"Requests for de-notification by the developers have been received from 13 SEZs located in the states/Union territories of Delhi, Orissa, Gujarat etc, of which 12 have been approved by the Board of Approval," Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia said in a written reply.

Board of Approval (BoA), a 19-member inter-ministerial group headed by Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar, approves the SEZ projects.

Scindia said that the final de-notification is allowed only on refund of duties or benefits, "if any, availed by the developer."

The SEZs, which have been denotified by the BoA includes four IT-ITeS zones of realty major DLF in Haryana, Gujarat, and Orissa.

On the de-notification of three SEZs in Goa, the minister said that the state government "may have compensate the developers". However, he said that the developers have approached the judiciary and the matter is sub-judice.

"The Goa government had recommended 15 proposals for setting up of SEZs. Out of these, 7 proposals were accorded formal approval by the BoA and notifications were issued in respect of three cases," he said.

"The base rate will be the new reference rate for determining lending rates for banks. This would bring in more transparency to loan pricing for customers," RBI Executive Director Deepak Mohanty told reporters on the sidelines of a function here today.

"This will also make the system more flexible. Today a common person doesn't know how the loan pricing is happening. As per the new system, the banks have to display the rates in the public domain," he said.

After the implementation of the new lending system, existing borrowers will continue to pay at the existing rate but they also will have the choice to switch over to new system on renewal, while the base rate will apply to new customers from the start.

The RBI had last week deferred the implementation of the base rate system by three months to July 1. The apex bank in early February had issued draft guidelines to banks to switch to benchmark lending rate, which will be applicable to all customers. The RBI took this step following banks refusal to extend the low interest regime to existing customers.

Under the base rate system, which will replace the current benchmark prime lending rate, banks would not be allowed to give loans below the base rate to anyone. The PLR has been much abused as banks provide loans to high rated corporates below this rate, reflecting lack of transparency in the lending rates and the lending process.

"Currently, we are developing 12 residential and three commercial projects across various locations in North India. We have planned to invest Rs 4,000 crore to develop these properties over the next three years," Supertech Chairman and Managing Director R K Arora told PTI.

The residential projects are located across Noida, Meerut, Haridwar and Rudrapur, while the commercial properties will be developed at Haridwar, Rudrapur and Meerut, he added.

When asked if the company would consider raising fund via an initial public offer (IPO), Arora said: "We have started to prepare for an IPO, but the market has not completely come out (from the fall during downturn)."

The company would consider launching the IPO in the next one and half years, he added.

Source: Business-standardSupertech to invest Rs 4,000 cr in 15 projects; plans IPO

"We have applied to Sebi for approval. We hope to launch our IPO of Rs 1,500 crore early next-fiscal," BPTP's Managing Director, Kabul Chawla, said here today.

The company, which presently has a networth of Rs 1,600 crore, is hoping to clock a topline of Rs 1,000 crore and PAT of Rs 200 crore in FY10.

From the issue proceeds, the company plans to pre-pay Rs 325 crore of its debt while Rs 500 crore has been earmarked for government use, he said.

The realty major, presently, has a consolidated debt of Rs 900 crore.

In 2011, Rs 150 crore will come up for repayment and in 2012, Rs 600 crore, Chawla said, adding that "though we are not stressed in terms of debt, we plan to pre-pay Rs 325 crore out of the issue proceeds."

JP Morgan and SSKI are the Book-Running Lead Managers (BRLMs) to the issue.

Source: Business-standardRealty major BPTP plans Rs 1,500 cr IPO in early FY11

Despite an improvement in India's private equity (PE) market, overseas realty funds are finding the going tough as investors pull back money to cover trading losses in their home markets. Real estate-focused PE funds of banks such as Credit Suisse Group AG, Morgan Stanley  and Citigroup Inc. have either shut down or put their Indian and Asian operations on sale. US-based PE firms Oxif Capital Management  and Angelo Gordon and Co. have shut operations in India. Many other PE investors have also put their plans on hold.

"In 2005-06, there were 400-odd foreign investors targeting real estate, of which 250 had managed to register, 150 had applied for registration, of which today 40-odd exist," said Amit Goenka, national director, capital transactions, at property advisory Knight Frank (India) Pvt. Ltd.

Fund infusion is down from an estimated $20 billion (Rs90,800 crore) to just $2 billion, an erosion of 90%, he added. Goenka blamed the shrinking market on foreign limited partners (LPs), on whom PE funds depend for money, trying to make up for trading losses at home.

PE investment, excluding real estate, declined from 453 deals worth $10.29 billion in 2008 to 263 deals worth $4.02 billion in 2009, while PE investments in real estate declined from 90 deals worth $6.64 billion in 2008 to 26 deals worth $950 million in 2009, according to Venture Intelligence, a Chennai-based research service that focuses on private equity and mergers and acquisitions.

Source: Live Mint By Shraddha Nair Overseas realty funds struggle, shut shop or put plans on hold

"We are scrutinising all types of fund flows into the sector but no decision has been taken on whether to curb them or not," said R Gopalan, secretary in the financial service department of the finance ministry.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been cautioning banks against lending to the sector and asked them to continuously monitor the money going in. On their part, banks have curtailed lending to real estate firms. The total outstanding of banks to the real estate sector stood at Rs 88,581 crore as on November 21, 2009. The banks exposure to the real estate sector has gone down by a little over Rs 8,000 crore between June and November 2009. In a speech last week RBI deputy governor Usha Thorat had said that banks were expected to monitor their exposure to commercial real estate so as to limit the risk of a downturn in the sector.

"Although no regulatory limit is specified in this regard, RBI keeps a close watch on each bank's exposure to commercial real estate through offsite surveillance and initiates corrective actions where necessary."

Source: Realty Plus Real estate fund flow under watch

The developer was looking to sell 16 million square feet of residential properties in the fiscal 2010, and by December it was able to sell just 8.5 million sq ft of properties.

Now, with just a month left for the fiscal, analysts believe DLF would not be able to meet its target.

When contacted, Rajiv Talwar, executive director at DLF, refused to comment.

About 65% of the 8.5 million sq ft launches were city-centric, and 70% of the sold volume came from the National Capital Region. About 47 % of NCR volumes came from a single city-centric project, Capital Greens.

DLF's property sales picked up recently across projects in Gurgaon, Kochi, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

It sold 3.1 million sq ft of residential properties in the third quarter and about 1.8 million sq ft of that came from luxury projects.
However, analysts believe the pace of sales has not met with their expectations. "While the recovery has occurred, it is slower than we anticipated, with DLF likely to miss our prior volume estimates," Aatash Shah, an analyst with Nomura, said.

Source: dnaindia.com By Vivek Seal DLF may miss residential sales goal

"A National Rural Housing and Habitat Policy has been drafted by the ministry after wide consultation with the stakeholders including state governments, bankers etc... The draft policy is at consultation stage with the Planning Commission," minister of state for rural development Pradeep Jain Aditya said in written reply to a question in the Lower House.

"The goal of the proposed policy is to ensure adequate and affordable housing for all in the rural areas," said Aditya.

The draft policy also aims to facilitate development of sustainable and inclusive habitats in rural areas by expanding government support, Aditya added.

It seeks to promote community participation, self help and public private partnership within the framework of Panchayati Raj, he said.

The minister, however, replied in negative to a question whether the government has formulated or proposes to formulate a national rural housing policy and housing guarantee scheme on the lines of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

"If the signal from the bank and government is to raise the price, then why prices will not go up? That means the economy is ready to take a price hike. It will be wrong to assume that developers should not raise prices. How can you have two contradictory signals?" DLF group executive director Rajeev Talwar said on the sidelines of a CII seminar.

While a few private sector lenders, including ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank, recently increased home loan rates by up to 100 basis points, the Budget proposed to impose service tax on the realty sector both on commercial rentals as well as on sale of under-construction housing units.

The service tax would come to be about 3.5 per cent of the cost of the apartment that includes the value of the land and also the cost of construction, realty body Credai said.

"Which tax has been absorbed in our country? It has only been passed through. Somewhere the new levy must be adjusted, how can you hope that the new levy will be adjusted and yet there will be no increase?" Talwar asked.

However, Talwar did not quantify the likely jump in the prices, saying, "It will vary from location to location, project to project."

"We will call a meeting of the association to discuss the Budget proposals, particularly the levying of service tax on housing which will have a negative impact on realty sector," National Real Estate Development Council (Naredco) president Rohtas Goel said.

Goel, who is also the chairman and managing director of Omaxe Ltd, said the dates for meeting has not been decided yet. The country's two largest realty firms DLF and Unitech are members of Naredco.

According to the Budget paper, the construction of real estate complexes will attract service tax, unless the entire consideration for the property is paid after the completion of construction. While some developers are of the view that the service tax of 10.3 per cent would be imposed on 33 per cent of the total sales value, other feel it should be on 33 per cent of the total construction cost.

An official with leading realty firm said the levy of service tax on housing is detrimental. "Affordable housing will become non-affordable and black money would come into play due to this proposal."

Another realtor's body Credai had said that applicability of service tax to all under-construction flats and homes being booked prior to completion will increase the end cost and will significantly impact affordability of the home buyer.

"Gulshan Homz plans to invest Rs 250 crore initially to launch few projects in residential and commercial segments in 2010-11 fiscal. The company intends to raise fund in the form of term loan from Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) by pledging our projects with them. At present, the company would concentrate on Delhi-NCR region but would definitely look forward to good opportunities in tier II and III cities across north India," Deepak Kapur, director of Gulshan Homz, said in an interview.

When asked about the details of new projects, Kapur added, "In the current scenario, Gulshan Homz would like to lay more emphasis on developing affordable homes. As a step in this direction, the company is presently working on two projects -- Homes121 and Vivante -- in Noida. Vivante would be launched in a week's time. Further, we are planning to launch a retail-cum-commercial project in Kota shortly."

Gulshan Homz had recently handed over two projects in Indirapuram named GC Centrum and GC Grand, and one in Vaishali dubbed as GC Emerald Heights. According to Kapur, these units were also in the affordable housing category and were a big hit amongst buyers. "The current real estate scenario is favourable for affordable housing. The demand has risen considerably in the last six months because of which many projects are coming up. It is likely to increase further in the coming days. This will also generate the demand for commercial as well as office spaces."

Source: Realty Plus By Vishnu Rageev R Gulshan Homz betting strategically on affordable homes

Loans against fixed deposits, loans given by a bank to its own employees, as well as restructured loans, where borrowers get more time and pay lower rates to avert defaults, can be given at interest rates that are below the base rate -- the new benchmark rate for pricing loans. While allowing these exemptions, RBI has also deferred the date for implementation of the base rate by banks to July 1. Earlier, RBI had said the base rate system would come into effect from April 1 -- a deadline, which most banks found difficult to meet.

The regulator has, however, ruled out any lending to corporates below the base rate.

The decision was taken here on Friday following a meeting between RBI deputy governors and CEOs of select commercial banks. At the meeting, RBI also agreed to give banks more flexibility in the calculation of base rate.

For a bank, the base rate will be its minimum cost at which it can lend and the risk premium on a loan would be the mark up over the base rate. The base rate, which will replace the prime lending rate (PLR), is aimed at bringing more transparency in loan pricing. At present, around 70% of the loans are below PLR which ranges between 11.75% and 12.25%.

"A bank can take any deposit slab or even the average cost of deposits. Secondly, on profit margin, RBI has indicated that a bank can choose any parameter such as the average return on assets, return on capital, net interest income, etc.," said a banker present in the meeting.

Source: Economic Times Stress Relief :Banks Can Lend Below Base Rate, System To Come Into Effect From July 1

When contacted, he said, "We are presently planning to open an IPO in the first quarter of financial year 2010. The market sentiment has improved so far this year due to higher government budget spending and global recovery. The IPO climate also has improved a lot since the first quarter of 2008. Of course, we will make it this time." In February 2008, Emaar MGF's attempt to raise Rs 6,400 crore through an IPO notably failed after the issue got only 39 per cent subscription.

Emaar MGF filed draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the market regulator on September 29, 2009. "We have received the final observations to our DRHP from the regulator. As per the new SEBI regulations we have a one year window to complete the IPO. The board of directors of the company are considering an opportune time to open our IPO," according to the official spokesperson of the company.

Of the total proceeds from the issue, Emaar MGF will utilise over half of the fund to repay its debt. The company has a debt of Rs 5,807.79 crore as on August 31, 2009 and plans to utilise Rs 1,972.1 crore raised from IPO in part repayments.

Source: Realty Plus By Vishnu Rageev R Will Emaar MGF make it?

Though the finance minister announced the continuation of sops to the downturn-hit realty sector in Budget 2010-11, stakeholders feel that more could have been done to speed up its revival India

The realty sector was expecting that Union Budget 2010-11 would contain provisions that would accelerate its revival. In the event, the Budget has proved to be a disappointment. On the positive side, the government announced an increase in expenditure on rural housing and housing for the poor, offered sops to the salaried class in the form of tax savings, and extended the interest-rate subvention scheme on low-cost housing. On the negative side, however, it did not offer direct benefits to home buyers or real estate developers, and worse, it quietly brought back the service tax on lease rentals.

THE POSITIVES

Extension of deadline for availing tax concessions. In his Budget speech, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee announced the continuation of concessions offered to the sector earlier. He said that he was providing this one-time interim relief to the housing and real estate sector that is reeling under the impact of the global recession. "I propose to allow pending projects to be completed within a period of five years instead of four years for claiming a deduction on their profits," he said in his speech. Projects that received approval between April 1, 2007 and March 31, 2008 have been exempted from paying any tax on their profits. However, the caveat earlier was that these projects had to be completed by March 2012 to avail of this tax holiday. This deadline has now been extended to March 2013.  

Extension of interest subvention. The government's decision to extend the provision of 1 per cent interest subsidy on home loans up to Rs 10 lakh for buying houses costing up to Rs 20 lakh is expected to help middle- and lower-middle class buyers. The subsidy will translate into a saving of Rs 28,920 on interest payment in case of a five-year loan and up to Rs 1.51 lakh in case of a 20-year loan. The interest rate subvention will be delivered through scheduled commercial banks and housing finance companies registered with National Housing Bank.

According to Prof PSN Rao, head of housing at New Delhi-based School of Planning and Architecture, the government's measures will help minimise the growing gap between demand and supply. "In India, demand far outstrips supply. In order that the wheel of real estate moves and carries the economy forward, demand and supply both have to be fuelled. The government has attempted exactly that. By continuing with the 1 per cent interest subsidy for sub-Rs 20 lakh housing units, it has fuelled demand," he says.

This measure is especially expected to boost demand in smaller cities where housing costing less than Rs 20 lakh is mostly available. "There will be a significant perk-up in transaction volumes in tier II and tier III markets. These markets were perceived to be losing steam of late," says Anuj Puri, country head, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj.

praveen.singh @expressindia.com

• INDIRECT BENEFITS
  
• THE NEGATIVES
  
• DEVELOPERS' ANGST
  
• GLASS HALF FULL
  
• BOTTOMLINE

Bangalore-based developers, such as Nitesh Estates, Prestige, Puravankara, Brigade and Mumbai-based Godrej Properties are adopting this route to develop properties, aware of the keen need to save cash in a market that is becoming increasingly tight-fisted for real estate firms.

"Developers no longer want put cash upfront and invest inland. The JV works both for developers as well as landlords," said Amit Mookim, director, transaction advisory service (real estate), KPMG.

Under the arrangement being discussed by some firms, landowners team up with developers through a special purpose vehicle (SPV). The owner comes on board as an equity partner in lieu of the land he puts on the table. When the project gives returns, the landowner gets a fixed percentage of the revenue in proportion to his equity holding.

The developer invests in the construction and marketing costs, but avoids tying up his funds in land. Bangalore-based Nitesh Estates will use this model to undertake new projects. "This is expected to allow us to deploy our capital towards development expenses and the expansion of our operations," a company official said.

Source: Economic Times By Sobia Khan Realty companies opt for joint play to save on costs