House in Mumbai

In a bid to put an end to the city’s water woes, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is considering to scrap the Gargai water project and instead concentrate on the Daman Ganga-Pinjal project, which is expected to provide 2,400 million litres per day (MLD) of water.

“Municipal commissioner Subodh Kumar is of the view that we must focus on big water projects like Daman Ganga-Pinjal and not on Gargai project,” Standing committee chairperson Rahul Shewale told Press Trust of India.

if give priority to Daman Ganga-Pinjal project the city’s water requirement will be fulfilled at the earliest. The project is expected to provide 2,400MLD of water, of which state government will get 1,200 and BMC will get 1,200,

Last year, the Gujarat and Maharashtra government and ministry of water resources of government of India signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Par-Tapi-Narmada Link and Damanganga-Pinjal Link project.

The BMC earlier had plans to tap over additional 440MLD of water from the Gargai reservoir in Thane in two-and-half to three years.

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With construction slatedtobegin in thefirstweek of Febuary , World One—Asia’s tallest residential building planned at Lower Parel-—has received a setback . The Union civil aviation ministry has put a dampener on Lodha group’s plan by granting permission to construct up to 286 metres , or 85 floors , against its planned height of 450 metres .

The ministry said any further increase in height was not possible as it would obstruct flight funnel and make manning air trafficon the Santacruz radar difficult. ‘

Abhisheck Lodha , managing director at Lodha Developers , though , said the ministry’s decision would not slow down the project . “The ministry’s decision is in tune with the existing rules on building height . I am not worried as it will take three years for the construction to reach 85 floors . By this time , I am sure , rapid development in Central Mumbai — with plans for many 80-floor-plus buildings — will make other developers request the ministry to take a relook at the height rules

Real estate experts say Lodha can reach the desired height with changes in the building’s design .

“In super-luxury development , ceilings are normally 4 metres high . For the desired height of 450 metres , Lodha could just tweak the building design and cap the ceiling height at 3.5 metres

Lodha recently awarded thecivilconstruction contract of WorldO neto a joint venture of West Asia-based Arabian Construction Company and Simplex Infrastructures . The contract is worth Rs 450 crore .

More News: timesofindia

Strong selling by foreign funds in the second half of Thursday’s session pulled sensex down by 285 points to 18,684, its lowest close in nearly five months. The day’s selling was across-the-board with real estate, healthcare, metal and banking stocks leading the pack. On the NSE, the nifty lost 83 points to close at 5,604. Market players said while cash-futures arbitrage led selling by FIIs in the cash market was the main reason for the slide in the index, investors are especially nervous about stocks from those sectors which are sensitive to interest rates, more so after the 25 basis points (100 basis points = 1%) hike in key policy rates by the Reserve Bank of India

while BSE’s real estate index closed 3.6% lower, while the healthcare index was off 2.6%, metal index fell 2% and the banking index was off 1.9%. The spate of selling also pushed all the sectoral indices on the BSE to close in the red. One of the main reasons for the rise in rates by the central bank was the current runaway inflation, which, market players feel are unlikely to recede in a hurry. “We are in a structurally high inflationary situation which can’t be managed by monetary measures,

In 2010, despite higher economic growth with the quarterly rates between 8-10%, the Chinese stock market had corrected about 40%, making it one of the worst performing markets among the large economies.

Indications of a tough market ahead in the year are already there. So far in the year, FIIs have net sold close to Rs 7,300 crore (nearly $1.5 billion) in the secondary market alone while sensex is down 1,825 points, or about 9%. On the positive side, domestic institutions have pumped in over Rs 4,100 crore, but that inflow so far has been no match to the selling by FIIs.

More News: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/New-Article/articleshow/7376448.cms

Recently, a high-end apartment located in Worli was sold for around Rs 16 crore inclusive of eight car parking slots. The 3-BHK apartment located on the third floor of the building measures around 1,706 sq ft. Worli has been one of the busiest commercial office areas in Mumbai since a long time.

With the passage of time, many premium residential projects too have cropped up in this location. This area is considered as one of the most expensive and prime locations in Mumbai with a majority of apartments overlooking the sea. This makes it a very popular choice for high-end buyers looking to be situated in the heart of Mumbai.

In one of the recent transactions in Gurgaon’s Sector 60, a high-end luxury apartment was sold for a base price of Rs 6,500/sq ft. This 2,012-sq ft apartment, is part of a group housing project and is in its initial stages of construction. Along with the base price an additional charge of Rs 300/sq ft was paid as preferred-location charges since the unit is on the fourth floor of the project.

An additional cost of Rs 8 lakh was also charged for two car parking spaces. The unit comes with a 24-hour power back-up and is monitored by high-end security systems. The developer is also providing amenities like a mini theatre in the club house, Wi-fi in common areas, pipe gas connection and a spacious ground floor lobby. This 18-acre development overlooks a golf course.

More News: economictimes

People in India will have to shell out more money to buy a house this year due to increasing input costs and huge demand and supply gap,

About 70 per cent of the home seekers are pretty convinced that they will have to shell more money to buy a house in 2011, as compared to last few years

The survey was conducted in 10 major Indian cities including Delhi, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Chenai and Allahabad.

Majority of the brokers and property agents said that the property prices would remain bullish in 2011 mainly on account of “huge demand and supply gap and ever increasing input cost”.

The report also said that those planning to sell houses this year would get higher returns.

About 72 per cent believe that if they missed the chance to buy a house now, “they may not be able to but it ever

Real estate developers and consultants yesterday said that the RBI’s decision to hike policy rates by 25 basis points will affect the sentiment of the property market.

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Mumbai home prices may decrease by as much as 15 per cent over the next nine months as record high prices deter buyers, brokerage Edelweiss Securities Ltd said.

“The festival season of September-November, which typically accounts for a significant chunk of sales volumes in Mumbai, has been a dampener with tepid sales in new projects,” analysts Aashiesh Agarwaal and Adhidev Chattopadhyay wrote in a note reported on by Bloomberg.

Home registrations in Mumbai, India’s most expensive real estate market, fell to their lowest level in 20 months in November, according to brokerage Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt. Property prices jumped between 30 per cent and 70 per cent across India in 2010 with some markets surpassing 2007 record highs, Mahesh Nandurkar, a real-estate analyst at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets in Mumbai, said in November.

Mumbai developers may be forced to cut prices to revive sales after banks cut down on credit to the sector and loans to builders became due, the memo from Edelweiss said. Development companies are facing rising borrowing costs and less access to credit after a corruption probe into loans to developers, according to Bank of America Corp.’s Merril Lynch unit and Ambit Capital Pvt.

More News: property-report

The pace of big-ticket land deals in Mumbai, the third-costliest residential market in the world, is slowing down; it’s mostly joint developments or joint ventures that are coming to the table, according to real estate experts.

The 108-acre Bayer Crop Science land at Thane was up for grabs and at least five local developers, including Oberoi Realty, Lodha Group, Kalpataru, DB Realty, were in the race, but two sources directly involved in the transaction said the sale has now been called off.

“They had come close to finalising a deal, but a few weeks back, the bidder-developers wanted to lower their quotes because of the prevailing market conditions. Also, there is a new municipal commissioner in Thane, so the files have not been moving. Bayer is not selling the land anymore; they have taken it off the block,” a source said.

The trend till a few months ago was developers buying land wherever they could grab some. In September, Kalpataru bought four acres for Rs80 crore from Western Rolling Mills on LBS Marg, Bhandup, next to Asian Paints. The Lodha group bought four acres at Goregaon next to the Hub Mall on the Western Express Highway for Rs221 crore. Knight Frank India was the advisor for the deal.

In December, Gammon India, through its subsidiary Metropolitan InfraHousing Pvt Ltd, emerged the highest bidder for 135 acres belonging to PAL-Peugeot, the erstwhile carmaker, in Dombivli, by bidding Rs601 crore.

The current selling rate in the area is around Rs2,500-3,200 per square feet, and Gammon has bought the parcel at close to Rs1,022 per square feet.

To de-risk themselves, developers are opting for joint ventures or asking land owners to also come on board to jointly develop and share revenues instead of deals where payment for land is made upfront.For example, Rohan Lifescapes formed a joint development deal with Oriental Container for a two-acre land parcel near Worli Naka.

More News: dnaindia