CNBC Awaaz presents Real Estates Awards 2012

CNBC AWAAZ in association with R.R. Kabel, hosted the ‘Real Estate Awards 2012’ – India’s biggest and most credible honor to recognize commendable merit of visionaries and professionals from the industry. The event, themed as Modern Marvel, was attended by Ajay Maken, Housing and Poverty Alleviation Minister of India, along with some of the biggest names from India’s real estate fraternity.

CNBC AWAAZ Real Estate Awards returned this year with a new avatar and made it viable for the small builders to compete along with the established players in the market. Nominees were critically judged, based on distinguished criterions like standard, quality of project, customer satisfaction and efficiency. This year more than 8000 projects across 12 cities were evaluated for the awards.

On the occasion of the awards Sanjay Pugalia, Editor-in-chief, CNBC AWAAZ said, “We have earned the respect of being one of the transparent and most credible recognition is the real estate industry. It gives us great pleasure to know that our awards are considered as a benchmark in the industry. This year we have altered the format to focus “on ground performance” of real estate projects, which have allowed many participants to enrol from tier I and tier II cities. It is our pleasure to say that we have got such encouraging response from diverse players of the industry.”

All entries were diligently scrutinized thereby making it the most admired and credible award for the Real Estate sector.  Several crucial factors were evaluated to arrive at the “on ground performance” of real estate projects. Scientifically graded features and amenities offered in a project was another important aspect, while construction progress, timely delivery, inhabitability and customers’ satisfaction was considered paramount for being adjudged as “Best Project”. Projects across India was invited and evaluated by Liases Foras with the help of its exhaustive database.

Awards went out to the following categories:

Affordable Segment -  100% Complete	Shipra Estate	NCR
Mid Segment – 100% Complete	Brigade Group	Bangalore
Luxury – 100% Complete	Lunkad Realty	Pune
Ultra Luxury -  100% Complete	Amar Builders	Pune
Affordable Segment – U/c – More than 70% Complete	City Corporation Limited	Pune
Affordable Segment – U/c – More than 70% Complete	Ashiana Housing & Finance ltd.	NCR
Mid Segment – U/c – More than 70% Complete	Kalpataru Limited	MMR
Luxury – U/c – More than 70% Complete	The Advantage Raheja	Bangalore
Ultra Luxury – U/c – More than 70% Complete	Queens Court	NCR
Best Commercial Project	DLF IT SEZ	Chennai
Best Retail project	DLF Emporio	NCR
Most Consumer Friendly Developers	Magarpatta Township	Pune
Best Project Execution	Mahindra SEZ	Chennai
Best Greenest Project	Magarpatta City	Pune
Commercial Greenest Project	Pritech Park – RGA software System (P) Ltd. and Primal Projects Pvt Ltd	Bangalore
Best Integrated Project	Magarpatta City	Pune
Best managed projects: Post sales	City Corporation Limited	Pune
Most Reliable Builder	Sobha Developers	Bangalore
Architect’s choice/Best Design	Brigade Gateway
Best Home loan provider	State Bank of India
Best Real Estate fund	HDFC Real Estate PMS
Best State Government Initiative	Rajasthan Govt
Building world class infrasturcture	Jaypee Group

Maken lists schemes to provide affordable housing for urban poor

To help the urban poor, who have been overlooked by banks and financial institutions to lend housing loans stating their ‘informal nature of employment’, the centre has been implementing Interest Subsidy Scheme for Housing the Urban Poor (ISHUP) wherein 5% interest subsidy is given for loans upto Rs. 1 lakh, said Ajay Maken, Union Minister of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA), in the Rajya Sabha.

A Credit Risk Guarantee Fund with a corpus of 1,000 crore has also been set up to secure the housing loans provided to EWS/LIG beneficiaries upto Rs. 5 lakh, the minister said in a written reply to a question raised by Jharna Das Baidya.

The Minister stated that banks and financial institutions hesitating to lend for housing to Economically Weaker Section (EWS) households as they lack demonstrable credit worthiness due to informal nature of their employment and irregular cash flows. Channelization of credit EWS / Low Income Group (LIG) segments is also affected by the higher risk perceptions by the banks.

Pointing out that ‘land and colonisation’ are the state subjects, he said, “It is the primary responsibility of states to provide affordable housing to all citizens. However, in order to supplement and complement the states’ initiatives, the centre has been implementing various schemes in this regard like Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY), ISHUP and Affordable Housing in Partnership (AHP).

Technical Group on estimation of urban housing shortage in the country which was constituted by Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, has estimated that the total urban housing shortage at the beginning of the 12th Five Year Plan period i.e. 2012 is 18.78 million. According to Census of India 2011, the total number of vacant houses in the urban areas is 11.09 million (or 10.10%) of the total number of census houses in urban areas i.e. 110.14 million.