Several localities in Chennai now offer homebuyers the option to walk or cycle to work or significantly reduce their daily commute time.
Category: Real Estate Tips
Shajai Jacob, CEO – GCC (Middle East) – ANAROCK Property Consultants
- NRI investments into Indian real estate are led Indian expatriates from UAE, USA, UK, and Canada
- Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and Delhi-NCR currently attract the lion’s share of NRI investments
- Equities score higher than real estate on capital appreciation, but residential property comes with the benefit of rental yield, relatively lower risk and considerable tax benefits
Riding on a wave of economic reforms, improving transparency and better governance, foreign investments in Indian real estate are set to scale new heights.
With laws now allowing 100% FDI (foreign direct investment) in construction development and REITs now in place for commercial real estate, the Indian real estate industry will see increasing investment infusions from NRIs (non-resident Indians).
According to a World Bank report, India received USD 79 billion in remittances in 2018 – with a sizeable portion going into real estate.
NRI investments into Indian real estate are led Indian expatriates from UAE, USA, UK, and Canada. In terms of Indian cities,
Santhosh Kumar, Vice Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants
By what seems like a cruel twist of fate, the grounding of the country’s largest airline coincided with provisional construction approval for India’s largest (by surface area) airport at Jewar in Noida.
It may be recalled that the Allahabad court dismissed petitions filed by farmers and gave in-principle approval to commence the construction of Jewar International Airport, which is estimated to be built at a cost of USD 3.1 bn.
Naturally, the expectation is that just like any mega infrastructure project, this greenfield airport will give a major boost to the overall economic activity around Noida and Greater Noida region. Let’s take a closer look.
Economic Impact Of Jewar International Airport
Once completed, Jewar International Airport will not only ease traffic at Delhi’s IGI Airport but also create multiple job opportunities and give decent impetus to the property market in Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway.
These markets have been reeling under tremendous pressure over the last three to four years, and require a fresh injection of opportunity and intent to overcome this slump.
Anuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants
After zeroing on a property, buyers need to identify a suitable home loan lender to fulfil their financial needs.
Officially, there are two major lenders in the market – banks (including both public and private banks) and the housing finance companies (HFCs).
To get the best deal, a buyer must select a lender depending on their prevailing interest rates, eligibility criteria, processing fee and other factors.
Both banks and HFCs have their own pros and cons. Here are some advice and guidelines for taking a home loan in India.
Banks vs HFCs: Which is the better option?
Declaring an outright ‘winner’ among the two options is indeed difficult. Earlier, the steep interest rates of HFCs gave banks an edge.
However, now there is a parity between the two as most HFCs offer loans at rates within 8.6%-11.2%, while banks offer loans at 8.3%-10.5%. The gap has significantly reduced and buyers may now consider either option.
Eligibility criteria & process:
Rising NPAs over the past years have compelled banks to follow stricter norms for lending.
Santhosh Kumar, Vice Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants
- Don’t expect all available options to be available online
- The ‘hidden’ costs of renting a home
- The elements of a sound rental agreement
The Government’s much-touted aim to deliver Housing for All by 2022 may not have met with spectacular success in terms of on-ground deployment, but it was certainly a very effective electoral promise. Housing is a sensitive subject in India, precisely because so many people don’t have it. Such an electoral promise was bound to draw attention – and hope.
Providing a self-owned home to every Indian household in the promised timeline seems unlikely. Building enough dedicated rental housing and backing it with a sound rental housing policy could have brought this electoral promise closer to its goal. However, there has been little progress on this front beyond the discussion stage, either.
While a large number of Indians do hope to live in self-owned homes someday, renting homes is still the default option for many. For some, rental housing is seen as a temporary measure until the dream of homeownership is fulfilled.
Anuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants
Home loans are paid in instalments which are commonly known as Equated Monthly Instalments (EMI). These are fixed amount which is expected to be paid by the borrower to the bank every month as a part of loan repayment.
A bank considers a home loan to be in default when the borrower fails to make a payment and is behind by 90 days. In such a case, the borrower would have missed 3 payments of EMI.
When the home loan is in default, banks do not seize the assets of the borrowers immediately. They send a notice to the borrower stating that the EMI payment has been missed and strict action will be taken in this regard.
Banks are ready to understand the various reasons behind non-payment of the EMIs, which might include financial crisis, accident, etc. if the borrower approaches the bank with an explanation.
Once the reason is conveyed by the borrower or is otherwise evident to the lender, the bank restructures the EMI and extends the loan tenure on the request of the borrower.
Anuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants
When it comes to Indian real estate, the topic of NRI investments is pretty much an evergreen one. The fact that Indian developers had, in the past, launched and marketed projects with an almost exclusive eye on NRI customers is certainly no secret.
There were many reasons for this, but the primary one was that NRIs – especially NRIs based in the Gulf and the US – were seen as cash cows with more money than sense.
Time has proved this theory erroneous. NRIs are among the savviest property investors on the Indian market today. This is amply demonstrated by how adroitly they have gauged the new investment trends on the Indian real estate market.
For a long time, the returns on investments that NRIs could get on residential assets were extremely rewarding, considering the significant capital appreciation whilst the rental yields have always been low.
However, during the last couple of years, the market slowdown resulted in capital appreciation on residential assets no longer being as per NRI investors’ expectations.
In the current market conditions,
Anuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants
Across the globe, 5th June is celebrated as World Environment Day, which is the principal platform of the United Nation to create more awareness and action towards protecting Earth’s environment. This day has a very special significance for the real estate sector
Over the past few decades, fast-paced economic development coupled with rapid population growth and urbanization has led to a rapid depletion of natural resources.
The accelerated rate of resource consumption and rise in greenhouse gases’ emission has resulted in significant environmental degradation. This has, in turn, resulted in climate change, the rise in average temperature and deterioration of air quality.
The building sector is one of the major consumers of natural resources such as water, energy and other raw materials. It generates a large number of wastes and pollutants during the three phases of its life cycle – construction, maintenance and deconstruction.
As per estimates, the construction sector consumes an approximate 25% of water and 35-40% energy, apart from other raw materials. Additionally, it emits 40% of global wastes and 35% of greenhouse gases.
Santhosh Kumar, Vice Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants
Despite being hit by the overall slowdown in the real estate market and seeing price corrections up to 10% in most areas, Delhi-NCR continues to be attractive to end-users and investors. Being the national capital, Delhi attracts migrants from all across the country.
In fact, as per the Economic Survey of 2017, Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida and Gurugram saw the maximum influx of migrants between 2001 and 2011. Obviously, there is a dire need to fulfil the housing needs of these migrants.
As per ANAROCK data, the housing supply in Delhi over the last two years has been fairly low as compared to its counterparts – Gurugram and Noida. This is essentially due to demand-supply mismatch; there is massive demand for affordable housing in the city, while property prices in most pockets of the city have skyrocketed.
Consequently, the pockets that offer affordable or mid-segment projects have been performing relatively better than the expensive ones – such as Greater Kailash II, Panchsheel Park and South Extension II, to name a few.
In 2018 as well,
The 14 spokes of RERA’s protective umbrella
Anuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants
The Indian real estate industry, particularly the residential sector, was in the past correctly characterized as being unregulated and unorganized with unreasonable project delays and poor quality of construction being definitive aspects.
The arrival of the Real Estate Regulatory Act (RERA) in March 2016 brought in a paradigm shift in the sector and metamorphosed it into a more mature, systematic and regulated one.
RERA came into force on May 1, 2017, and is meant to be a homebuyer-friendly regime which will address their grievances and promote transparency, efficiency, financial discipline and accountability in the sector.
Indeed, buying a home is not only the most cherished dream for many Indians but also one of the biggest long-term financial commitment in the buyers’ lifetime.
Considering this, there are 14 important guidelines incorporated in the RERA umbrella to prevent unscrupulous players from raining on consumers’ homebuying plans:
1. Enforcing timely delivery of projects
In case of project delays,