Source: Indian realty news

Carrefour Plans to come up with 4-5 Retail Stores in India by end-2010
Carrefour, the world’s second largest retailer, has secured four properties in four cities across India and plans to set up 4 to 5 cash-and-carry stores by the end of 2010, The French retail giant has signed for properties averaging about 100,000 square feet each in New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad and is in the process of signing up a fifth property in Mumbai, the sources said.
Vascon Engineers Launches First Premium Housing Project in Tamil Nadu
Vascon Engineers has announced the launch of Tulips, their first premium housing project in Tamil Nadu, which is being developed in association with Pricol Properties Ltd, the leading real estate company in Coimbatore. Addressing the media on the occasion, R Vasudevan, managing director of Vascon Engineers, said: “We are very happy that we are making a beginning of our real estate activities in south by launching this project in Coimbatore in association with Pricol Properties. A couple of months ago, we were in Chennai for the assembly building work. It would appear that Tamil Nadu will be home to several Vascon projects in the years to come. We are confident to earn laurels in the south too just as we are in West.”
Prozone Comes up with three housing projects
Prozone Enterprises, a joint venture between Provogue India and UK’s Liberty International is planning to launch three residential projects in Indore, Nagpur and Coimbatore by the year-end. The first phase of the housing project will span 34 acres across the three cities, said Salil Chaturvedi, deputy managing director, Provogue India. “We have done this to leverage our mall assets,” said Chaturvedi.
Service Tax Haunts Flat Buyers
Already burdened by galloping property prices, flat buyers are now faced with another fait accompli. For the past one month, many city builders have been asking purchasers to start paying up the 2.5% service tax announced in the Union budget. Despite strong representations made to the Centre by those in the construction industry, the finance ministry is unmoved. Although the official notification from the ministry is expected by any time. The service tax will be charged on only those residential projects which are still under construction or where a completed building has not received its occupation certificate.
The Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (Credai) opposed the proposed service tax imposition, saying it would ultimately make buying houses more difficult. Credai has stated that such a move will lead to double taxation. Credai chairman Kumar Gera said, “It is the duty of the builder to collect this service tax from the purchaser and deposit it with the department. The developer is just a postman. It is ridiculous and makes a mockery of the government’s thrust on making housing affordable.’’ Gera further added that the buyer was already burdened with other direct taxes like the stamp duty (5%) and registration charges (1%) on the total value of the flat. A 1% VAT is also in the pipeline. Besides this, the builder has to pay development charges to the local municipal body and this amount could range from anywhere between Rs 100 to Rs 200 a square foot in various towns and cities of the state.
Premium residential housing is back in vogue
Premium residential housing is back in vogue with a tangible improvement in the real estate sector. To match the increasing demand, developers are launching new projects in this space, adding to their present portfolio. Shriram Properties, which has launched a premium housing project in Vizag, is planning two more projects in Bangalore and Chennai. According to global real estate consultancy Cushman and Wakefield, developers are planning to launch about 9,000 homes in the super luxury segment across major cities in India over next two to four years. “In value terms, demand for premium housing has witnessed a growth of 10-15 per cent in the last three months and prices have increased on rising demand,” Shweta Jain, director, residential, Cushman and Wakefield said. Usually non-resident Indians (NRIs) and high net worth individuals (HNIs) are the chief buyers of premium properties that range in prices from Rs 1 crore to Rs 3.5 crore depending on property specifics.
Commercial Real Estate Chennai
Mr Jayant Hemdev, Business Director, Hemdev’s International Realty Services, says there is demand for prime retail locations. There is simply no free space. Except for a handful of malls there is no ‘standalone,’ quality retail space in the city. For office space, enquiries are resuming and again quality is the key. Here the main issues are car park space, connectivity and maintenance charges, he says. To these Mr Abdur Ravoof, President, Chennai Real Estate Agents Association (CREAA) adds - for retail space it is not as if there is no demand, but retailers are now a lot more choosy when it comes to setting up shop, says
Hemdev’s International has handled significant volumes in the last one month for office space and the market in general has seen over one lakh sq.ft of space being taken up, he says. Transaction sizes range from 25,000 sq.ft to lots of 5,000-10,000 sq.ft. The point is that apart from IT buildings, there is not much supply of quality office space for others. So, though there is a drop of about 20 per cent in lease rates as compared to peak periods, demand continues to outstrip supply. Demand for office space is from a wide range of sectors, including automobiles, engineering, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, says Mr Hemdev. Industrial development on the periphery of the city is happening up to over 100 km and that is spurring office space demand in the city, he says. There is nearly 25 lakh sq.ft of non-IT office space in the market, estimates Mr Ravoof. The lease rates average Rs 22-60 a sq.ft per month. The key locations are Nungambakkam, Adayar, T’Nagar, Anna Nagar and parts of Anna Salai from Teynampet to Guindy. Rail connectivity is the key, he says.