Property developers expect to boost sales of homes and borrow funds at lower rates after the Reserve Bank of India on Friday reduced its key benchmark rate and cut the cash-reserve ratio requirement in a bid to help banks lower interest rates and lend more to cash-starved sectors, including the real estate. They are hopeful of attracting more overseas investment in projects as demand revives.
Makemytrip.com, a travel-related portal, remained inaccessible for a large part of the day owing to an unprecedented surge in traffic, after Air India and JetLite slashed fares.
The downturn in the tourism industry may cast a gloom for hotels and travel related industry, but it augurs well for tourists.
The retail arm of the Mukesh Ambani-led group had almost halted its expansion plans as a credit crunch roiled markets across the globe forcing companies to withhold new projects. The company also froze fresh recruitment.
A global slowdown, which is forcing companies to curtail production, cut salaries and jobs, is helping retailers who have launched private labels.
Six infotech special economic zone projects of the Unitech Group, which owns the country's second-biggest real estate company, have been delayed by as much as three years owing to slowing demand and delays in government approvals, sources said.
After launching mid-income houses, real estate companies are now targeting low-priced homes in the sub-Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million) category to improve cash flows and beat the slump in the property market that has been driven by high borrowing rates.
The trickle has begun and could turn into a flood. At least 15 per cent of overseas visitors have cancelled their tour plans to India following terrorist attacks on key locations in Mumbai, tour operators said. The attacks claimed nearly 200 lives and injured more than 300.
Retailers, who are already reeling under the economic slowdown, were forced to keep their shops shut in the southern and central parts of Mumbai as terrorists holed up in plush hotels and buildings of the city continued to battle military commandos.
Several malls and retailers downed shutters in the commercial capital city of Mumbai. Kishore Biyani's hypermarket chain Big Bazaar closed two stores its stores in Mumbai Central and Parel, which are half-an-hour's drive from South Mumbai.
At least 35 per cent, or $400 billion worth of goods, that are sourced from China could shift to countries such as India, Thailand, Vietnam among others over the next 10 years, according to a study by US-based retail and supply chain solutions firm DCB and Company. India is expected to take the lion's share of volume shift compared to its counterparts in the region, the study says, due to its IT prowess, infrastructure and agents network.
Even though the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has reduced the risk weightage on loans to commercial developers and cut general provisioning for commercial real estate, commercial banks may not start lending to the sector immediately.
The model, under which retailers share a percentage of their sales with real estate companies, is seen as a fair way of sharing risks between the two stakeholders. Five companies contacted by Business Standard cite higher rentals charged by real estate developers, coupled with lower-than-expected footfalls, as the reason for their preference towards a revenue- sharing model.
Many companies and their executives are seeking solace from new-age motivational gurus.
With store rentals dropping as much as 35 per cent in the last one year, retailers say opening stores in certain locations has become profitable. As a result, some retailers plan to roll out their bigger format stores and others are booking retail spaces that will come up in two years at a much lower cost.
Within months of charging the moon, Indian real estate firms are now offering buy-back of properties, free cars and even free apartments to tide over the current slump which has seen sales halve from the beginning of the year.
At a time when most retail firms have either gone slow in opening new stores or closed down some to beat the ongoing slump, the Future Group has opened nearly 150 stores across all its formats over the past three months. This month alone, Biyani is opening 15 stores, mainly selling electronic and lifestyle goods.
This year, there is hardly any cheer in the market place, though three festivals - Eid, Dussehra and Diwali - have fallen in the month of October. Several consumer electronics, automobile, personal care products and food item retailers say sales are sharply down. Even new home sales are learnt to be lackluster.
The JV was expected to open 56 exclusive high-end stores for the four focus brands, Miss Sixty, Energie, Killah & Murphy&Nye, in the top 10 cities in the first three years. As per the original plans, Darshan Mehta president and chief executive of Reliance Brands, was to spearhead the JV with separate business heads for each of the four brands.
Last year, Trent had entered into a tie-up with The Xander Group wherein Xander was to invest in malls along with local developers and Trent was to be the anchor tenant. Currently, three-to-four such malls are being developed in cities such as Surat and Ahmedabad.
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