Meet KP Singh, India's richest realty developer

Today he presides over closely held DLF Group, India's largest real estate developer with an estimated land bank of 3,000 acres in prime city locations. Singh, who owns 99.5% of parent DLF Universal with his family, is worth, by our reckoning, at least $5 billion. His showpiece: a busy, 10-mile-wide township called DLF City in Gurgaon,.... 

Commercial Real Estate Market in NCR is booming

The demand of commercial space in the National Capital Region (NCR) is evident from the hum of construction on hears in Gurgaon and Noida. 80 percent of this demand is derived from the booming IT sector with call centers and BPOs adding to the clamour. Lat year itself saw a 71 percent of Grade A office space being leased by IT and ITes corporate, 70 percent of which was leased in Gurgoan alone.

East Delhi gives Gurgaon a run for its money

Malls, malls and more malls-that seems to be the mantra as far as the National Capital Region's (NCR) realty outlook is concerned. And now it is the turn of the neighbourhood of East Delhi to steal the limelight from the suburbs of Noida and Gurgaon. The last few years have seen areas like Indirapuram, Vasundhara, Kaushambi and Vaishali emerge as retail havens. Today,...

Gurgaon’s commercial realty on the upswing

The economic boom in the country is having a beneficial impact in the real estate sector as well. There is bullishness especially in the commercial realty segment, and Gurgaon is leading from the front in this regard. In fact, the suburb accounts for the maximum number of transactions in the North, and of the 2.5 million sq ft of occupied office space in the NCR, about 70 per cent is in Gurgaon alone.

Softech Village in Gurgaon launched

The real estate division of consumer electronics giant Media Video Ltd, is launching a Rs 200 crore IT Park project called ‘Softech Village’ in Gurgaon. The park ‘Softech Village’ is scheduled be completed in 24 months. The project is at a strategic location on NH-8 Expressway and will offer around four lakh sq ft to IT and ITES firms seeking a foothold in India.

Residential realty update of Gurgaon

Gurgaon has been in the realty news for a few years now, and the boom still doesn’t seem to subside. As more and more projects liven up the Gurgaon horizon, it is no longer DLF that is the main player on the circuit. Numerous projects, residential as well as commercial, are in various stages of construction in this suburb of Delhi.

New horizons in Gurgaon

Gurgaon’s rocking realty reality is no longer a slave to upmarket colonies of New Gurgaon. People are now looking beyond the millennium city, and as per industry experts, the next destination for property buyers is the Gurgaon-Sohna road, on the Delhi-Jaipur highway.

Gurgaon Property News: Private Land Owners Get A Court Stay Against NHAI 

The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has been struggling hard to acquire Haryana Government’s land at Delhi-Gurgaon border for the construction of India’s biggest toll plaza on the Expressway on NH8. Private land owners have obtained a stay from the High Court banning NHAI from acquiring their land for the toll plaza. NHAI needs about 37,000 sq m land for the construction of a toll plaza near Haldiram. The other two toll plazas are to come up at the Delhi-Gurgaon border and at the IGI airport junction. Apart from the Haryana government’s land, two factories, which are already in operation, are under the required land acquisition limits. 

Gurgaon Property News: Media Videotech Buys 4 Realty Firms

In a bid to consolidate its land holdings around New Delhi, the realty division of Media Videotech has spent Rs 67 crore in acquiring four realty companies with big land holdings in the National Capital Region (NCR). The companies that are being acquired are Acacia Buildwell, VAlerian Property Developers and Beechtree Buildcon. These acquisitions will allow the compnay to gain control of Rs 200 crore, 4 lakh sq ft IT park project in Gurgaon. The company has also acquired another realty company, Smart Buildwell for a consideration of Rs 22 crore in an all cash deal. With this acquisition, Media Videotech will gain control of a Rs 160 crore residential township in Bhiwadi in the NCR, with a total saleable floor space of 1 mn sq ft. The housing project is at a prime location on the Bhiwadi-Alwar Road and will be targeted towards those working in and around Gurgaon as the demand for residential apartments in this region has risen sharply. 

Gurgaon Property News: Ansal Group Plans A $2.3 bn Township

Ansal Properties Group is planning to build a $2.3 bn integrated township near New Delhi. The real estate major while announcing its partnership venture, Faber Star Facilities Management Pvt Ltd with Malaysian Faber Group, Berhad to offer healthcare support and facility management to medical institutions in India said that it was in an advanced stage of securing necessary approvals. Mr Anil Kumar, chief executive officer, Ansal, said that their order book stood at more than Rs150 bn, with 75-80 pct of that for integrated townships or residential colonies in second-tier cities.

Gurgaon Property News: UK’s Cass School To Cash In On Realty Boom In India

The boom in India’s realty sector has had a fallout in the UK as well. London’s Cass School of Business is seeing a great degree of interest in its specialist masters programmes in property valuation and law, corporate real estate finance and strategy and real estate investment, from Indian students. They have about 1,200 students enrolled in the 22 masters programmes which start around September-October every year. Indian students form around 6-7 pct of the total number, which is quite high. From the last session, they have witnessed a great degree of interest among Indian students in their real estate specialised courses, which obviously reflects the property boom here. 

Gurgaon Property News: Retail Loan Boom Despite Tight Liquidity

The retail loan growth story continues despite rising interest rates and the liquidity squeeze being faced by banks. ICICI Bank, the most aggressive among all the banks riding a retail lending boom, has seen its retail portfolio grow by about 70 pct in 2005-06 so far. The country’s largest bank, State Bank of India (SBI), has seen retail loans playing a major role in its overall loan portfolio growth. The bank has, in fact, witnessed a 2 pct drop in the growth of its loans to top corporate. According to bankers, the retail loan segment is likely to end the year with around 40 pct growth against over 30 pct in the overall loan portfolio of the banking industry. Rising interest rates are still not acting as a deterrent for retail borrowers and several banks still have sizeable sanctions in place.

Gurgaon Property News: Realty Companies Choose A Bull Ride

The real estate bandwagon seems headed the Dalal Street way. With no signs of any slow down in the real estate boom and the stock market also set to scale new peaks, it’s the route real estate companies are taking to mobilise huge funds. None of them are going for private equity or venture capital. It is estimated that IPO and rights issues worth over Rs 5,000 cr are being planned by various real estate groups in the next 3 months. Most realty groups are, at the moment, busy with their financial advisors figuring out when and how to bring out the public issue. The Ansal Properties Group is looking at a rights issue of Rs 2,000 cr, Parsvnath Developers Ltd is coming out with an IPO of Rs 1,500 cr, Omaxe Group is looking at a Rs 1,000 cr issue, while Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Ltd is planning a Rs 100 cr IPO.

Gurgaon Property News: Home Loans Up Again

With interest rates on home loans curving up, EMIs will no longer be as easy to pay as they used to be. HDFC has set the ball rolling. HDFC chairman, Mr Deepak Parekh has said that it will increase the lending rate by 50 basis points or 0.5 pct, from April. Just last month it had hiked the rate by 50 basis points. For those who have already taken, say, a 20-year loan of Rs 1 lakh, the EMI at 7 pct is Rs 775. If the EMI remains unchanged, the repayment period will increase to nearly 22 years at 7.5 pct, to 24 years and 8 months at 8 pct, to 28 years and 11 months at 8.5 pct and a little over 38 years at 9 pct. However, some bankers believe that this increase is a temporary phenomenon and once liquidity improves, the rate will come down.