Most realtors are already advertising cash discounts of 5-10 per cent on upfront payment and buyers can get up to 25 per cent discount if they book properties and are willing to wait for two to three years until possession. According to consultants, developers may even give 15-20 per cent discount on the price as they are eager to clear inventories.
Despite a slowdown in property sales, realty developers across the country are launching new residential apartments during the ongoing Navratri festival in the hope that they will get higher sales from prospective home buyers, who have deferred their buys so far.
Brandhouse manages exclusive stores of four SKNL brands -- Reid & Taylor, Stephens Brothers, Belmonte, and Carmichael House -- and two foreign brands Dunhill and Escada. It has more than 600 stores now. The company plans to set up its first private label store early next year and the average size of the store will range from 8,000 to 10,000 sq ft, said Tarun Joshi, managing director of Brandhouse Retails, the retail unit of S Kumars Nationwide.
Analysts say prices may stagnate or decline in the next three months. Almost 70 per cent of the brokers who participated in the poll believe prices will be flat or negative in the period and even Diwali is unlikely to lift the mood in the property market.
Real estate companies such as Unitech, Peninsula Land, HDIL and Future Capital, the financial services arm of Future Group, are in talks with investors including some leading private equity funds for raising investments for their projects, after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, whose third party fund had promised investments in these property companies' projects, according to industry sources.
Vijay Mallya-owned Kingfisher Airlines, which plans to raise $400 million from private equity investors, may have to settle for structured finance such as sale and leaseback or securitisation of receivables, say private equity experts in Mumbai.
Recently, IT czar Azim Premji bought a 10 per cent stake in Subhiksha through his personal investment arm for nearly Rs 230 crore, valuing the retailer at Rs 2,300 crore. Premji's firm purchased this stake from ICICI Venture. However, this time around, Subhiksha promoters are expected to issue fresh equity to investors and expect the valuation to be around Rs 3,800 crore, sources said.
Projects having loans with floating interest to take the hit. Hindustan Construction Company, GVK Group and other construction firms may have to settle for lower returns from their projects as rising interest rates are expected to hurt profitability of roads, power, ports and airports.
The group, which employs nearly 26,000 employees, plans to cut employee costs by one per cent, or Rs 65 crore (Rs 650 million), in the current year by redeploying people in its various businesses and reducing new hirings. "Instead of external hiring, we have redeployed a part of our people resources from our mature businesses to the new ventures," Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani said.
Companies that earlier took 36 months on housing projects are now completing them in around 30 months by boosting efficiencies and using modern technology. Commercial project developers are going a step further, completing projects in 17 months instead of 24. In some instances, mainly in smaller commercial buildings, developers are trying to cut down the project completion time to a mere 9 months.
Caisse manages nearly $155 billion of pension and insurance funds in Canada and North America while Ivanhoe has 70 shopping centres in Canada, the US, Europe and Latin America, totalling 46 million sq ft.
The regulator has also cancelled the licences of three packagers providing services to Subhiksha for violating the packaging rules. The warehouses are based in Bhiwandi, which is on the outskirts of Mumbai.
Property developers, consultants and brokers have seen a 40 per cent decline in enquiries from home buyers over the last three months.
The drive to cut costs is becoming critical as key input costs - steel, cement and labour - that account for 40 per cent of project costs have escalated 50 per cent over the past year.
First-quarter results of several big companies such as Reliance Industries, Reliance Communications, Bharti Airtel and Jet Airways would have been a lot worse had they followed the Accounting Standards 11 rules prescribed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.
Unitech, the country's second-largest property developer, is planning to raise nearly $1 billion (Rs 4,200 crore) in the current financial year from private equity players for its hotel, commercial and retail projects across the country.
Even as several SEZs are struggling to get off the ground, the Mahindras have managed to kick off their second SEZ at Jaipur, after their first one in Chennai.
For such bonanzas, prospective home buyers have a downturn to thank. Property sales have fallen 15 to 20 per cent countrywide over the last six months, owing to rising home loan rates. This has pinched the cash flows of developers, already reeling under higher borrowing costs and a range of anti-inflationary measures that restrict their flexibility to raise funds.
Companies are reactivating their dormant fixed deposit schemes by realigning their interest rates with the market following the footsteps of the lenders. The Reserve Bank of India has raised its benchmark interest rate to 8.5 per cent - the highest in more than six years - to stem inflation, forcing the banks to raise their prime lending rate to as high as 15.5 per cent.
ETAM, the French lingerie brand that has a joint venture with Kishore Biyani's Future Group, recently pulled out of Palm Beach Galleria mall in Navi Mumbai, together with six other retailers such as grocery chain Foodland Fresh and Manoranjan sarees.
© 2025 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances