American Real estate franchise coldwell banker planning to appoint 30 franchisees by 2015 in chennai

chennai

Real estate broking company Coldwell Banker India is planning to appoint 30 franchisees by the end of 2015 and take this to 100 by 2018, a senior company official said on Monday.

According to Mona Jalota, vice president for operations and strategy, Coldwell Banker India sees good potential in the Chennai residential market and would have its franchisees in place by September.

"The Indian operations were launched around six months back. We have nine franchisees till now and one master franchisee in Bangalore," Jalota told IANS.

Coldwell Banker India is the Indian master franchisee of the US headquartered Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC.

According to Jalota, all the major international property consultants (IPC) are focussing majorly on commercial realty sector in Chennai and there are not many focussed on the residential segment.

"We hope to change that equation and promote the residential opportunities that the real estate market in Chennai has to offer to local residents and investors, as well as national and NRI (Non-Resident Indian) investors," Jalota said.

She said real estate prices in Chennai have remained largely stable with marginal increase of 2-5 percent.

Jalota said Chennai's residential market will exhibit steady growth in 2015. Rents and capital values are forecast to remain stable during the year, citing local property consultants.

She said the end users constituting 75-80 per cent of buyers primarily drive Chennai's residential market. This provides a strong foundation for a long-term investment in the city's residential market as it reduces market volatility.

"In the fourth quarter of 2014, Chennai witnessed the launch of 4,984 units compared to 4,175 in the previous quarter. The active vacancy in the market decreased to 56,900 units in Q4 from 57,111 in Q3," Jalota said.

VGN entered luxury segment by launching Rs 500 crore project

Residential property developer VGN Developers Pvt Ltd has entered the luxury apartment space segment by launching its Rs 500-crore VGN Presidency project here. Part of the project financing was from Edelweiss, said Pratish Devadoss, managing director of VGN Developers.

Spread in 1.5 acre in the middle of the city, the project has 72 three-BHK apartments of around 3500-sft space in 15 floors, including a club house.

The company has priced the property for Rs 18,999 an sft initially, and each apartment would cost around Rs 6.9 crore.

"We bought the land (which was with BSNL earlier) in an auction. We have paid Rs 195 crore," said Devadoss.

The company has already received bookings for 15 apartments before the official launch, and is expecting demand from customers in Mumbai and from overseas, including Singapore, Malaysia and the Gulf.

It is also planning to develop a large project in Guindy, with an expected cost of Rs 700 crore.

The company last year raised over Rs 600 crore from Clearwater Capital and Piramal Group, he said.

Relief for foreign investors as government revise MAT

The government provided some relief to foreign investors, clarifying on Thursday that minimum alternate tax (MAT) will not apply to capital gains on the sale of securities, royalty, technical service fees and interest income. This was part of amendments made to the Finance Bill by FM Arun Jaitley.

The relief is available only in those cases where the normal tax rate is below 18.5%, the rate at which MAT is levied, and will be available prospectively from the current fiscal, disappointing investors who were looking to the Finance Bill to roll back demands levied for previous years. The relief is available to all types of investors, corporates and private equity included.

Jaitley also eased MAT rules for real estate investment trusts (REITs) and Infrastructure Investments Trusts (InvITs).

The finance minister lowered the export duty on low-grade iron ore to 10% from 30% to boost exports from Goa and revive mining of the commodity in the state. The Lok Sabha later passed the Finance Bill by a voice vote, marking the end of the Budget process for the year.

The new rules will mean REITs and InvITs will not attract MAT when they are set up, clearing a big hurdle in the way of these instruments pitched as vehicles of big-ticket investment in real estate and infrastructure.

Jaitley also exempted from service tax the insurance component of key social sector initiatives such as the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana as well as on general insurance business under the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana.

Jaitley withdrew certain tax exemptions available to defence public sector units and ordnance factory boards to provide a level playing field to the private sector as part of a wider plan to spur the 'Make in India' manufacturing initiative.

Customs duty on raw silk was cut to 10% to address the duty inversion between silk yarn and fabric but that on natural rubber was raised to 25% from 20% to the protect the domestic industry.

Report : India going to become fourth in infrastructure development by 2030

India would become fourth largest infrastructure projects market in the world by 2025 as real estate and construction sector is continuously evolving in the country, according to a RICS report.
"Recent reports commissioned by RICS found affordable housing was an acute problem in some BRICS nations including Brazil, China and India, exacerbated by growing urban populations," Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said in its report.

At present, India is at sixth position with 5.3 per cent share in the global infrastructure market and by 2025 its share will go up to 9.8 per cent and it will be at fourth position, the report added.

"Real estate and construction sector in India is continuously evolving at a rapid pace. All stakeholders of this profession need to come together to attract high quality talent in this sector," RICS Global MD - Emerging Business Sachin Sandhir said.

More than 50 per cent of urban growth will come from just seven countries: India, China, Nigeria, Indonesia, the USA, Pakistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, it said adding that China and India will contribute more than one-third of the total growth.

It also added that Indian government has announced plans to not just create REITs but also investment infrastructure trusts (InvITs).

Therefore, investors, and the construction and real estate sectors more broadly, need to monitor changing policy landscapes to ensure they are ready to take advantage of new opportunities, the report said.

RICS is a global body for setting standards in property sector.

Chennai Realty get a Push for development in infra structure Growth: JLL

Chennai: Development of infrastructure projects like Metro rail and the economic upturn will have a positive impact on the residential, office and commercial real estate segments here, a senior Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL) official has said.

Real estate investment trusts (REITs) in India are expected to take off in a big manner only three or four years after they start operations, said Shankar Arumugham, national director-strategic consulting at JLL.

"Chennai is coming out of the unsold residential stock problem. The development of infrastructure like Metro-rail system will have a positive impact on the residential properties located along the rail route," he said.

According to him, nearly 50 per cent of the residential real estate projects are coming up in South Chennai whereas the contribution of North Chennai is minimal.

However, the absorption rate of properties is much better in north Chennai as compared to south Chennai, Mr Arumugham said.

He said the residential capital and rental values are set to go up.

Speaking of the commercial space, he said the demand is set to go up in the next few quarters in the city from the information technology (IT) sector and in special economic zones (SEZ).

On REIT, he said broadly the set-up is similar to a mutual fund.

According to Mr Arumugham, REITs and the proposed real estate law are set to bring in more professionalism into the sector.

He said REITs would take some years to pick up as investors would first have to understand the system and there will be some initial problems that needs sorting out.

Arumugham said even in overseas, REITs took off only after couple of years after their introduction.