India Real Estate – Page 35

Pune Real Estate – The Calm Eye Of The Storm

Prashant Thakur, Head – Research, ANAROCK Property Consultants

Pune, known as an education hub and a prominent location for manufacturing industries, has evolved as an information technology hub during the last few decades.

Spread across 244 sq. km. and with a population of over 3 million, the city has rapidly transformed from a pensioner’s paradise to a bustling economic centre of India.

Well-connected to Mumbai – the financial capital of India – Pune is also well-networked to other major cities across the country, as well as the world.

In terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Pune is ranked 6th in the top 10 wealthiest cities in India and the second-highest in Maharashtra (after Mumbai) in terms of GDP contribution.

The major sectors contributing to the city’s growing economy include manufacturing, education, tourism, and culture. The Mercer 2017 Quality of Living Rankings evaluated living conditions in more than 440 cities across the world and ranked Pune at 145 – second in India after Hyderabad, which ranked 144.

As per the same ranking, Pune featured among evolving business centres and nine emerging cities around the world,

by Anuj Puri

Anuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants

All eyes were on the Finance Minister as he delivered his fifth full Union Budget – the last one before the general elections in 2019.

As expected, the budget turned out to be populist and sounded excessively cautious while the need of the hour was to provide a positive boost to the economy, which is reeling under the pressure of structural changes and policy reforms.

The Budget did not offer any substantial incentives to individual taxpayers, with slabs remaining constant. A change in the standard tax deduction in lieu of transport and medical expenses, which now stands at INR 40,000, was the only gift to the salaried class.

There was no change in tax savings on home loans, nor were the 80C limits raised. While this put paid to any hopes for significantly increased home buying appetite, there were some notable announcements with positive implications for the real estate sector:

The continued push for affordable housing

As many as 51 lakh houses in rural areas are to be built in 2018-19.

by Anuj Puri

Anuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants

With Union Budget 2018-19 just around the corner, the Indian real estate market waits with bated breath to see how it can potentially benefit.

In fact, it has never been a better time for aspiring homebuyers, as there is a more than generous stock of ready-to-move housing options across most Indian cities.

Ready properties are the pièce de résistance of 2018, not least of all because they are the most de-risked purchase proposition, do not attract GST and offer instant gratification. After all, owning a house is the culmination of almost every Indian’s lifetime efforts and aspirations.

The sense of security, achievement and social stature linked to home ownership is what has for long been driving the demand for – and supply of – residential developments across India. All major roads, railway stations and airports are flanked by hoarding advertising real estate projects.

With a massive urbanization rate of more than 30% (estimated to reach 40% by 2030), the demand for homes in India an assured long-term story in which chapters will continue to unfold.

However,

by Prashant Thakur

Prashant Thakur, Head – Research, ANAROCK Property Consultants

Pune, once known as a ‘pensioners paradise’, has transformed significantly over the past few years.

The booming IT/ITeS and manufacturing sectors led to a rapid makeover of the city, and working professionals from all parts of the country started flocking to Pune. The concentric development pattern of the city helped expansion in the suburbs and peripheral regions.

Undri and Ambegaon, located in South Pune, are in the process of becoming Pune’s next vibrant property boom areas over the next few years. More and more of Pune’s homebuyers now seek out residential destinations which still offer the unspoiled natural splendour and healthy environment which Pune was once famous for.

Such areas are increasingly hard to find in the face of the rampant real estate construction drive all over the city. The availability of large, contiguous land parcels for development in Undri and Ambegaon is another big advantage for the area, which for this reason lends itself particularly well to sizeable township projects.

This region’s history as far as real estate development is concerned is not very long.

by Prashant Thakur

Prashant Thakur, Head – Research, ANAROCK Property Consultants

Once a small village located on the eastern periphery of Pune and defined by industrial developments, Wagholi has now transformed into a sought-after residential destination.

The housing boom in Wagholi kicked off primarily on account of vast availability of land parcels at affordable prices, low registration costs and easy legal procedures, as it falls under a Gram Panchayat area. Wagholi and its nearby areas have also witnessed a rapid growth of IT parks and other commercial centres.

Over a decade ago, Wagholi was seen as little more than an extension of the city. However, it has interesting historical antecedents – Wagholi was the centre of the ruling chiefs of Chhatrapati Shivaji, and it’s very ancient Wagheshar (lord of tigers) temple is a popular tourist attraction.

Located on the Pune-Nagar highway, Wagholi has been under transformation since 2007. The region began developing primarily due to the saturation of core areas in Pune. In addition, the advent of the IT-ITeS industry in the eastern parts of the city drove up real estate activity here.

The major growth drivers that contributed to the development of Wagholi include the presence of affordable projects,

by Anuj Puri

Anuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants

Every year, the Union Budget presents the Government with an opportunity to tweak the direction that the Indian economy is taking. Sometimes, hard decisions are taken which, while necessary, do not necessarily go down well with Mr Everyman.

At other times, the Union Budget is clearly meant to be a crowd-pleaser. This invariably happens when an incumbent Government is finishing its term and general elections loom, for obvious reasons.

The current Government has done a lot for the Indian real estate industry, even when it was in the form of hard decisions like demonetization and the disruptive but very necessary RERA.

With the hard decisions now taken, the Indian real estate sector fervently hopes that it is at the receiving end of the benevolence implied in a populist budget. This benevolence needs to go beyond improving personal finances and the implied boost to real estate investment appetite.

Despite the Government’s very proactive stance towards cleaning up and regulating the sector, there are still several policy-related pain points where the coming Union Budget can make a decisive difference:

1.

by Anuj Puri

Anuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants

The Indian real estate sector evokes a lot of interest from NRI investors.

This interest is driven by long-term fundamentals such as emotional connect, safeguarding retirement plans, better returns and yield on investments, and depreciation in the rupee’s value.

While there are around 30 million NRIs across different countries, investment into Indian real estate is led by NRIs from UAE, USA and Saudi Arabia.

From 2000 to 2014, NRI investments in Indian real estate reached substantial levels ranging between 10-18% annually. However, when the residential market began to slow down in 2015, the NRI investment fervour into this asset class began to cool off a bit.

To top it off, there was a slew of reforms and policy changes such as demonetization, RERA and GST, the combined effect of these being a decrease in NRIs’ investment in the sector.

The highest impact was in the residential real estate market – which, for a long time, was the primary focus of NRI investors with their interest skewing towards apartments and villas, followed by plots and other property typologies.

by Prashant Thakur

By Pradeep Mohandas – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Old chimneys give way to swanky high-rises in Mumbai’s Queen of the Suburbs

Prashant Thakur, Head – Research, ANAROCK Property Consultants

It was known primarily as an industrial destination with the presence of companies such as RCF and BARC. Today, Chembur is transforming rapidly into a premium real estate destination of Mumbai, with industrial units, dilapidated slums and old buildings being replaced by modern high-rise towers.

The Mahul creek, home to thousands of flamingos migrating from Gujarat every year from November to June, was once a major international port of Mumbai. The once gigantic hills near Trombay were gradually razed for various reclamation works in the city.

Proximity to a previously operational port played a key role in Chembur’s development as one of Mumbai’s major industrial locations.

Subsequently, Chembur also saw the development of small housing colonies for the working population to reside in, and the micro market started evolving as a residential location. Also due to proximity to the port,

by Anuj Puri

Anuj Puri – Chairman, Anarock Property Consultants

At a time when technology is disrupting different industries across the world, the consumer-facing property brokerage industry cannot be far behind.

Real estate was among the first marketplaces in India to attract and justify professional brokerage services, and took off in earnest on the back of increasing need to connect renters and homebuyers with relevant suppliers.

Today, the real estate brokerage industry is on its next leg of evolution, leveraging technology as a competitive advantage. Indeed, technology is rapidly becoming the key differentiator for real estate consultants across market segments, especially the residential sector.

Getting ‘real’ – virtually

Let’s take a rather obvious example – that of ‘virtual tours’. Via this tech-enabled medium, real estate consultancies help prospective buyers, renters and investors to visually navigate the interiors of various properties on their computers or smartphones.

True, Indian residential property continues to be a ‘touch-and-feel’ marketplace in which personal site visits are more or less de rigueur.

However, providing customers with a virtual tour of various options,

by Anuj Puri

Anuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants

India has registered a historic improvement in latest ranking for Doing Business, released on 31st October by the World Bank.

In fact, it is one of the top ten improvers for the current year assessment, thanks to the implementation of key reforms pertinent to 8 out of the 10 indicators that World Bank factors in for this index.

With the overall ranking of India in the Ease of Doing Business jumping from the 130th to the 100th place compared to previous assessment, India is the only large country displaying such a significant improvement. How has real estate performed in this improvement? Actually, it’s a bit of a mixed bag.

India’s ranking for Dealing with Construction Permits has improved from 185 to 181, for Resolving Insolvency the improvement has been from 136 to 103, and for Paying Taxes from 172 to 119. However, on the parameter of Registering Property, it slipped 16 places from 138 to 154th.

The key reasons for the lower ranking in for this vital criterion when compared to other counties are the continuing multitude of procedures to follow and therefore more time developers have to spend in pursuing them.

Pune Real Estate – The Calm Eye Of The Storm

Budget 2018-19: Balanced But Not A Boon For Real Estate

The continued push for affordable housing

Will Budget 2018-19 Boost Ready-To-Move Property Absorption?

Undri-Ambegaon – Major Growth Areas With Pune’s Historic Charm

Pune’s Wagholi – From Industrial Area To Hot Residential Destination

6 Ways The Union Budget 2018-19 Can Bolster India Real Estate

How NRI Investors View Indian Real Estate Today

Chembur’s Fascinating Real Estate Transformation

The Impact Of Technology On The Future Of Real Estate Consultancy In India

Why Improved Ease of Doing Business Will Boost Real Estate Funding In India