Page 15 - Realty

Need to find ways to boost adoption of modern construction tech: Minister

Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday said more than 60 crore people are estimated to reside in cities by 2030 because of rapid urbanisation and stressed the need to increase adoption of new technologies in the construction industry. The minister was addressing a conference on 'Adoption of New and Emerging Building Materials and Technologies in Construction Industry', being organised by realtors' apex body CREDAI, which represents more than 13,000 developer members. "It is imperative we find feasible ways to increase the adoption of emerging materials and technologies in the construction industry," Puri said. Talking about the government's commitment in this regard, Puri recalled that the Prime Minister had emphasised the need to accelerate the movement from these older technologies into new cutting-edge technologies in the construction industry. On its part, the ministry has short-listed 54 innovative construction technologies from all over the world unde

ED files charge sheet against Supertech's chairman in money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Thursday filed a charge sheet against R K Arora, chairman and promoter of real estate major Supertech Group, his company, and eight others in a money laundering case, accusing them of hatching a "criminal conspiracy" to cheat home buyers. They have been accused of defrauding at least 670 home buyers of Rs 164 crore. The nearly 100-page prosecution complaint, ED's equivalent of charge sheet, was filed before Special Judge Devender Kumar Jangala, claiming there was sufficient evidence to prosecute Arora for laundering money. The court posted the matter for August 28 for taking cognisance of the charge sheet. Arora was arrested on June 27 under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after three rounds of questioning. The money-laundering case against the Supertech group, its directors and promoters stems from a clutch of FIRs registered by police in Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. ED's Special Public Prosecutor N K

Stock of this real estate company has zoomed over 100% in one month

Shares of DB Realty surged 6% to hit an over 10-year high of Rs 156.90 on the BSE on Thursday

Casagrand to invest Rs 8,000 cr to develop projects in Maha over next 3 yrs

Chennai-based Casagrand on Monday said it plans to invest Rs 8,000 crore to develop realty projects in Maharashtra over the next three years. The company said it plans to develop 20 million square feet in Mumbai and Pune as part of its expansion plan. It, however, did not share any specific detail on the plans. The announcement comes close on the heels of Bengaluru-based Prestige Group entering the Mumbai real estate market by launching or announcing projects. The nearly two-decade-old company claimed it is among South India's top three builders, and has initiated an aggressive expansion plan. The company is set to deliver over 140 projects and 40,000 homes in Chennai, Bengaluru, Coimbatore and Hyderabad in 2023, according to a statement. Its founder and managing director Arun Mn said it has delivered 123 projects on time, and it is targeting to increase the sales value to Rs 7,200 crore in FY24 as against Rs 4,200 crore in FY23. He further said that it is sending 1,400 employees

WeWork India Q1 revenue up 40% to Rs 400 cr on rising demand: CEO Virwani

Co-working major WeWork India's revenue grew by 40 per cent to Rs 400 crore during the first quarter of this fiscal year on rising demand for flexible workspace across major cities from corporates, its CEO Karan Virwani said. The company, which is owned by real estate firm Embassy Group and WeWork Global, has started its 50th centre at Saket in South Delhi, marking its entry into the national capital market. The new centre, comprising 54,000 square feet area and around 700 desks, is located in a commercial building developed by realty firm Eldeco. In an interview with PTI, Virwani said the company has completed six years since it opened the first centre in India and now it has 50 centres and around 90,000 desks across seven cities. "It has been a great journey of growing both the co-working/flexible workspace segment and WeWork India as a brand. In the last three years, since COVID, the adoption of flex space growing significantly," he said. The demand is increasing as more and mor

Retail leasing up by 15% in megapolis in first half of 2023: CBRE Report

Increased leasing by homeware and department stores, consumer electronics and fashion & apparel retailers have pushed up retail leasing in the megapolis by close to 15 per cent in the first half of the year, says an industry report. Retail leasing across investment-grade malls, high streets and standalone developments during January-June 2023 rose 14.6 per cent in Mumbai, taking the total leasing to 0.21 million sqft, compared to 0.18 million sqft in the corresponding period last year, realty consultancy CBRE said in a note. Key sectors that drove absorption include homeware & department stores which snapped up 20 per cent of the total fresh leasing, followed by consumer electronics and fashion & apparel (17 per cent each) during the period under review, it said, adding the leasing demand was driven by secondary leasing in high streets and mall clusters. Some of the top leasing deals include a consumer electronics player leasing 20,800 sqft in Jio World Drive in BKC, ...

Rentals up 20% as landlords take advantage of the 'return to office'

NoBroker's mid-year report on real estate trends sheds light on rental and buyer preferences as well as the key trends driving prices in the sector

Colliers India appoints Badal Yagnik as new CEO with immediate effect

Yagnik has earlier served at Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) as MD for leasing services in India. Before that, he was working with Jones Lang LaSalle

Shriram Properties Q1 profit rises 59% to Rs 16.62 cr on better income

Realty firm Shriram Properties on Monday reported a 59 per cent increase in its consolidated net profit to Rs 16.62 crore for the first quarter of this fiscal. Its net profit stood at Rs 10.47 crore in the year-ago period. The total income rose to Rs 157.17 crore during the April-June period of 2023-24 from Rs 145.11 crore in the year-ago period, according to a regulatory filing. Its sales volumes increased 17 per cent year-on-year to 0.78 million square feet during the first quarter of this fiscal. Sales bookings in value terms rose 47 per cent annually to Rs 459 crore, driven by strong sustenance sales in ongoing projects and two successful launches during April-June. M Murali, CMD, Shriram Properties said: We are encouraged by the continuing strong operating and financial performance...Looking ahead, with our launches, we remain positive in our commitment to, delivering homes and contributing meaningfully to the growth of the company". The company's gross debt was 12 per cent .

Unsold homes highest in Maharashtra's Thane at 107,179 units: PropEquity

Thane in Mumbai Metropolitan Region has the maximum 1.07 lakh unsold homes at the end of June quarter, while Chennai has the lowest at nearly 20,000 units, according to PropEquity. Across nine major cities, data analytic firm PropEquity said unsold housing stocks declined 2 per cent to 5,15,169 units at the end of June quarter from 5,26,914 units at the end of March. "The largest share for the unsold stock among the Tier-1 cities is of Thane with 21 per cent. Chennai has the minimum unsold stock of residential units in Q2 2023," PropEquity Founder and CEO Samir Jasuja said. Housing sales in April-June across nine cities were 1,22,213 units, while new supply was 1,10,468 units. This led to a reduction in number of unsold residential units. As per the data, the unsold housing stocks in Thane were 1,07,179 units at the end of June quarter, down 2 per cent from 109,511 units at March-end. Mumbai saw a 3 per cent fall in unsold housing stocks to 60,911 units from 62,735 units. Howev

Macrotech Developers to launch 22 realty projects by March next year

Realty firm Macrotech Developers Ltd will launch 22 new projects by March next year across Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Pune and Bengaluru with an estimated sales revenue potential of Rs 12,560 crore as it seeks to tap rising housing demand. Macrotech Developers, which sells its properties under the Lodha brand, said in an investor presentation that the company launched 1.8 million square feet area in the first quarter of this fiscal year having a revenue potential of Rs 1,510 billion. The company also announced plans to launch 22 projects, having 9.4 million square feet area of saleable area, in the remaining months of this fiscal. The revenue potential is around Rs 12,560 crore. "In terms of sales bookings, we had our best ever first quarter. Our sales bookings increased 17 per cent to Rs 3,350 crore. We did not launch many projects in the first quarter. So, the sales were driven by inventories in ongoing projects," Macrotech Developers MD and CEO Abhishek Lodha told PTI. "

Realty firms must execute projects following rules: Delhi-RERA chairman

Real estate developers should carry out projects as per rules and must fulfil promise made to their customers, Delhi-RERA chairman Anand Kumar has said. The focus should be on building trust among the public, said Kumar. Addressing a national conference on Real Estate Development and Action Plan for New India organised by Industry body Assocham, he said a message to all stakeholders in the real estate sector to be alert. "Builders, developers and collaborators must work in a transparent manner according to rules and prepare projects as promised to the customers," the Delhi-RERA chairman was quoted as saying in a statement by Assocham. "While buying any land, plot, flat or commercial property sold as 'RERA registered', check it on RERA's website, he said. Kumar urged the builders, developers and entrepreneurs in the real estate sector to work with transparency to increase trust among agents and customers. Even today there are a large number of builders and developers who do not wa

Office space demand dipped 6% to 13.9 mn sq ft in Apr-Jun quarter: Vestian

Three key southern cities - Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad - dominated office demand with the contribution of 59 per cent of the total office leasing in the quarter

Net debt of top 8 listed realty firms dip 43% in last 3 years: Anarock

The net debt of top eight realty firms fell 43 per cent to Rs 23,000 crore last fiscal, from around Rs 40,000 crore in 2019-20, as their cash flow improved on strong housing sales, according to Anarock. Real estate consultant Anarock noted that the unfettered demand for housing across the country has enabled the country's leading large and listed developers to reduce their debt. Anarock analysed financial performances of the top eight developers engaged in the development of residential real estate. These developers are DLF, Macrotech Developers (Lodha brand), Godrej Properties, Prestige Estates Projects, Sobha, Brigade Enterprises, Puravankara and Mahindra Lifespace Developers Ltd. Net debt of top eight listed developers has reduced from Rs 40,500 crore in FY20 to over Rs 23,000 crore in FY23. The average cost of debt for these eight players fell to 9 per cent in FY23 from 10.3 per cent in FY20. In 2020-21, the interest cost was 9.05 per cent, while the cost of debt was 7.96 per

PropVR partners Unreal Engine to develop 3D solutions for realty sector

Proptech firm Square Yards arm PropVR has partnered Unreal Engine to develop 3D solutions for real estate sector. Square Yards said in a statement that PropVR has been named as an authorised partner for Unreal Engine, an advanced real-time 3D tool developed by Epic Games. The partnership is to develop digital twin and interactive 3D solutions for the real estate industry, it added. "We have partnered with the Unreal Engine team to create the next generation of 3D solutions and digital twins for the real estate industry. Unreal Engine's graphical prowess is unmatched and will help us augment the future of real estate search and discovery experience through high-end 3D digital twins of entire cities," said Vivek Agarwal, Co-founder and CTO, Square Yards. With Unreal Engine, he said, the company can accelerate its vision to build real estate in the metaverse. Agarwal said the partnership would also help in understanding the appetite for virtual real estate experience amongst customer

Institutional inflows in residential sector up 385% in H1 of 2023: Colliers

Another asset class that saw high growth in the flow of money was office assets which saw a 145% jump in inflows in the first half of 2023 to $2.719 billion

Kolte-Patil Developers Q1 sales bookings increase 58% to Rs 701 crore

Realty firm Kolte-Patil Developers Ltd on Thursday reported a 58 per cent increase in its sales bookings at Rs 701 crore in the first quarter of this fiscal year. Its sales bookings stood at Rs 445 crore in the year-ago period. In a regulatory filing, Pune-based Kolte-Patil Developers informed that its sales volumes increased 52 per cent and the average sales realisation improved by 4 per cent during the April-June period of this fiscal year as compared with the same quarter of the 2022-23 financial year. Kolte-Patil has developed and constructed over 58 projects, including residential complexes, integrated townships, commercial complexes and IT Parks covering a saleable area of around 26 million square feet across Pune, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Office space leasing up 2% at 14.6 mn sq ft in top 6 cities: Colliers

Average office rentals remained stable during April-June at Rs 95 per square feet across six major cities as new supply rose 32 per cent, while demand grew by a modest 2 per cent, according to Colliers India. Real estate consultant Colliers India released its quarterly data of six major office markets -- Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune -- on Wednesday. Gross leasing of office space rose 2 per cent to 14.6 million square feet across top six cities during April-June, from 14.3 million square feet in the year-ago period, driven by technology, engineering & manufacturing sectors. Chennai saw a three-fold jump in office demand, beating Delhi-NCR and Mumbai in leasing activities. New supply of office space rose 32 per cent to 12.4 million square feet across these six cities from 9.4 million square feet. Weighted average rental remained flat at Rs 95 per square feet a month, across six cities. Peush Jain, Managing Director, Office Services, India, Colliers, ...

Macrotech Developers Q1 bookings up 17% at Rs 3,350 cr; adds 5 new projects

Realty firm Macrotech Developers has reported a 17 per cent increase in sales bookings at Rs 3,350 crore in the first quarter of this fiscal and added five new land parcels to develop projects with sales potential of around Rs 12,000 crore. Macrotech Developers, which sells properties under the Lodha brand, had sold properties worth Rs 2,860 crore in the year-ago period. In a regulatory filing, Macrotech Developers informed that the company achieved its best-ever first quarter pre-sales performance at Rs 33.5 billion (Rs 3,350 crore) showing a growth of 17 per cent on a year-on-year basis. The company also announced the addition of five new projects with GDV (gross development value) potential of around Rs 12,000 crore across different micro-markets. Abhishek Lodha, MD & CEO of Macrotech Developers, said, "with a strong start for the year, the performance achieved is in line with our guidance of 20 per cent pre-sales growth for FY24." The demand conditions remain robust with a ...

Home sales in NCR touch 10-yr high, flats upwards of Rs 1 cr most in demand

In NCR, Gurugram accounted for a mammoth 82% of the total half yearly launches.