Even as sectors across India embrace technological transformation, the construction side of the real estate industry continues to trail global trends. While technologies like Building Information Modelling (BIM), 3D printing, drone surveillance, and IoT-enabled smart building systems are increasingly common overseas, their adoption in Indian construction remains limited and largely experimental, developers said.
rediffGURU Ravi Mittal, CEO, Quack Quack explains why dating a married guy can be a deal-breaker.
The government's move to tweak the long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax regime proposed in the Finance Bill 2024 and re-introduce the indexation benefit is likely to boost the investments and spur housing sales in the country, industry executives believe. "By enabling taxpayers to choose the lower tax burden between the new and old schemes, the amendment is poised to drive investment and enhance sales across housing segments," said Niranjan Hiranandani, chairman of the Hiranandani Group. In Budget 2024, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed an overhaul in the capital gains tax regime, including lowering the LTCG tax to 12.5 per cent from 20 per cent.
Office space owners are looking at good times ahead as rentals are expected to rise due to demand for Grade A office spaces outpacing supply that has been sluggish due to construction delays, long gestation periods and developers' interests shifting to residential.
The US carmaker's entry into India is expected by the last quarter of the current financial year.
With the real estate sector witnessing robust demand, realtors are doling out freebies and offering a slew of attractive schemes to lure potential customers this festival season. "Developers are providing Amazon vouchers that go up to Rs 1 lakh, iPads, and flexible payment plans that propel customer excitement," said Angad Bedi, managing director at real estate company BCD Group. Bedi said customers have a mindset to go for a change during the festival season, and developers see it as an opportunity to combine it with long-term and practical offers that drive buyers to close in on a deal during this period.
US-based private equity firm Blackstone and Bengaluru-based real estate developer Sattva Group filed the draft initial public offer (IPO) papers for India's biggest real estate investment trust (Reit) named Knowledge Realty Trust to raise ?6,200 crore. The Reit will be the largest in India in terms of net operating income (NOI) and gross assets value (GAV).
Housing prices appreciated at an average of 10 per cent during the December quarter across eight major cities on strong demand, higher input cost, according to a report by CREDAI, Colliers and Liases Foras. Realtors' body CREDAI, real estate consultant Colliers India, and data analytic firm Liases Foras on Tuesday released their joint report, which showed that Delhi-NCR saw a maximum appreciation of 31 pc annually during the October-December period of 2024.
Realtor Godrej Properties Limited (GPL) is present in top real estate markets such as Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), National Capital Region (NCR), Pune, and Bengaluru. In the financial year 2024-25 (FY25), NCR contributed 36 per cent, Bengaluru 17 per cent, and MMR 27 per cent to revenues with the rest 20 per cent coming from Pune, Hyderabad, etc.
Indian real estate sector saw more land deals in 2024 at over 2,200 acres as developers were looking to expand the business, according to CBRE. Real estate consultant CBRE data showed that land deals of more than 2,200 acres last year as against about 1,900 acres in the preceding year. Out of the total land transactions in 2024, around 2,000 acres were located in the eight major cities -- Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Ahmedabad.
Real estate developers are hoping that the slew of tax concessions announced in Union Budget 2025, set to take effect this financial year, will spur demand for affordable and mid-segment housing, even as the broader housing market shows signs of fatigue.
The government should provide home loan up to 25 lakh at a lower interest rate of 5 per cent to the people of the middle class, a prominent realtors' body appealed to the government against the backdrop of soaring home prices. G Hari Babu, president of the National Real Estate Development Council (Naredco), in an online interaction with Business Standard, said that the middle class in India accounts for roughly 30 per cent of the total population and is dependent on rental accommodation.
However, both developers as well as analysts are hopeful that these business metrics will pick up once activity resumes.
Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj regional director Manoj Kashyap feels the cash flow that is readily available with the senior citizens is one of the reasons why real estate companies are looking at this untapped market. According to Gurinder Bawa, business head, International Travel House Limited, availability of time and money with senior citizens is driving the interest of travel houses towards them.
'The rising cost of construction, the cost of doing business, high compliance, and inflation/interest rates going up have already reduced returns to single digits.'
Banks are now asking developers to lower prices to clear their piled-up inventory. In fact, clearing of inventories is a key pre-condition for loan restructuring when the realtors approach lenders, executives at various banks said. Public sector banks, in particular, are asking the builders to justify the offer price of projects as there are apprehensions that real estate companies are holding on to stocks after the payment of instalments is rescheduled.
Now, companies are promising to buy back property sold to customers, after factoring in a 30-70 per cent appreciation in value.
Most of the projects launched in last few months are working on construction linked payment plan, which could help them win confidence of buyers.
India's real estate industry staged a rebound from 2020's downturn, with housing sales seen rising by over 50 per cent. The performance, though short of pre-COVID levels, has property developers hoping for stronger gains in the New Year and the beginning of a long upcycle. A strong foundation has been laid this year for revival in the Indian real estate sector, which is projected to reach $1 trillion mark by 2030 from $200 billion in the pre-pandemic year.
High-end apartments, penthouses, and bungalows boasting amenities like swimming pools, expansive driveways, and premium interiors are becoming highly sought after.
Recently, DLF, the country's largest real estate developer, wrote to buyers of its new housing project in Gurgaon about a cut in apartment prices by 20 per cent. According to the new plan, buyers will get 5 per cent discount over the basic sale price, another 10 per cent as timely-payment rebate and an increase in the compensation rate for delay from Rs 5 per sq ft per month to Rs 10 per sq ft per month.
Hit by sluggish sales at home, realtors are wooing non-resident Indians (NRIs). A slew of property exhibitions have been lined up at Dubai, Singapore, London, Durban and New York over the next three-four months.
Buying one's dream home requires planning, funds, and these days, putting on an AI-enabled virtual reality (VR) headset. Realtors are increasingly providing customers an immersive experience, courtesy generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), mixed reality, and metaverse. For realty consultancy Anarock group, AI and machine learning (ML) are enabling predictive market analysis, facilitating virtual property tours, and improving property management through predictive maintenance.
The company releases documentary showing top executives of dozens of realty firms offering to launder black money.
Baseless allegations are being made against Pune MLA Sunil Tigre linking him to the Porsche crash that left two software engineers dead, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said on Saturday.
The government on Tuesday proposed reducing the long-term capital gains tax on immovable properties to 12.5 per cent from 20 per cent, but removed the indexation benefits to adjust for inflation, a move experts termed as "negative" for sellers.
Indian real estate market remained buoyant in January-June this year, with housing sales hitting an 11-year high at 1.73 lakh units and office demand at a record 34.7 million square feet across eight major cities, according to Knight Frank. On an annual basis, housing sales rose 11 per cent to 173,241 units while leasing of office space grew 33 per cent to 34.7 million square feet during January-June this year across eight major cities. Shishir Baijal, chairman and managing director, Knight Frank India, said, "India's real estate market has been buoyant in the last few quarters owing to the strong economic fundamentals and stable socio-political conditions."
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.
The opposition questioned the earmarking of a substantial 60,000 hectares of land for these zones, saying it was far beyond the necessity. Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP) said half of the land was being handed out to non-processing zones, which the country's "land sharks" were acquiring with imputiny to set up hotels, restaurants and malls.
The duo is being probed for their alleged role in tampering with the blood sample of the minor following the car accident on May 19 in Maharashtra's Pune city, which claimed the lives of two IT professionals.
.jpg)
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com tried to buy a house on his recent visit to Srinagar.
At a time when none in Kerala's Left politics questioned the chief minister's authority, MLA P V Anvar hurled a series of accusations against Pinarayi Vijayan's government, notes Shyam G Menon.
Pune police on Saturday arrested the grandfather of the 17-year-old involved in a car crash here that killed two persons while claiming that both the teenager's father and grandfather put pressure on the family's driver to take blame for accident by offering him money and giving threats.
The real estate subvention scheme or 80-20 home buying plan, recently banned by the Reserve Bank of India, is now being replaced by other offers to attract buyers.
Housing sales are likely to be hit, especially in affordable and mid-income categories, following the RBI's decision to hike repo rate, according to real estate developers and consultants. However, the impact of RBI's decision to raise the benchmark lending rate by 50 basis points to 5.40 per cent is expected to be for a short term, they added. This is the third consecutive rate hike after a 40 basis points and 50 basis points increase in May and June, respectively.
Leading property developers, such as Oberoi Realty, Tata Realty and Infrastructure, and Hiranandani, have turned to redevelopment of existing buildings in the expensive parts of Mumbai as a way of augmenting revenue. Experts estimate that Mumbai's redevelopment projects could be worth Rs 30,000 crore. As such, they are not new. What is new is that the big developers are interested in them. Leading the race is Oberoi Realty, which has set up a separate team for these projects.
Both the teenager's father, realtor Vishal Agarwal, and Dr Taware have been arrested in related cases following the accident of May 19 where two IT professionals were killed when the car allegedly driven by the drunk 17-year-old crashed into their motorbike.
The police officials, who have been working to establish the identity of the Twitter handle @balajikijaiin operating under the name 'Hanuman Bhakt,' did not disclose the businessman's name.
The mother of the minor in the Porsche car accident case was arrested after confirmation that his blood samples were replaced with hers, Pune police chief Amitesh Kumar said on Saturday.
