - Announcing New Arrival on the Block
ParkSide, Raheja Estate, Adjacent to National Park, Off Western Express Highway, Borivli East, a 1,072 sq. ft., 2 bath, 2 bdrm apartment "Raheja Constrcution". Now MLS® Rs7,500,000 INR - Value for Money.
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First came political misgivings and then street protests by small-store owners
across India, fretful they will be put out of business by the deep pockets and
discounting power of retail chains.
But that perhaps didn't worry
Indian tycoons as much as the surge in rentals and space shortages they are now
battling in a bid to open thousands of stores and change the way the
subcontinent shops.
In the
glitzy, glass-and-steel malls that dot Indian cities or are being built, square
foot prices have almost tripled in three years, according to retail consultant
Arvind Singhal.
"Rentals have
shot up to a point where very few retailers will make a profit," said Singhal,
head of the consultancy KSA Technopak, who says retail chains may have to slow
expansion.
"Retailers don't
want to get into a mall it if there's no financial viability, so a lot of
current retailers and likely new entrants are putting their growth plans in
review mode," he said.
Mall
rentals shot up as an economy expanding 9 per cent a year drove up land
valuations and rising prices of steel and cement forced developers to pass on
the increased cost of construction to tenants.
Retailers may get no relief
until more space comes into a market in which 250 malls are under construction,
on top of 300 that have opened this decade in what pundits call the "great
retail gold rush."
"The share
of real estate in the cost of our operation is increasing, and that is certainly
a very unhealthy trend," said Bijou Kurien, a senior executive at Reliance
Retail, an arm of India's biggest conglomerate.
"Sometimes you find that the
cost of space being sought is so high that it doesn't make business sense for us
to go into a particular mall," Kurien said on a recent visit to Bangalore in
southern India.
The cost and
space problems have been largely obscured by political reservations and street
demonstrations against retail chains in a market dominated by 15 million
mom-and-pop stores.
Reliance,
the most aggressive retail player with plans to spend $6 billion on a giant
chain of convenience stores, supermarkets and hyper-markets, has suffered the
most.
In Uttar Pradesh,
India's largest state, the government ordered Reliance to close its stores after
attacks by traders.
The
Marxist governments in West Bengal and Kerala are opposed to organised retail,
which accounts for less than five percent of the consumer market in a nation of
1.1 billion people.
Annual
consumer spending is estimated by the consultancy McKinsey at 370 billion
dollars and forecast to quadruple to $1.5 trillion by 2025, as a youthful
population earns more and millions climb out of poverty.
That has lured business groups
such as Reliance, Tata and Aditya Birla into retail, only to find there is a
heavy price to pay.
"If
rentals were expected to be in the range of Rs 60 to 75 ($1.5 - $1.9) per square
foot per month three years ago, the same malls are now expecting 150 to Rs 200,"
said KSA Technopak's Singhal.
"Some mall developers are
quoting Rs400 to Rs 600 -- a rate at which no retail business can make any
money," he said.
In New
Delhi's luxury mall DLF Emporio, reputedly India's most expensive, tenants have
to pay Rs 900, real estate consultants said.
And it's not easy finding the
right space in the right location for retailers, who also complain that many
malls are badly located and designed, as well as shoddily managed. Many
developments are behind schedule.
Ajit Joshi, who heads Infiniti
Retail, part of the Tata group, would love to open an outlet in downtown Mumbai
as he expands the Croma chain of stores selling consumer electronics and
durables.
"What we want is
about 15,000 square feet of space, but we won't get it even if we are ready to
pay," Joshi said. In other areas, "if you are lucky and space is available, the
rates are so exorbitant it becomes unviable."
Some mall rentals have risen
by 50 percent in the past year, and developers are trying to wriggle out of old
lease agreements under which tenants were offered cheaper space, said Pranay
Vakil, India head of property consultancy Knight Frank.
Developers are today in a
position to quote a price and tell retailers to "take it or leave it," he said
Kalina , Santa Cruz - The apartment at Golden Square, Near Bandra Kurla Complex, Santacruz East has been sold.
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RAHEJA BROTHERS IN BATTLE ROYALE SPREAD OVER 480 ACRES
Siblings Suresh And Gopal Take A Dispute Over Division Of Sprawling E F Dinshaw Estate To Court. Verdict Expected Soon
Swati Deshpande | TNN
Mumbai: It’s a property battle between brothers where the stakes are staggering. The Rahejas, Gopal, Chandru and Suresh—construction czars of the city—control around 680 acres of land in the western suburbs. Of this massive landmass, two-thirds is currently under litigation in a bitterly fought battle before Bombay high court. The adversaries are the youngest brother, Suresh, and his eldest sibling Gopal L Raheja, better known as GL in the realty business.
Suresh claims that around 100 acres (five times the size of Oval maidan), which once belonged to the family, is now due to him as part of a 20-year-old formula; either that or a whopping Rs 783 crore as compensation. Gopal has rubbished the claim, thus triggering off a legal battle that came to a head last week when a high court bench comprising Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice S R Sathe concluded hearing an appeal filed by GL against an interim order by a single judge in March 2007. A team of legal heavyweights including Iqbal Chagla, Janak Dwarkadas, Virendra Tulzapurkar, JJ Bhat and Darius Khambata and law firms Amarchand Mangaldas and Kanga and Co had lined up to represent the real estate barons.
While asking for the single judge’s order to be set aside, GL pleaded that it had virtually brought to a standstill construction work on 470 contiguous acres in and around Malad by his company. He said development had been on since 2000 and about 20 buildings had been built and occupied while 30 more were under construction, but the single judge’s interim order granting a status quo on all vacant land or plots where construction had hitherto taken place up to the plinth level had caused a huge setback to him. GL argued that the suit filed by Suresh was intended to cause him a “grave loss’’ as the two were fierce competitors in the realty business and had projects coming up in close proximity near the disputed site.
The magnitude of the tussle can be gauged from the fact that the entire land involved is more than the 400 acres of mill property across central Mumbai put together which opened for development in April 2006. Albeit, about 350 acres of it still falls in a No Development Zone (NDZ) and can only be developed for tourism or as infotech parks.
The duel began a year back with Suresh dragging GL and
Chandru or CL to court for what he claimed to be his share of family property meant to be divided between the three brothers years ago. This included vast tracts in Goregaon, Malad and Borivli which was originally owned by F E Dinshaw, one of Mumbai’s biggest landlords (see box: F E Dinshaw Land). After Dinshaw’s death in 1934, the land had been divided equally between his son Edulji and daughter Bachoobai before the Rahejas negotiated with mill magnate Nusli Wadia, an administrator of the Dinshaw estate, and acquired rights to share, title and development of large chunks of the land in 1984-85.
The problems started after the death of the patriarch Lachhmandas in 1983. Disputes arose between Suresh and his three brothers—GL, CL and Kishore — and in 1986, GL and CL decided to separate from Suresh.
This is where the bone of contention arises. According to Suresh, he was to get a fixed 21.42% rights in the ‘Dinshaw property’ while the rest would go to GL and CL as and when acquired. This arrangement, he said, was formalised in a written and sealed form in the presence of mediator Rajan Raheja, a cousin.
Edulji Dinshaw’s property was called the EF Dinshaw Estate and comprised 680 acres. In 1995, 200 acres out of this was given to CL under a lease executed by Wadia; of this, Suresh got 21.42%. Now he says that since GL and his son have got rights to develop the remaining 480 acres as well, he should get 21.42% share of this land too, as per the “written’’ family settlement. He says GL had promised him his share and his counsel Iqbal Chagla, citing a supreme court judgment, says a family arrangement in property matters should be governed by a special equity and ought not to be interfered with to ensure peaceful settlement of disputes and to prevent bad blood within family members.
GL and his company, represented by counsels Janak Dwarkadas and Darius Khambata, however contend that not only was Suresh’s demand akin to a delayed awakening, he had got it wrong as the ‘written arrangement’ was applicable only to land managed by the trust set up by Dinshaw’s daughter and not to any of the 480 acres from the son’s estate.
GL is also saying that in 2002, he terminated all negotiations with Suresh after the latter confirmed that he had no interest in the EF Dinshaw Estate. In his appeal, GL has said Suresh is “taking dishonest advantage of the phenomenal rise in prices of real estate in 2006...and had resorted to moving court for relief by twisting facts out of context.’’
A FAMILY SAGA
Gopal L Raheja Chandru L Raheja Suresh L Raheja Kishore L Raheja WHO OWNS WHAT:
Kishore Raheja
Also into real estate, but has other interests as well including a few hotels The 21.42% property compensation claimed by Suresh from GL Raheja Shopping/commercial units:
5 lakh sq ft area Gross estimated revenue: Rs 350 crore Residential component I: Saleable area: 4,99,235 sq ft Gross revenue: Rs 274 crore Residential component II Saleable area: 6,88,943 sq ft Gross revenue: Rs 310 crore NDZ area (for IT park) Saleable area: 14.5 lakh sq ft Gross revenue: Rs 580 crore Non-developable NDZ Saleable area: 26.7 lakh sq ft Gross revenue: Rs 26.7 crore In all, after accounting for various deductions, Suresh Raheja estimates loss of profit at Rs 783.1 crore