Godrej Properties partners with ASK group for redevelopment project

Godrej Properties (GPL) has entered into an agreement with ASK Property Investment Advisors, a leading Real Estate Private Equity player, to sell a 49% stake in Godrej Landmark Redevelopers Private Limited (GLRPL), the company announced in a statement.

GLRPL had recently entered into a tripartite agreement with Kamla Landmarc Property Leasing and Finance Private Limited (Kamla) and 18 societies to undertake a residential redevelopment project in Sahakar Nagar, Chembur, Mumbai.  The project, spread over approximately 14,600 sq. mtrs, will offer approximately 600,000 sq. ft of saleable area and is proposed to be developed as a modern group housing residential development comprising 2, 2.5, and 3 BHK apartments.

ASK Group along with GLRPL will invest in the Sahakar Nagar redevelopment project.  ASK will pay a Rs. 20 crores premium to GPDPL for its 49% stake in the project.


Pirojsha Godrej, Executive Director, Godrej Properties said, “We are very happy to have reached this agreement with ASK Group.  This fits in well with GPL’s strategy of efficient capital management and demonstrates our continued ability to attract equity capital in difficult market conditions.”


Sunil Rohokale, CEO & Managing Director of ASK Investment Holdings said “It is our privilege to partner a reputed name like Godrej. We are excited as well as confident about this partnership. Redevelopment is the need of the hour to make Mumbai a world class city and raise the living standards of its citizens. With the entry of a strong brand like Godrej, redevelopment is bound to grow exponentially.”

CII calls for improved trade among BRICS nations

The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) has called for deepening of trade and economic ties among the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries, particularly in the areas where there are clear complementarities such as energy, IT, pharma and agro-business. 

“Indian industry attaches great importance to its economic and trade engagement with BRICS nations. The Indian industry sees significant potential of cooperation among BRICS nations in the field of services, particularly in clean & renewable energy technologies”, said Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), on the eve of the fourth BRICS Summit at New Delhi, which begins here on Wednesday.

 

Energy security is vital for India and other BRICS nations for its future growth and development, Banerjee further added.  

New Delhi is all set to play host to world leaders that include Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, South African President Jacob Zuma and Chinese Premier Hu Jintao.

The BRICS nations have acquired an important role in the world economy as producers of goods and services, and receivers of capital. They represent more than a quarter of the Earth's landmass, over 41 per cent of its population, almost 25 per cent of world GDP. There is no doubt about the increasing economic and geopolitical importance of these countries on the international arena.

The BRICS grouping has shown strong economic performance in the face of the recent global downturn. The BRICS nations were amongst few countries that were able to come out of the global recession in a short span of time. The global economic crisis has also intensified south-south trade and highlighted its importance in the face of the economic downturn in the two most important poles of world trade – US and Europe.

While BRICS countries’ trade with the world is growing, barring India-China intra-BRICS trade is very low. In 2010 only 8.6% of exports were traded among the nations themselves. The corresponding figure for imports was 11.58%. As regards services China and India are major exporters of services. The differences in the composition of services exports among BRICS nations indicate a strong scope for trade. The sectors where huge trading potential lies include travel, transport, IT and ICT, construction, and other business services.

Political stability alongside the fast economic growth has made the BRICS nations attractive destinations for foreign investment. China, Brazil, Russia and India are among the top 5 host economies for global FDI attracting more than US$20billion annually. However, inflows of FDI into some of these countries have seen a decline in recent years due to the global economic downturn. As most of the outward FDI from these countries flows to other developing countries, there is scope for intra-BRICS engagement through cross border investments in services.

At last Summit in Sanya in 2011, BRICS leaders agreed to “strengthen financial cooperation” among their individual development banks. At New Delhi Summit, CII would like to urge BRICS leaders to look into the operational modalities for establishment of financial institutions such as a Development Bank or a common Investment Fund.

Mumbai to host Ecobuild India 2013

MUMBAI: UBM will be organizing Ecobuild India 2013, an event for sustainable design, construction and the built environment, from April 16 – 18, 2013 at the Bombay Exhibition Centre (BEC).

Supported by Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI), Institute of Indian Interior Designers (IIID), Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the UK's Building Research Establishment (BRE), Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), and UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), the three-day event will provide an unrivalled gateway into the expanding Indian market for sustainable built environment.

Ecobuild India comes at a time when investment in construction is at record levels. Every aspect of India's infrastructure requires massive investment. There is great demand for residential, commercial and industrial space in India's growing cities. Improving the country's infrastructure is the Indian government's top priority. In its 11th 5-year plan (2007-12) it invested US $500 billion and India's Planning Commission has set out detailed plans to spend a further US $1 trillion up to 2017.

India is second only to China in the number of Private Public Partnership (PPP) projects. The Planning Commission aims to develop this as a means of financing infrastructure projects as well as in social sectors such as healthcare and education. The government has prioritised meeting ambitious targets to invest and deliver improvement in the country's infrastructure capability, with an emphasis on housing, urbanisation, water, transport and power. PPP will provide vast opportunities for international property and construction firms.

The construction industry in India is predicted to be the third largest in the world by 2020 accounting for 7% of global spending. Currently worth over US $300 billion it accounts for 20% GDP. It is forecast to grow at 14% CAGR to 2015 to US $500 billion.

India's green building movement has taken off rapidly although it currently lacks legislative underpinning. Green building is currently c.5% (US $15 billion) of total construction market but set to grow to c.8% (US $39 billion) by 2015 at a CAGR of 28%. The India Green Building Council estimates there is a potential market of US $10 billion up to 2015 for compliant building materials and products.

"Sustainably developing an infrastructure to support this vast, youthful and vibrant population is high on the agenda in India right now," said Sanjeev Khaira, Managing Director of UBM India. "We see this as the ideal time to work with our UK colleagues to launch an Indian edition of the world's largest exhibition dedicated to the future of sustainable building design, construction and the built environment. We already organise India's largest event on sustainability, Renewable Energy India, along with some highly successful events in the built environment, which have synergies that will count towards making this launch a success."

"The launch event will distil the key components of Ecobuild in the UK to deliver a showcase of the most impressive sustainable construction projects from across India and the world, the latest and most innovative products, and a conference programme that will tackle the most pressing concerns and the biggest challenges facing the region," said James Blue, Ecobuild's Portfolio Director.

About UBM India
UBM India is B2B media company that specialises in exhibitions, conferences, publications and online. Our key sector coverage includes: energy, construction and infrastructure, security, medical technology and pharmaceuticals, IT and the food industry. UBM India is the largest independent events organiser in India and is a subsidiary of UBM plc, which is a London Stock Exchange listed company with 6,500 staff operating in 40 countries.

About UBM Built Environment
UBM Built Environment is UBM plc's specialist media division for the construction, architecture, and property markets. We are recognised as the leading provider of targeted information across the UK construction, architecture and commercial property industry with magazines, events, awards and online information services. We are widely acknowledged as having some of the most iconic brands in the market including Building, Property Week, BD, Barbour, ABI, RESI, Decorex, KBB and Sleep. We have recently published Winning Work in India, part of the winning work series from Building's White Papers, which provides in-depth information and practical guidance.

Boom boom time for Chennai realty sector

It's 'boom-boom' time for Chennai realty sector, as property prices in the southern city have gone up by a whooping 166% in the last four years, the highest in the country, followed by Bhopal with a hike of 117%, according to a survey.

Surprisingly, the commercial and real estate capital of India, Mumbai and capital city Delhi have shown slow rise in rates with Mumbai registering property hike by 87%, while neighbouring Pune has seen a rise of 63%, according to an economic survey report.

The report stated that property prices in other larger cities have gone up by 43% to 166%. This situation in the real estate sector is worsening day-by-day mainly due to the absence of a regulating authority. It was worse in Mumbai, which is ranked third as the most promising investments markets.

The report stated that the cost of land in Mumbai is sky rocketing as very few land is available to accommodate the daily influx of migrants. Scarcity of land is the major problem to construct affordable housing for people, leading to the vertical growth of slums, the report said.

National Housing Bank, which conducted a nationwide survey to know the trend of pricing policy in the real estate sector, has found that Chennai ranked first.

However, astonishing as it was, four cities, according to the survey, witnessed drastic decline in prices. Maximum decrease was observed in Jaipur by 36 per cent in the said five years followed by Hyderabad (14 per cent) Bengaluru (6 per cent) and Kotchi (2 per cent).

According to the report, property prices are going up due to the expanding infrastructure, upcoming projects like the metro, monorail and the new international airport in Navi Mumbai and Chennai have contributed to the inflated real estate prices in these cities.

However, with the real estate market booming, the survey has tried to drew attention of the policy makers to the widening gap between demand and supply of the housing units resulting from inadequate housing.
One of the major reasons for price hike is the rental housing market, which is very unorganised. Renting a house in Mumbai is a very difficult task. In India around 11% people used to rent a flat, while the percentage for Mumbai is 27%. There is a shortage of 3.72 million houses in Maharashtra. Over 90% of this demand is in the 300-800 sq ft size category.

“Despite significant growth of the housing loan portfolio in the sector, access to formal credit was mostly available to people in the formal sector…Sizeable segments of the informal segment market still remain untouched,” said the  survey giving a macro and micro-view of the country’s economy.

CORFAC Adds Global Commercial Real Estate Affiliates in China, India and Greece

FALLS CHURCH, Va.: CORFAC International (Corporate Facility Advisors), one of the largest commercial real estate brokerage organizations in the world, has added new global commercial real estate affiliates in China, India and Greece. 

Cresval Corporate Advisory Group (Shanghai), Narains Corporation (Mumbai) and Ktimatiki Real Estate (Athens) are CORFAC’s newest international affiliates. In addition to referring business between CORFAC firms, members share best practices for business operations, marketing support and other resources.

Berendes & Partner Consulting GmbH (Hamburg) and IL PUNTO Real Estate Advisor (Milan) joined CORFAC International in December 2011. 

CORFAC International (Corporate Facility Advisors) is one of the largest commercial real estate brokerage organizations in the world and comprised of privately held entrepreneurial firms with expertise in office, industrial and retail real estate leasing and investment sales, multifamily property acquisitions and dispositions, property management and commercial real estate corporate services. In recent years, CORFAC firms have averaged 10,000 completed transactions annually encompassing nearly 1 billion square feet and valued at more than $16 billion. 

Shanghai, China-based Cresval offers a comprehensive range of real estate related services to clients in the Asia Pacific region to cover Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, India and Indonesia. The firm is principally involved with office, industrial, retail, land and commercial properties. Simon Liu (pronounced ‘New’) is the Managing Principal and Ricky Chan is Executive Director. 

Prior to starting Cresval, Liu worked in Asia as a representative of CresaPartners, GVA Worldwide and Insignia.Mumbai, India-based Narains was established in 1971 by Group Chairman Devendra Narain. From inception, Narains has focused its work on Class A office and retail properties throughout the city. The second generation of the firm is managed by CEO & President Chetan Narain and Managing Director Sanjeet Narain. The firm has closed transactions with CORFAC International members in the U.K., Chicago and Toronto. 

Athens, Greece-based Ktimatiki focuses its services on Greek real estate comprised of commercial, retail, industrial and hospitality transactions in addition to investment advisory and high-end residential sales. Ktimatiki provides Tenant/Owner representation, Corporate Real Estate Advisory Services, Valuations and Facility Management. Kiriakos Kalimnios is CEO and Meletis (‘Mike’) Vassiliou is COO and Manager of the firm.

India's Trade deficit may rise to 428 billion dollars by 2015-16

India’s trade deficit could rise from 130.5 billion dollars in 2010-11 to 428.3 billion dollars by 2015-16 and become unsustainable with merchandise imports rising from 380.9 billion dollars to 858.6 billion dollars, industry body ASSOCHAM said today.

The imbalance likely to be above 180 billion dollars in 2011-12. While the share of manufactured goods in exports of China, Japan and Germany is very high, India’s share has declined from 44.1 per cent in 2000-01 to 37.5 per cent in 2010-11, according to a study by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

The country’s merchandise exports during 2015-16 will stand at 430.3 billion dollars, up from 250.5 billion dollars in 2010-11 with exports of manufactured goods rising from 101.6 billion dollars to 119.6 billion dollars. Exports of petroleum products are set to rise from 41.9 billion dollars to
51.2 billion dollars in the same period.

On the flip side, said the study, oil imports will jump from 106.1 billion dollars to 243.7 billion dollars while gold imports will rise from 33.9 billion dollars to 83.3 billion dollars in the same period.
However, if capacity building of the industry takes place and competitiveness of Indian exports improves, then merchandise exports can stand at 549 billion dollars in 2015-16 and the trade deficit will be 309.6 billion dollars.

“There is need to curtail oil imports, or else there will be a severe burden on external payments position. The gold imports figure must also decrease by educating domestic investors and encouraging substitution of gold purchases with alternatives from formal financial sector which will help in increasing the productive capacity of economy,” said ASSOCHAM secretary general D.S. Rawat while quoting the study.

It is thus critical to enhance manufacturing capabilities along with improvement in technological content of products which should translate into sharpening the export competitiveness and gaining a price advantage. Promotion of international trading houses will help develop strong international linkages.

The study said growing uncertainties in the Eurozone, slowdown in advanced economies and weakening of the domestic had adversely impacted India’s external sector outlook.
Adverse global conditions and protectionist attitude being adopted by various western countries may lead to further drop in service exports, further decreasing the invisibles contribution to current account.

ASSOCHAM said India’s capital account rose almost seven times from 8.5 billion dollars in 2000-01 to over 57.3 billion dollars in 2010-11 with foreign investments being a major contributor. In times of global uncertainty, it is very much likely that foreign investors pull out their money from India and take it back to their home countries.

“Poor regulations, inefficient processes and inconsistency of policies may also deter potential foreign direct investments,” it said.

DABC launches Abhinayam Phase III in Chennai

DABC, a pioneer in the construction industry having various projects,  has launched its new project - Abhinayam Phase III, in Chennai.

Located in Moggapair with access to various amenities like schools, bus terminus, hospitals, etc., Abhinayam has various luxurious amenities that meet the daily activities.

Amenities that DABC is offering for the residents include, gym, a spacious library, a park for children, a in store groceries and provision department, a day care centre for toddlers which is very helpful for working mothers, a laundry service, an office room, a large green garden with a good number of outdoor, seating, a rest room as well as a changing room for drivers and staff, a long track for jogging or walking, lifts, sewage as well as water treatment plants, CCTV, open and covered car parking with costs varying accordingly and most importantly a backup generator during power cuts, a company release said.

The basic structure of Abhinayam phase III will be constructed with concrete or brick blocks which is plastered with smooth masonry walls and finally painted with cement. The flooring is ceramic at a cost of Rs 26 per sq ft which is the basic price. The unique features of joinery are the teak finished flush main doors with teakwood frame and commercial flush shutters for inner doors attached with country wooden frames.

Windows come in steel material with MS grills and also glass shutters tightened with pin heads. 

Kitchens are constructed to a high standard providing granite platforms with a Carysil sink or an equivalent one. Glazed tiles are fitted in toilets up to a height of 7 feet and up to a height of 2 feet above the kitchen floors. The company also provides wardrobes in bedrooms.

The project is in progress and expected to complete in 2012-13.

About DABC Chennai

DABC was founded by Jenix Dev Singh in 1992. There are more than 4000 residential flats with nearly 46 residential as well as commercial projects under the DABC Chennai belt which has been talk of the town while being located in and around the posh Anna Nagar as well as around Moggapair. The company today has a turnover of 100 crore.