money

Property Prices to Increase Sharply in Greater Noida: GNIDA

by Paul Joseph July 13, 2011

Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) on Friday said consumers will have to pay much more for properties in the region in future after the Supreme Court disallowed acquisition of 176 hectares of land from farmers. The authority also said it will return the land to the affected farmers as per the apex court ruling and will strictly follow the new land acquisition policy of Uttar Pradesh in acquiring land for future projects. “After this court order, we will acquire all future land keeping in mind the market price and hence will have to pay higher land prices. Automatically, sale prices will increase and hence end consumers will be impacted severely,” GNIDA Chief Executive Officer Rama Raman said. The authority will follow the court orders in “letter and spirit” and will return the land to farmers, he added. “Initially, we will return the land as per the orders. We will see later how we can proceed in this respect after going through the detail judgement,” Raman said. He, however, did not specify what GNIDA will do to compensate the developers, but said it will acquire land at regular intervals “as and when necessary”. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court had upheld a verdict of the Allahabad High Court that quashed acquisition of 176 hectares of land from farmers in Greater Noida saying the authorities were “sub-serving” private builders in the name of public interest. Raman, however, said real estate development in the area is unlikely to get affected due to the judgement. “I don’t think it will affect much, but due to procedural steps, we may only witness some delays,” he added. Meanwhile, real estate analysts said the Supreme Court decision is unlikely to affect much in the future, but rather it will help all stakeholders to approach cautiously. “Demand will not be impacted much in the region as developers are taking various proactive measures to address customers’ concerns. “From now onwards, all future transactions will see double verifications from all parties like consumers, developers and the government. It is a good thing for the sector to avoid any controversy,” Jones Lang LaSalle Chief Executive Officer (Operations) Santhosh Kumar said. He said developers may feel some impact in the near future as they are either refunding the money or giving alternate locations to consumers, who had booked their properties in the disputed area. Expressing similar sentiments, Cushman & Wakefield India Director (Residential Services) Shveta Jain said there will not be any significant impact to the existing customers as developers are relocating them to other projects in the area.

Tagged as: allahabad, allahabad-high, area, authorities, court, delhi, development, gurgaon, money, property prices, real estate developers, region, supreme, wakefield-india

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Sahara-SEBI Case: SC Declines Sahara Plea to Issue Notice to Govt on OFCD Issue

by Paul Joseph July 11, 2011

The Supreme Court has declined the Sahara Group’s plea to issue a notice to the government in connection to a dispute with market regulator Sebi, which had directed the firm to return funds raised from investors under an OFCD scheme along with 15 per cent interest. “We do not want Union of India (government) to come at this stage. Let them (Sebi) come and clarify. We have our own query on it,” said the bench headed by the chief justice S H Kapadia. During the proceedings on Friday, senior advocate Fali S Nariman, appearing for the Sahara group, said that Sahara was not a listed company and only the government has jurisdiction over it and not market regulator Sebi. “We (Sahara) are not a listed company and the government (Ministry of Corporate Affairs) has jurisdiction over us. If there is any listed company, then Sebi has jurisdiction,” he said, asking the bench to issue a notice to the government seeking a clarification of its stance. Narimnan said that despite the matter was pending in the court, Sebi issued fresh cause notice to the group and passed the order. On it, the bench said,” We have asked the Sebi to explain it. We wanted to know that from where you got this (concept of) OFCD.” The Supreme Court further said that it had asked Sebi as “We wanted investors to be protected.” The bench later adjourned the matter for a week on the request made by Sebi’s counsel P Venugopal. Sebi submitted that Sahara group has filed some documents before it and the regulator wanted to go through it. In November, Sebi had indicated that two Sahara Group firms — Sahara India Real Estate Corporation and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation — were raising funds from the public through an optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCD) scheme without conforming to prudent disclosure and other investor protection norms. Subsequently, Sahara Group had contested Sebi’s authority to look into the issue in the Supreme Court, asserting that it was a privately held company and not listed and therefore, was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Earlier, on June 27, a vacation bench of the apex court, comprising justices P Sathasivam and A K Patnaik had declined to hear the plea of Sahara India Real Estate Corp and asked to list it before the Chief Justice which has been hearing the case. Following the orders of the Supreme Court, the Security and Exchange Board of India had on June 23 passed an order and directed the two Sahara group firms — Sahara India Real Estate Corporation and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation — to refund the money raised by them in OFCD citing violation of regulatory norms.

Tagged as: exchange-board, government, india, investment, jurisdiction, kapadia-during, money, real estate india, sahara, sahara-group, supreme-court

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Gurgaon affordable apartments

by Paul Joseph July 1, 2011 Uncategorized

By way of the increase in the number of companies shifting level to the money-making capital of the country, Gurgaon, the requirement for residential properties has developed exponentially. Loads of people have turned to Gurgaon from other regions of the country and the opening thing they necessitate is a place to stay. Affordable Apartments in Gurgaon are of two varieties: the luxurious villas or the conventional flats. Both these at the moment comes with the most favorable facilities. Seeing the growth on demand and subject to the ferocious competition the builders in Gurgaon are preparating and impending with latest projects in unusual parts of the metropolis. The affordable apartments in Gurgaon appear with the options of 1/2/3 BHK in company with additional services and facilities of round the clock security, complete annual preservation and 24 x 7 power back up amenities. There are quite a few segments of apartments that present the living option of 4 BHK flats together with servant quarters. There are numerous places in Gurgaon real estate property that propose wonderful existing choice for tiny families in 1BHK / 2BHK apartments at localities for instance Sohna Road, Golf Links, MG Road, DLF Phase I, II, IV, Palam Vihar, and Mehrauli. The apartments at these regions are not far from diverse corporate office and houses complexes on top of well-developed market services. The beautiful and profit giving apartments for rent in property in Gurgoan has entitled the awareness of real estate investors. Since Gurgaon’s property market continues to be mounting by leaps and bounds, the rental turnover is liable to appreciate by 10 to 15 % for the next couple of years.

Tagged as: conventional, country, favorable facilities, ferocious, gurgaon, luxurious, money, property in gurgaon, property-market, real estate, requirement, round-the-clock, since-gurgaon, the-requirement

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Sahara Moves to Supreme Court against Sebi’s Refund Order

by Paul Joseph June 28, 2011 Uncategorized

A Sahara Group firm has moved the Supreme Court against market regulator Sebi’s order asking it to return money collected from investors through a scheme along with 15 per cent interest. A vacation bench headed by Justice P Sathasivam directed the matter to be listed for hearing on July 4, the first day after the vacation. Sahara India has criticised market regulator’s move to make its order public when the matter is pending before the Supreme Court. Sebi on June 23 had directed two Sahara group companies — Sahara India Real Estate Corp (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corp (SHICL) — to refund the money raised from investors through optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCDs) with an annual interest of 15 per cent from the date of receipt of money. The Sahara group firm sought directions to Sebi to remove the order from its website and restrain the market regulator and its officials from publicising the order which it has challenged. The Sahara’s counsel argued that the company wants Sebi to expunge the parts of the order directing it to return money with interest to the investors as it has created a panic among the investors. “The 99-page order (by Sebi) has created panic among the investors. They (Sebi) are holding press conferences and giving out releases about the order,” he said.

Tagged as: delhi, estate-corp, gurgaon, matter, money, noida, real estate developers, real estate india, sahara, sahara-group, sahara-housing, supreme, supreme-court, vacation

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SEBI Orders Sahara Group to Return Money Raised from Investor

by Paul Joseph June 24, 2011

India’s market regulator Thursday ordered two companies of the Sahara Group to return the money raised from investors from the issuance of six optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCDs) for failure to adhere to local laws. The Securities and Exchange Board of India, or SEBI, said it ordered Sahara Commodity Services Corp. Ltd., earlier known as Sahara India Real Estate Corp. Ltd., and Sahara Housing Investment Corp. Ltd. to return the money as the two companies had “mobilized huge public money in the guise of private placements” without adhering to the regulatory framework. The regulator also ordered the two companies to pay interest at the rate of 15% per annum from the time of the receipt of the money from investors till disbursement. OFCDs are bonds issued to investors which gives them the option to fully convert the debt repayable by the company into equity shares. The Sahara Group companies had argued before Indian courts that the issuance of the bonds were private and hence out of the purview of the market regulator. They also argued that the bonds issued by the companies were neither shares nor debentures in its strict sense. “The two companies have issued OFCDs to 6.6 million investors,” SEBI said to reason that the capital raising exercise was not private in nature. Also, OFCDs do come under the definition of bonds which are under the purview of the regulator, SEBI added. SEBI also barred the two companies from raising funds from the securities market till they repay investors. Also, the regulator barred the billionaire chairman of the Sahara Group–Subrata Roy Sahara and other directors of the companies from associating with any listed firm or a company which intends to raise money from the public till investors are repaid. The order will be in effect subject to the orders of the Supreme Court of India, the market regulator said on its web site Thursday. A Sahara Group spokesman did not immediately respond to call or an email seeking a comment.

Tagged as: billionaire, bonds, delhi, investment, issuance, kolkata, market, money, real estate developers, regulator, sahara, sahara-housing, supreme-court

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Experts Doubt ‘Percentage Completion’ Method of Revenue Calculation by Real Estate Developers

by Paul Joseph June 23, 2011

Dollops of discretion and self regulation punctuate the way real estate companies recognise revenues, placing a question mark over the accuracy of this headline number and making redundant any comparison across the peer set. For example, DLF, India’s largest real estate company, has a unique entry in its financial statements, ‘unbilled receivables’, that accounts for three fourths of its revenues. These are essentially revenues recognised by the company in excess of what is due from customers. In 2010-11, this accounted for Rs 7,200 crore of DLF’s total revenues of Rs 9,560 crore. The reason DLF and other real estate companies are able to claim what they are yet to receive is because of the revenue-recognition method they follow: the ‘percentage completion’ method. Under this, a builder recognises revenues not when a project is finished, but continuously, in proportion to the money spent by it on the project. So, in a given year, if a builder has spent 30% of the estimated cost of a project, it can recognise 30% revenues from it. Next year, if the spend increases to 50%, then it can recognise 20% more revenues, and so on. “This avoids spiking of revenues when the project gets completed,” says Ashok Tyagi, group chief financial officer of DLF. Now, this is where the discretion comes in. There are no standard rules on what constitutes cost or when revenues can begin to be recognised. There are also no certifiable independent checks on how much of a project has been completed. Tyagi says DLF uses surveyors to certify its project cost and architects the area. But institutional investors and observers don’t trust these notings. “Percentage of completion method is a leap of faith,” says N Venkatram, partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells , an audit and advisory firm. “A lot of it is based on what other professionals certify.” The question of faith is pronounced in the current market situation, where projects are getting delayed and seeing cost overruns. According to PropEquity , a property research firm, nearly half of the 930,000 residential units under construction in the country due for delivery between 2011 and 2013 are likely to be delayed by up to 18 months. Companies are able to use the percentage of completion method to bolster their revenues. At the same time, since they are able to add incremental revenues from a project, they don’t have an incentive to meet their delivery commitments to customers. “This is one business (real estate) I cannot comprehend,” says the founder of a mid-sized investment bank, not wanting to be identified. DLF apart, other real estate majors like Unitech, Indiabulls, Sobha Developers, Puravankara and Parsvnath also follow the percentage of completion method. Sometimes with different outcomes. “We don’t have unbilled receivables,” says R Nagaraju, chief financial officer of Unitech, India’s second-largest real estate company. “Instead, we have customers paying in excess of what we have recognised under the percentage-completion method.” According to Nagaraju, in 2009-10, such customer advances amounted to around Rs 550 crore, nearly a fifth of its revenue. He declined to provide the latest numbers, saying it will be disclosed in the company’s 2010-11 annual report. Oberoi Realty is in a similar situation. For 2010-11, the company showed Rs 392 crore under ‘revenue in excess of billing’, accounting for 40% of its total revenues of Rs 984 crore. Saumil Daru, its chief financial officer, says: “We do not find merit in deferring income to the end of the project. It’s better to show income and profit periodically as they come. Being a listed company, we have to show our results on a quarterly basis.” Even as real estate companies stand united in vouching for the percentage-completion method, there are differences in the specifics they adopt. Two in particular: what all they include in the project cost and when they start recognising revenues from a project under construction. In the absence of statutory guidelines from the accounting regulator, companies use their own discretion. First, the project cost. Some companies (DLF) include both land and construction cost. Others ( Unitech and Oberoi) exclude the land cost and take only the construction cost. “Land for a real estate project is like steel in a motor car project. I see no reason why land should be excluded,” says Tyagi of DLF. Counters Daru of Oberoi: “A company’s cost goes up substantially in the first year. We avoid this.”

Tagged as: accounting, dlf, faridabad, india, money, percentage, professionals, project, real estate, real estate developers, unitech

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Gang of Fraudulent Real Estate Managers Busted by Delhi Police

by Paul Joseph May 21, 2011

Delhi Police have busted a gang of fraudulent real estate managers who had tricked people into buying land in Masharashtra towns at ‘low rates’ and fled. “With the arrest of one Arvind Kumar, a resident of Paschim Vihar, we have busted a gang involved in cheating more than 200 people in Delhi and Pune of crores of rupees. Arvind Kumar Singh and his associates, including two of his real brothers, used to target the middle class people and cheated them of their hard earned money,” said Arun Kampani, DCP (special cell). “We had received a request from Khadak police station in Pune to help probe the role of the directors and promoters of Micron Marketing & Services Pvt. Ltd located at Paschim Vihar in Delhi and its branch office at Shiv Kripa Building, Sukravarpet, Swargate, Pune. The company came into existence in 2006,” said the DCP. “They earned huge sums of money by organising seminars at several places in different cities of India, where they used to lure the innocent public by saying that they were providing the 1,000-square-foot plots in Mahabaleshwar, Sholapur, Pune, Nasik, etc for just Rs 7,000 to Rs 8,000. They used the chain marketing system for this purpose and earned crores of rupees by cheating about 200 innocent people. In 2009, they closed all their branches including their Paschim Vihar office. When a case of cheating was registered against the accused, they were on the run,” said the officer. On receipt of the above request from Pune Police, a team of ASI Ranjit Kumar, ASI Vikram Singh, head constable Yashpal Singh, head constable Banney Singh and constable Ravi Dutt reached Paschim Vihar, New Delhi but the premises were found locked. Thereafter local sources were deployed and around 4pm on May 18 a source informed that one of the accused, Arvind Kumar Singh, would be coming to Mandi House by the metro. The raiding team of Special Cell reached at Metro Station, Mandi House, where the informer met them. After verifying the information, ASI Ranjit Kumar laid a trap at both the gates of the Mandi House metro station. Around 5.30pm a person was seen coming out of gate No. 3 of the metro station, who was identified by the informer as Arvind Kumar Singh. The special cell team apprehended the person whose complete identity was revealed as Arvind Kumar, a resident of Paschim Vihar. During his interrogation, Arvind Kumar said that he, along with his brother Yogender Pratap Singh and one Rakesh Vaishya had started a company by the name M/s Micron Marketing & Services Pvt Ltd and made a lot of money by cheating hundreds of people by promising them plots at different places in several states. They operated this land racket during the period 2006-2009. During this period hundreds of innocent people deposited the money with the company for getting plots at cheaper rates. However, in the year 2009, after collecting crores of rupees they closed the Company and were absconding ever since. Pune Police has been after them ever since. They were arrested by Special Cell u/s 41.1 Cr PC. Police Officers of PS Khadak, Pune City, Maharashtra were informed and they have reached Delhi to take arrest of the accused. The accused is produced in the court by Special Cell and his custody has been handed over to Pune Police on the directions of the court.

Tagged as: accused, arvind, delhi, directions, india, mandi, mandi-house, money, noida, police, pune, ranjit-kumar, real estate, real estate trends

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Supreme Court Questions Sahara about Fund Raising Schemes

by Paul Joseph May 10, 2011 Uncategorized

Counsel for the Sahara group of companies came in for some uncomfortable queries from the Supreme Court on Monday on its appeal against the bar on its recent fund-raising schemes. Subrata RoyThe Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had first barred two group entitites and their promoters from raising money. The Allahabad high court had, last month, declined to interfere with the order, also rapping the Sahara group in the process. The SC on Monday asked Sahara India Real Estate Corporation to produce before it on Thursday the proforma in which investors were asked to apply for debentures. A bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia also asked the corporation to produce the list of its agents employed to raise money. The court said it was not clear about the concept of the Optionally Fully Convertible Debenture through which the firm said it was raising the money. It asked Soli Sorabjee, counsel for the Sahara group, to explain it, but he was unable to. “If you don’t understand it, how can rural people understand it?” asked the court. Sebi had demanded full details on applicants for the scheme and said it was issuing the stop-order due to non-compliance. Sorabjee argued the company shouldn’t be held responsible if investors gave false addresses and like particulars. Sahara is also protesting at Sebi’s public advertisement on the matter, telling investors to keep away, as having given it a bad name and helping its competitors. The Allahabad HC had dismissed the plea regarding OFCD schemes floated by Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Ltd.

Tagged as: against-the-bar, corporation, court-on-monday, exchange-board, gurgaon, money, noida, real estate, real estate developers, real estate trends, sahara-housing, sahara-india, supreme, the-corporation

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India Real Estate Property Investments – A Good and Safe Investment

by Paul Joseph April 9, 2011 Uncategorized

When you are seeking a beneficial avenue to put in your money to, investing in Real Estate Properties should be on your main concern list. There are heaps of alternatives for you to prefer from when you invest in India real estate. The property market has a mixture of kinds of properties that you can want in and each has its own benefits. As a purchaser, you should be able to decide when will be the right time and right place to buy a Property in India . Being able to make the correct choice for the Real estate you are investing to is significant so to avoid making errors while you are in the process of scheduling your investment. The major mischief that mostly people make is not doing their research on the land they are planning to buy. Since place is the vital thing that you should consider, you require to carefully study the region where you intended to purchase houses. Regardless of how top the house you have pick to buy if the place is not right then it cannot be consider a best deal and may not offer you any returns. Both renting and buying can present you a lifelong income. Though if you intend to buy a home or any Property for investment purposes you should learn about the market condition of the area you are targeting. It is sensible for you to understand the latest trend in home prices and analyze the market and value of tinvestment propery before you take steps in obtaining a mortgage loan and further financing alternatives. Be wise enough to take correct dealings including desiring the location of the home, comparing prices of residences within the vicinity of the property you’re aiming to buy, consulting a real estate agent, and having the dwelling be examined by a professional inspector.

Tagged as: carefully-study, house, india, investment, investment property, location, market, money, professional inspector, property in india., property-market, real estate agent, research

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Delhi Property Boom

by Paul Joseph March 3, 2011 Uncategorized

The ever-increasing foreign investments in property in Delhi have untied new boulevards for the money-making properties in Delhi . Set up multi-nationals working from Delhi have made achievement stories for others to pursue. The requirement for office gap sparkly international standards of the MNCs is in trend. As well, as increasingly public plan to pause from the schedule 9-5 jobs and force into running their own industries, the stipulate for office space enlarges ten-folds. The populace detonation in Delhi as a result of massive immigration of manpower hoists the requirement for residential properties . To the extent that buying a residential land is alarmed the rich can do thus at any spot of instance, the crisis lies with the middle lower-class and the poor. Both the government and the personal developers have taken a memo of this and are currently aiming to offer reasonably priced residential choices. Special schemes are being brought to put up townships for the poorer parts of the culture. Manpower accessibility, cheaper raw materials and cost-effectiveness to dash industrial units in the Delhi NCR area has flashed a row in the midst of industrialists to encash the accessible resources and the occasion. There were days when one had to jog in diverse paths to shop for clothes, jewelry, footwear, or rush to eateries and movie theatres located at two diverse ends. The beginning of shopping centers has changed the technique you shop, feast or observe a flick. Shopping precincts have fetched in the impression of the lot under one roof. The multi-storied shopping precincts have everything to present, right from your essential requirements to activity choices. The p roperty in Delhi has a soundless invader in the form of retail part. Shopping centers and complexes are growing in each nook and corner of the metropolis.

Tagged as: crisis, culture, delhi, essential, government, located-at-two, metropolis, money, personal, property in delhi, the-requirement

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