Friday, January 4, 2019

CCB arrests Skyline MD for swindling apartment buyers

Avinash Prabhu The managing director of Skyline Construction and Housing Private Limited and Kalmane Koffees, was arrested by the Central Crime Branch (CCB), for swindling over 200 people to the tune of Rs 100 crore in sale of apartments. Avinash Prabhu was nabbed following a complaint filed by Christopher Regal, one of the victims, at the Hennur police station.

Considering the magnitude of the case, the city police commissioner T Suneel Kumar, handed over the investigation to the Central Crime Branch (CCB). Prabhu, along with his brother Dhiraj, floated many under-construction apartments, namely Skyline Aurora 100, Skyline Retreat 87, Skyline Ocatia, Skyline Villa Maria, Skyline Waterfront, Skyline Blueberry and Best House in Mangaluru. The accused had taken nearly 90% of the amount in advance, but, never handed over the apartments to the buyers.

The accused had taken money from potential apartment buyers, but, left the construction work midway, said a senior police officer. The amount received was then invested in 11 coffee outlets across the city. The accused made huge returns from their investment in the coffee outlets, and were leading a lavish life, said the police officer. The police also seized Prabhu's Range Rover and Audi. 15 bank accounts of Prabhu's in various banks were frozen henceforth. Preliminary investigation revealed that Prabhu has purchased five acres of land in Kengeri,three acres in Allalasandra, three acres in Hennur, seven acres of land in Kanakapura and 8.5 acres of land in Mangaluru. He also purchased property in and around the state, and also in Chennai, the officer said.

However, Prabhu's brother Dhiraj Prabhu, managed to escape soon after the arrest of his brother. Efforts are on to trace him.

Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/city/ccb-arrests-skyline-md-711296.html

Friday, November 9, 2018

Shriram Properties raises Rs 125 crore from LIC Housing's arm for Bengaluru Project




Shriram Properties has raised Rs 125 crore from non-banking financial arm of LIC Housing Finance to develop a residential project in Bengaluru.

The funds will be used to construct Shriram Greenfield, a two-million sqft residential project being developed across two phases in Whitefield, Bengaluru.

The company has so far sold more than 75% of the inventory in the first and second phases. "The fund is being used to replace one of the existing investment with lower interest rate, said two people with direct knowledge of the transaction.

"The company recently gave exit to real estate private equity fund Motilal Oswal Real Estate from the above project, with a nearly two-fold return in less than four years," said one of the person quoted above.

Private equity major TPG Capital and Starwood Capital-backed real estate developer Shriram Properties has in the past given exits to funds such as Ask Group, Sun Apollo and ICICI Prudentials with higher returns.

"The builder is working on some more exits which is expected to be completed over the coming quarter. So far the firm has received private equity investments worth $600 million, including project and entity level investments," he added.

Some of the key investors in the company includes including TPG Capital, Starwood Capital, Walton Street Capital and Tata Capital that together hold around 60% equity in the company. These institutional investors had cumulatively invested total $270 million in the company between 2008 and 2014.

Shriram Properties is planning to raise about Rs 1,500 crore through its onitial public offering. The Bengaluru-based developer's maiden share sale is expected to be concluded by March of 2019.

Shriram Properties is focussed on mid-income and affordable housing and has total 61.64 million sqft of projects currently under construction and in pipeline across 38 projects.

Sobia Khan, Economic Times, Bengaluru.

For More Info Visit : https://content.magicbricks.com/property-news/bangalore-real-estate-news/shriram-properties-raises-rs-125-crore-from-lic-housings-arm-for-bengaluru-project/102704.html

Thursday, January 11, 2018

Prices drop to 3% in big cities – Residential real estate sector

The Indian residential market is showing a "price crack" for the first time in many years. In other words, prices have fallen in the second half of 2017 by a weighted average of 3 per cent across cities versus the year-ago period, property consultancy Knight Frank said in a new report. 

Prices in Pune declined the maximum at 7.3 per cent, followed by Mumbai (5 per cent), Bangalore (5 per cent), Kolkata (5 per cent), Chennai (3 per cent), and NCR (2 per cent). Only markets that have ready to move inventory such as Hyderabad and Ahmedabad saw prices firming up 3 per cent and 2 per cent respectively. The prices of assets in most of the cities have dipped while consumer price inflation (CPI) has risen.   

The softness in pricing reflects the stress in the residential real estate sector of the country. The lingering impact of demonetisation, the enforcement of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA), and the trust deficit in developers has all derailed the market.

According to data from Knight Frank, housing launches in 2017 crashed 41 per cent to 1,03,570 units versus 2016. This is down 78 per cent from the peak of 4,80,000 units launched in 2010. Declines have been sharper in NCR at 56 per cent in 2017. 

Housing units sold pan India in 2017 dropped 7 per cent to 2,28,072 units compared to 2016 and declined 38 per cent since the peak in 2011.   

On the positive side, unsold inventory dropped 19 per cent to 5,28,494 housing units. Mudassir Zaidi, Executive Director - North at Knight Frank said that 60-65 per cent buyers used to be short-term ones - or speculators. They have vacated the market. This implies that the market is moving towards end users.

Zaidi, however, doesn't expect a V-shaped correction. The recovery in residential real estate will be slow. The report also added that the "the long awaited drop in prices is a healthy step toward market recovery as this along with other measures such as reduction in unit sizes across cities will boost home-buyer affordability". 


Sunday, September 24, 2017

KARNATAKA RERA RULES - NEED TO UNDERSTAND

KARNATAKA RERA RULES (the “Rules”):
# POINT 1: Benefits to the Allottees
RERA Act defines allottees as people to whom units have been allotted by the Promoter.
RERA Rules added to this, associations which represent such allottees collectively. The option for the allottee to be represented by the association will definitely reduce the number of individual complaints and thereby facilitate speedy disposal of grievances.
# POINT 2: Project Details
RERA Act asks for certain information related to the Project.
In RERA Rules, there are additional documents asked for such as annual report, the number of parking slots, conversion order, change of land use order, joint development details, sanctioned plan, its specifications etc.; to ensure that the project complies with statutory norms.
# POINT 3: Requirements for Ongoing projects
RERA Act categorically states that registration is required for all ongoing projects where completion certificates are yet to be issued.
RERA Rules made the definition of ongoing projects broader by excluding projects like:
· Layouts where streets and civic amenities have been handed over to the local/planning authorities;
· Apartments where common area and facilities have been handed over to the Owner’s registered Association;
· Sixty percent of the apartment/villas/sites in the project is registered in the name of individual owners;
· Application for issue of Completion Certificate/Occupancy Certificate has been submitted to the concerned authority;
· For the extent to which partial occupancy certificate has already been issued.

# POINT 4: Prior consent to be taken from Allottees
RERA Act has specified that prior consent of a minimum two-third majority of allottees needs to be obtained before making any alteration in the project.
RERA Rules has brought in the below exemptions:
· If the proposed plan is disclosed to the allottee under the Agreement before registration;
· If it complies with the order issued by the competent authority.
These exemptions provide clarity and are required to reduce the piles of complaints to the authority.
# POINT 5: Separate Bank Account
RERA Act stipulates that the promoters shall deposit seventy percent of the amount received from the allottees in a separate bank account towards land and construction costs.
Under RERA Rules, the Karnataka Government has gone ahead to ensure that the money deposited by allottees are not misused, by stipulating that the promoter deposit 100 percent of the money received if the received amount is less than the estimated Project cost.
# POINT 6: Interest Rate
RERA Act has made the interest rate same and equal for the promoters and buyers.
Karnataka RERA Rules has also fixed the rate of interest payable by the promoter and the allottee to be the highest lending rate of State Bank of India plus additional two percent. Also, the timeline of sixty days is fixed for the refund from the due date.
# POINT 7: Built-up Area
RERA Act has directed that the Promoters show the actual carpet area for the unit being sold to the buyer.
RERA Rules clarifies that in case the agreement is already made between the promoter and the allottee wherein super built up area is shown, the promoter is still responsible for disclosing the carpet area, which shall not have any impact on the legal validity of the Agreement.
# POINT 8: Agreement for Sale
It has always been a common complaint of buyers that the Agreement for Sale is always one sided, favoring the Promoters and often the Promoters refuse to make any alterations which jeopardize the interests of a buyer.
Keeping the above in mind, RERA Act has put the responsibility on the State Government to frame the forms and the particulars of the Agreement for Sale, which shall be binding on the Promoters. The intent of bringing the Performa in place will restrict the arbitrary practices by any Promoter.
However, it looks like Karnataka has missed out on this crucial point; the notification of RERA Rules does not contain any such Performa of Agreement for Sale.
Once the Karnataka Government starts implementing the RERA Rules, the real estate market will soon become a safe place for investment for buyers as well as investors.

Thursday, February 16, 2017

A Positive Sigh Towards Bangalore Real Estate

Bengaluru maintained its positive mood through the post-demonetisation phase. Like any other cities the realty market took a step back in the last quarter of the year 2016. However, transactions are getting back to normalcy. One of the reputed developers even mentioned that sales transactions have already achieved 60 percent of the pre-November levels.

There has been a marginal growth in property prices (0.51%) in the month of November. A spike in buyer demand and residential supply was also noticed. The demand that has been recorded is a whopping 4 percent while the supply is 1.6 percent.

What has led to the demand? A number of reasons. Unlike the Delhi NCR market which depends heavily upon cash transactions, Bengaluru market has predominantly been transparent and cash transactions are comparatively lesser. Driven largely by the salaried class in the IT and ITeS sector, the market is more end-user/consumer centric, dealing primarily through banking channels. This could be on the leading reasons behind the upbeat mood of buyers.

Approximately, 70 percent demand is coming from new buyers living on rental accommodation. To encourage the demand, developers have started yielding 2-3 percent discount as well in the market. The move will clear the existing inventory and make space for new projects.

The growth in supply has been aided by government initiatives as well. Very recently, the Bangalore Development Authority has indicated that banning all commercial developments in the heart of the city and moving employment zones to the outskirts. This will cater to the burgeoning demand as city limits will expand and developers will have more land to build.

The Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board has planned a number of sector-specific SEZs in the vicinity of the airport at Devanahalli. Surrounding localities of Devanahalli, Doddajala and Chikkajala have undergone a transformation from a rural landscape to an urban hotspot for their sheer proximity to the airport. Nagavara, Jalahalli and Abbigere have seen a spurt in residential property with a number of residents moving into their homes within self-contained townships.

The state government has contributed to the positive vibe of the city through efforts such as Akrama-Sakarama Scheme. The BBMP has come start the online application process from the second week of January where property owners can use the one-time regularisation of up to 50 percent setback and FSI violations in case of residential constructions.

Apart from the scheme, the BBMP is will take corrective action against 1.53 lakh unauthorized buildings/sites. The body will assess the extent of building bylaws and other types of violations in the city.

The city’s realty landscape seems healthy. The year 2017 could bring cheer to the developers and consumers.

Read More At :
http://content.magicbricks.com/property-news/bangalore-real-estate-news/bangalore-real-estate-market-seems-positive/90312.html

Sunday, July 3, 2016

Why is excess investment in real estate not the best choice?

Manisha Kumar is stuck with her investments. She is in her early 40s and works for a bank. The lure of getting loans easily and at good rates has led her to invest in not one or two, but three houses. She lives in a flat with her family, and has also invested in a smaller flat. A few years ago, she booked another flat in the outskirts of the city. It is the third flat that is causing her heartburn now, as it is lying vacant and earning no income. Should she sell it?



Kumar should know that too much of something can be bad in the long run. Property is not the best investment option, since it involves large amounts of money and comes with the risk of time and cost overruns. Paying too much EMI will also leave too little for building other assets that can diversify the portfolio. The only advantage Manisha has is her age. If she gives herself the next 10 years to rebuild her wealth, she will be able to recoup the cost of selling the third flat at a loss. She will be able to recoup the cost of selling the third flat at a loss. She will also be able to unlock the money that is sunk in the flat, and deploy it in financial assets like equity, which have the potential of appreciating over the long run. Freedom from EMIs will also enable her to start SIPs to augment her savings.

Liquidating an asset at a loss is a tough choice to make, especially when ideas about recovery are ever present.  Kumar should only focus on the fact that the asset is not earning anything for her, and that it might prove to be difficult to sell in parts, if the need arises. In the interest of higher financial flexibility, access when needed, ability to take a loan against the asset during an emergency, and ease of transacting for a fair price, she should liquidate at a loss and channel her money into other assets. The presence of a black market, and the legal and tax issues involved, and the paperwork, make real estate a sub-optimal choice, especially for someone like Kumar, who already owns two properties.

The content on this page is courtesy Centre for Investment Education and Learning (CIEL). Contributions by Girija Gadre, Arti Bhargava and Labdhi Mehta.

Read more at:

Friday, December 18, 2015

REAL ESTATE MISCONCEPTIONS

REAL ESTATE MISCONCEPTIONS:


1) LOOK FOR RIGHT TIME TO ENTER IN THE REAL ESTATE MARKET: This is one of the misconception emerging now a days for investing in real estate. There is no best time to invest into real estate market, waiting for the right time can result in losing out the best opportunity in market.

2) Investing in real estate market sometimes consider as a risky game.

3) BIG BUILDERS ALWAYS DELIVER THE BEST: There are so many numerous builders in market, who don’t have any big fame name in the market. But, yet though they always delivered the best.

4) DEVELOPERS DELAYED PROJECTS MASKS: One of the most complaints now a days are delayed projects by the builders. It’s not like that “A professional builder/developer will do everything to ensure timely completion of projects”.


5) I SHOULDN'T BORROW TO BUY A PROPERTY: Do not feel guilty or bad about borrowing. To reiterate, world’s greatest fortunes are built upon borrowed money.  Don’t be conservative about taking a bank loan or from a friend.

Pingates