Don’t Be A Victim Of Real Estate Investing, What You Need To Know?

Over the past few decades, real estate has delivered higher compounded returns than other investments. So why isn’t everyone taking all their money and putting it into a Bangalore apartment, a Pune commercial property, or a real estate fund? Because the returns might look attractive, but the process of finding the right investments is complex. There are many moving parts, and regular investors are not equipped with enough time or information to understand the details and identify the best opportunities.

This explains why for every person who seems to have made a retirement-worthy fortune from a real estate investment, there seems to be another person with burnt fingers, left unhappy and disillusioned with this asset class. At best, these bad experiences range from the hassle of paperwork and red-tape to sub-par returns and project delays, at worst they can be victim to project failures, market crashes, or even scams.

The fact remains that real estate is one of the most lucrative asset classes in the current market environment, and seems to be getting stronger and stronger. So here’s a primer on the basic risks every investor needs to be aware of before investing in real estate, and some tips on how to minimize those risks and not become a victim of a poor investment.

Market Risk: The real estate market is more stable than the stock market, and in the long term tends to pay off handsomely, but it is not immune to periodic shocks. More importantly, there is a huge level of variation within the market and a wide range of outcomes between the winners and losers. Real estate is all about location, specifications, pricing, and execution, and investors rarely have much insight beyond their immediate location.

What you can do: It is not easy to access enough information such that an informed choice can be made. But finding the players who have such information and a proven track record of high returns is not very difficult. So find an investment management firm that has strong market experience, highly selective curation, and a track record of several years of consistently good returns.

Financial Risk: Real estate is one of the most capital-intensive industries, and a lot of the risk associated with these highly-profitable projects has to do with the availability of the right amount of capital at the right time. This is seldom easy. The market itself can face a liquidity crunch and there are structural risks in how the capital is deployed by the developer.

What you can do: Any firm through which you choose to invest in real estate must have the financial expertise of a large PE fund and be capable of structuring their capital optimally and eking out every last bit of returns to ensure your money is working for you in the most lucrative and secure way possible.

Legal Risk: Real estate projects are complex in the sheer number of permissions, statutory approvals, and licenses required from a variety of government agencies. Given the elaborate checklist of clearances involved, projects often run into roadblocks, delays, and in the worst case, cancellations, after they are well underway, because of regulatory and legal issues.

What you can do: Make sure you invest only in projects driven by firms with legal expertise and a strong history of successful and rigorous due-diligence. Today, there are even firms that handle the entire paper-work process on your behalf and give you a completely turn-key and hassle-free experience that allows you to rake in the returns from the comfort of your living room.

Project Risk: These are immense undertakings, requiring a high degree of expertise right from the planning, design and pre-construction phases, through the actual construction and then to sales. Spanning many years, these investments return rich dividends, but require liquidity, stability, and risk management. Failing strong execution competence, projects can run over-budget, or not meet design specifications or timelines, either due to internal or external factors. All of these reduce the value of the project.

What you can do: The importance of choosing an experienced developer cannot be overstated. The easiest way to do this is to invest through an investment manager who does this curation for you.

The bottom line

Real estate investing isn’t easy. Fortunately, it’s getting easier and easier due to new types of investment funds that create highly curated portfolios of real estate opportunities. Whether it is Blackstone and its REIT with Embassy that offers steady cash flows, albeit with modest returns, or funds such as through SmartOwner, where you get a high-return opportunity by investing in new developments, the degree of transparency and ease of investment is at an all-time high today. In transactions, more access to information, more consolidated and professional management, and a slate of new technology-driven firms that offer a paradigm shift in the way we invest in real estate, are combining together to make it easy for you to profit from the world’s largest asset class.

DLF transfers Noida mall to its subsidiary for Rs 2,950 crore

IIT Roorkee resubmits environmental plan for Ghaziabad

GHAZIABAD: IIT Roorkee which was hired by Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) to prepare an environmental plan for the city has submitted its report to the development authority. The report has been sent to UP Pollution Board to ascertain its viability because the earlier report which IIT Roorkee had submitted was rejected by the board saying it was ‘un-implementable.’

The content of report however was not divulged by either GDA or the board saying that it is being assessed and only after that it would be released officially.

“Even though we are the nodal agency and we hired IIT Roorkee to prepare environmental plan for the city, it is UP Pollution Board which has the expertise to assess it and so we have forwarded it to them,” said Ishtiaq Ahmed, chief architect and town planner, GDA. The pollution board official on the other hand first feigned ignorance of the report, but later said that they are still going through it.

Residential property prices may rise in second half of this financial year

Residential property prices across India’s major markets are expected to rise in the second half of this financial year as sales momentum is expected to pick up pace with an increase in demand. 

The downtrend in prices was arrested with some markets witnessing an increase in demand. “In the past five years, bigger residential markets like Delhi-NCR (National Capital Region) and Bengaluru saw a marginal dip in average property prices while Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad witnessed 2-3% rise in average prices, said a recent report by 360 Realtors.

“By the middle of FY 2020, market sentiments are expected to further change with acceleration in price growth. As demand will spiral upwards, prices will rise,” said the report.

Gaurs Group to invest Rs 350 crore in a residential project at Yamuna Expressway

Gaurs Group will invest Rs 350 crore in its residential project Gaurs Runway Suites situated at Yamuna Expressway, the company said in a media release.

Manoj Gaur, MD, Gaurs Group said, “The project cost has been funded through internal accruals.”

According to UPRERA's website, the company plans to complete the project by February 2027. It will have 828 commercial studio apartments with price starting from Rs 15.49 lakh.

The company recently announced that it had raised Rs 500 crore from Kotak Mahindra group for faster execution of its two projects at Noida Extension.

Muthoot Homefin to raise Rs 300 crore via debentures

Housing finance company Muthoot Homefin Friday said it will raise up to Rs 300 crore through issue of debentures. The base size of the issue is Rs 150 crore, with an option to retain over subscription of a similar amount, aggregating up to Rs 300 crore. 

"Muthoot Homefin (India) Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Muthoot Finance, is proposing a public issue of up to Rs 300 crore by issuing secured redeemable non-convertible debentures (NCDs) of the face value of Rs 1,000 each," the company said in a statement. 

The issue will open for subscription on April 8, and is scheduled to close on May 7, 2019, with an option of early closure, and/or extension, it added. 

The NCDs would have a tenure are 2, 3.2, 5 and 7.5 years, with monthly or annual interest payment frequency or on maturity redemption payments with effective ranging from 9.25 per cent to 10 per cent. 

Residential sales jump 58% on year in January-March, launches up 91%

Defying previous election year trends when sales and new launches remained muted during this period, the first quarter of 2019 has witnessed both housing sales and new supply rise driven by several measures by the government including sops offered in the interim budget, GST rate cuts and lowering of home loan rates post the Reserve Bank of India’s recent repo rate cut.

Residential property sales rose 58% from a year ago to 78,520 apartments during the quarter ended March across top 7 cities. The jump in sales was led by Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Pune and Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) with an increase of over 95%, 80% and 52%, respectively, showed data from ANAROCK Property 

Property registration up by 10% in Indore

District stamp and registrar department has witnessed a surge of around 10 per cent in number of property registrations due to increasing demands in affordable housing segment. Still, local office is expected to fall short of around Rs 200 crore from its annual target of Rs 1340 crore.

This financial year, local stamp and registrar department has witnessed number of property registrations crossing the 95,000 mark and with still five days remaining, the figure is expected to cross one lakh for the first time. “The department had a target of Rs 1340 crore for 2018-19. We have collected around Rs 1090 crore revenue through property registrations,” senior district registrar BK More told TOI.

Only 39% of 79 lakh PMAY homes built so far: Report

With only 39 per cent of the homes sanctioned under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana built so far, completion of affordable housing projects under the PMAY has been slow, according to an Anarock report on Sunday.

"Progress under the PMAY has been slow. As of now, we're not looking at realistic completion of the targeted number of homes. As per the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, out of the 79 lakh homes sanctioned under the PMAY so far, only around 39 per cent have either been completed or occupied," it said. 

"The gap is too big to ignore," the report said.

Share market update: Realty shares bullish; Indiabulls Real Estate surges 8%

NEW DELHI: Realty shares were trading higher in Tuesday's morning session. 

Shares of Indiabulls Real Estate (up 8.24 per cent), DLFNSE -1.14 % (up 5.00 per cent), Sunteck RealtyNSE 0.98 % (up 4.51 per cent) and Brigade Enterprises (up 3.14 per cent) were trading with gains. 

Sobha (up 2.17 per cent), Oberoi Realty (up 2.10 per cent), Prestige Estates Projects (up 2.07 per cent) and Godrej Properties (up 1.97 per cent) too were trading in the green. 

Home buyers want to take over debt-laden property developers

Staff cooperatives have already registered their presence in the list of potential acquirers of Indian companies put into administration. 

In a first, homebuyers are now seeking to take over property developers sunk in debt, claiming they have the biggest at stake in projects where the bulk of their savings are stuck.

An association of apartment buyers has submitted a resolution plan to revive a Delhi-based builder, Kindle Developers, which failed to deliver homes in Noida after accepting payments from flat buyers. 

The move comes after Parliament passed in August an amendment to the bankruptcy bill, allowing homebuyers to be treated on a par with secured financial creditors.

Noida sector 51 residents complain over illegal possession of vacant plots

Residents of Sector 51 are finding themselves unable to get the attention of the authorities on the problem of encroachment on vacant plots of the sector by local villagers. 

Despite the Allahabad high court ordering the removal of the illegal structures in 2015, the residents say squatters are increasing with each passing day.

“Make-shift structures have popped up near the VDS (village development scheme) market due to upcoming metro station. We’ve requested senior officials of Noida Authority to look into the matter and remove the said encroachments, mostly by residents of adjacent Hoshiyarpur village, immediately,” RWA secretary Sanjeev Kumar told TOI.

With GST rate cut, you have another reason to buy a home

Demand for residential properties is expected to receive a major boost following the government’s decision to cut the goods & services tax (GST) rates for under construction projects to 5% from effective rate of 12%. In a major push to stated objective of ‘Housing For All by 2022’, the government has reduced GST to marginal 1% for affordable housing while revising the definition of such homes.

Prior to this, under-construction residential properties attracted rate of 18% and effective rate of 12% after factoring one-third abatement for the value of land. The effective GST rate for affordable housing was 8%. Ready properties that have received occupancy certificate (OC) do not attract GST.

GST relief for realty sector coming: Piyush Goyal

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said the government is considering giving relief to the real estate sector and the next GST Council meeting could take some steps to address their issues even as he asked the banks to meet the realty sector on stalled projects in two weeks. 

At the industry body CREDAI event here, he also advised the realty sector to sell off inventory even in the current pricing about which the realtors complain as being low. Goyal has been asking banks to setup lending to the housing sectors.

Government gears up to woo angry homebuyers

After months of protest and agitations from aggrieved home-buyers, especially in Delhi-NCR, the Centre has finally sprung to action. The government’s plans to fast-track the completion of thousands of homes left incomplete due to the failure of errant real estate developers comes even some affected customers in Noida and Greater Noida threaten them with no votes if grievances aren’t addressed.

“There is some movement… the attempt is to give relief to home buyers. The ministry is in talks with NBCC. However there has to be some procedure for that and the ministry has already asked NBCC for a quotation,” a senior official in Ministry of Urban Development told this publication.

2019: a propitious year for the real estate market

The year 2018 has been a resuscitating year for real estate in our country. Housing sales have shown an emergence in its sales with the preoccupation of the real estate players on the completion of projects. The implementation of the subsidies under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) this year has also brought about some trends the market including Affordable Housing, Co-working, etc.

This helped in the improvement of transparency and accountability in the sector by restoring faith in the market. Although there is a delay in according an 'industry status' to the real estate sector, but anticipations are high from 2019 with the upcoming budget, infrastructural development and new metro lines to bring about favourable changes in the sector.

New metro rail line to boost housing demand in Noida, Greater Noida: Real estate developers.

Housing demand and prices may rise in Noida as well as Greater Noida with the launch of a new metro rail service, linking the twin-cities in western Uttar Pradesh, according to real estate developers and consultants. The new metro rail service, called Aqua line, runs through 21 stations -- 15 of them in Noida and six in Greater Noida -- and covers a distance of 29.7 km. 

"The upgrading of infrastructure due to metro connectivity is expected to help in spurring the demand for residential.

Around 40,00 flats to be delivered this year in Noida: UP-RERA

At least 40,000 flats in Noida and Greater Noida are set to be delivered in 2019, officials at the Uttar Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority (UP-Rera) have said. 

They have arrived at the figure after carrying out a series of inspections of housing projects last month.

Most of these projects are registered with the regulatory body and are in their final stages of completion. In their review last month, the Rera teams had examined nearly 50,000 flats, of which 40,000 are at various stages of completetion and are likely to be delivered this year.

UP Government Approves Rs. 1,260 Crore For Jewar Airport Land Acquisition

WTC Noida CBD: Know About Noida’s Most-Sought After Commercial Property

After the roaring success of WTC Chandigarh, WTC GIFT Gujarat, and WTC Noida, the developer is coming up with another lucrative WTC branded IT/ITES project. Located in Sector 132, Noida, WTC Noida is set to launch another commercial office space project, WTC Noida CBD, that will change the face of the area.

Festive season fails to cheer realty sector, but NCR builders not disappointed

Hit hard by the slowdown in the market as well as various policy reforms for some time now, the real estate sector was betting big on this year’s festive season for revival of fortunes. However, as per market sources, the realty market failed to record sales as expected and also no significant change was noted in the number of inquiries seen during this festive season – although this varies from city to city and region to region.

Supertech grants occupancy certificate to its 1260 flats in Eco Village-1

The Greater Noida Development Authority has granted a nod to Real estate group Supertech Limited for 1260 flats under its Eco Village-1 project. Occupancy certificate have been granted to 13 towers under this project by the Authority. The project has approximately 8,000 flats where occupancy certificate is being granted phase wise, company chairman R K Arora said here.

PM may open Gr Noida metro line on Christmas

PM may open Gr Noida metro line on Christmas","NOIDA/GHAZIABAD: Nearly a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to Noida to inaugurate the Botanical Garden-Kalindi Kunj stretch on December 25, the UP government is hoping to get the PM visit the city again.
This time, the effort is to have the PM inaugurate the extension of the Rithala-Dilshad Garden metro corridor to New Bus Adda and open the Noida-Greater Noida metro line (Aqua Line).
Currently, the two corridors are undergoing extensive trials, with both awaiting final inspection by the commissioner of metro rail safety (CMRS).

Supertech plans to monetise 1 million sq ft retail space in Noida for Rs 1,200 crore

Realty firm Supertech plans to raise about Rs 1,200 crore by monetising its 1 million sq ft retail space in a mixed-use project at Noida, a top company official said. 

The company is in advanced stages of talks with some private equity players to sell retail space in the Supernova project, its Chairman R K Arora.

BJP Lawmaker Mangal Prabhat Lodha Is India's Richest Realtor. See Top 5

Mangal Prabhat Lodha, the founder of Lodha Group and a lawmaker of the ruling BJP, has become the nation's richest real estate developer after the company's sales increased 22 per cent. Lodha's wealth is estimated at Rs. 27,150 crore ($3.8 billion), according to the GROHE Hurun India Real Estate Rich List. Lodha, who started the real estate business three decades ago in Mumbai, is constructing the 75-story Trump Tower in the commercial capital.

Delhi pollution turns ‘severe’, authorities ban construction, look to regulate private vehicles

Delhi’s air quality turned ‘severe’ on October 30, 2018, for the first time this season, with stubble burning intensifying in neighbouring states, authorities said. The overall Air Quality Index (AQI) was 401, falling in the ‘severe’ category, the highest this season, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) officials said. The centre-run System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) recorded the AQI at 410.

Making home owners creditors under IBC may not solve the problem: View

Hero Realty forays into NCR; to invest Rs 900 crore in housing project on Dwarka Expressway