Category: Real estate

Previously, there has only been a private contract between the consumer and the developer and a complete lack of governance mechanism in the real estate industry. However, now with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) Act (2016) passed, the primary aim is to provide greater transparency in the marketing and execution of real estate projects and to attract foreign direct investment into the same, in the short term. The stringent act proposes to protect the buyer by making the seller liable to pay the customer the same interest as demanded of the buyer. Allocated to a bank account, the act ensures developers to park 70% of the project funds instead of investing in multiple projects at a time, thus delivering the flats to the consumers as per timeline and keeping the consumers in the forefront. The act seeks to keep all developers accountable with timely possessions and keeps buyers in the loop with appropriate information on what they are paying for. Additionally, buyers benefit by the regulated broker environment and assure them a 5-year defect liability period.

The current scenario for buyers is undoubtedly favorable and RERA has been touted as a key reform towards greater governance. It was wholly introduced to protect consumers, although one among its several controversial clauses states that if a buyer defaults on an installment, a homebuyer too can be penalized. Under the new draft rules, there is a marked increase in burden on flat purchasers to pay their timely dues, whereas builders after terminating the agreement have full discretion to sell to another buyer immediately, this has only lead to increase in disparity between buyers and sellers. However, experts suggest that such a provision may not be raised against buyers in majority of the cases as largely home buyers would represent as the aggrieved parties who would be moving court for resolution of grievances against such developers. In fact, with the penalty provision in the new act, it’s only trying to achieve a nuanced stance between the rights of both transacting parties, resulting in greater accountability in the sector. Lastly, it’s safe to say that this issue should never crop up should the buyer be genuine.

RERA should eventually decrease the practical problems being faced by real estate consumers now that efforts are being made to increase the access to information. This initiative attempts to draw out a balance and would be an immediate success, once all parties make collaborative efforts in the right direction.

Rapid urbanization in India has not only boosted the country’s housing sector but also presented complex affordability challenges that need to be resolved to harness economic, social and environmental opportunities associated with urbanization. Our country requires more than five million units to meet the aggregate annual demand in the affordable segment. To plug the gap in the supply chain, which is merely 10% of the total demand, we as developers need to bolster our execution capabilities to tackle not just the challenge of access to affordable housing, but also delve to improve living conditions on a macro scale.

It is safe to say that efforts have been made to privatize, deregulate and promote private sector to stir things up in the affordable housing market space, but the reality could not be further from the truth. In the article that follows, I explore why innovation is critical to affordable housing projects in current times.

Broadly speaking, “Affordable housing refers to any housing that meets some form of affordability criterion, which could be income level of the family, size of the dwelling unit or affordability in terms of EMI size or ratio of house price to annual income.”

When we talk about affordability, the land component is fixed whereas the building component requires continuous research and innovation in incremental building practice. Besides, India as a country is big on self- construction. Urbanization is happening in places where people are constructing with a contractor or a mason. A greater stake in innovation, especially in large-scale social housing projects, has to begin with mason training, material usage, improving densification plans at city level and inclusive zoning in the master plan. In the existing political landscape, if the state can step in and arrive at clear guidelines as to what affordable housing should be and provide approvals without any constraints, then the onus is on us developers to apply ideas and deliver truly affordable houses to customers.

However, for affordable housing to flourish, three critical factors need to come together. First is capital in real estate, second is ability to deal with the local reality in India (land, approvals, sand mafias and so on varying in each state) and third is mindset for affordable housing, where low cost and high volume production is the focus. Additionally, without proper data on rural affordability and urban affordability it is unscientific to design a solution.

To repair the affordable housing ecosystem, we need to have long- standing dialogues between our decision makers to voice innovation in affordability as a pressing social need and an opportunity for all.

 

 

 

For healthier cities in the future, a paradigm shift to energy efficient strategies that enables growth such as, constructing cleaner, is fundamental. When we speak about building better and more efficient cities, India’s rapid economic development, fast growth of rural to urban migration and employment brings with itself an array of challenges that has resulted in an unprecedented increase in energy use and related greenhouse emissions. Additionally, there is a greater need for climate- resilient cities as the impact of climate change is fast becoming daunting, especially for vulnerable communities in urban areas. A critical question arises of how can we as developers, turn these challenges into business advantages, as well as look at it as a national opportunity for clean energy to power cities while reducing the impact of climate change?

 

One way to strengthen the Indian real estate market is through boosting building codes and incentives. It is estimated that by the year 2030, approximately 3,500 twh of cumulative electricity could be saved, the equivalent of 358 million homes based on the current annual consumption level for electrified households, by instilling stronger building efficiency codes and ratings programs such as Leadership in Environment and Energy Design (LEED) and Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA) in India’s commercial buildings. As these huge potential savings demonstrate, widespread adoption of the Energy Conservation Building Codes (ECBC) in Indian states and greater awareness and adoption in ratings programs could provide powerful energy savings as demand rises, while fighting climate change. It is also observed that ECBC compliant buildings can use 40- 60 percent less energy than conventional buildings, which if enforced nationwide in the near future, could yield annual energy savings up to 1.7 billion kwh.

Whilst there is an urgent need for developers, building owners, financial institutions and policymakers to participate in the discourse, to achieve optimal benefits of energy efficiency, we have to aim at reducing energy use, saving costs, increasing worker productivity, increasing asset value and market advantage. Stakeholders across the buildings market can work together to ensure that sustainable and efficient cities become a reality in India.

 

A robust establishment of skill- based manufacturing industries has led to fast- paced urbanization in the southern region, housing 102.8 million people in just urban areas (27.3% of India’s total urban population). The accelerated pace of economic development in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala contributed to 25.4% of the national domestic product (NDP) and has marginally increased in the past 5 years. Whilst maintaining a strong focus on the manufacturing sector for industries such as automobiles, textiles, pharmaceuticals, defense and aerospace, these southern states have gradually become attractive centers for the service industry, especially when we talk about technology. Overall, the four states house close to 50% of the total number of SEZs in the country. Together with industrial growth, IT remains the dominant driver for the real estate market.

Real estate, earlier an unorganized, family-driven practice, has slowly and steadily driven to becoming more organized and professionally practiced due to increasing competition in the region, however, operational hurdles for the industry is yet to be tackled.

First, building a sustainable customer base is a recurring challenge for most realtors. A customer typically engages with a real estate developer for a minimum of two to three years – from the launch of a project to construction completion and finally possession. During this period, developers should ensure a positive experience to enhance the possibility of reinvestments and referrals – the key drivers of sales in the real estate space. Today, customers are highly aware of the offerings of the market and expect the best-in-class service. Unlike the customer-seller relationship trends in other industries, customers maintain long-term relations with their real estate developers. Given this larger context of “customer relationship,” developers compete on their customer service skills and try positioning it as a key-differentiating factor to build their brand image and make sales effective, with a vision to enhance credibility overtime. The quality and effectiveness of communication with customers at various stages of the project life cycle requires real estate companies to build technological robust systems to keep up with customers’ expectations, abolish inconsistent practices, have an edge over other real estate developers by aiming to deliver a truly differentiated customer experience.

Second, there has been a visible change in product mix by developers due to muted demand and oversupply in Chennai and urban centers around the region. A massive oversupply in retail real estate has forced developers to either shelve projects or convert mall projects into mixed- use destinations or residential projects. Additionally, the demand supply mismatch has put a cap on the rising rentals for mall in various locations across cities. Most of the developers in southern India have revisited development plans for their mixed-use projects in Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad.

India’s real estate industry has witnessed a paradigm shift from traditional finance to an era of structured finance, private equity and public offering. REITs have been in existence in developed economies since several years and provide a stable investment alternative for retail investors, as well as the real estate sector. Taking cue from developed economies, the Indian REIT regime echoes the internationally followed concepts, methods and principles.

Real estate investment trusts (REITs) is an investment vehicle that can be used to attract private investment in the infrastructure and real estate sectors, and also relieve the burden on formal banking institutions. Regulations governing REITs were introduced in India as recently as 2014.  REITs offer several advantages to people who do not have sufficient money to invest in real estate but desire to own property. Other than Unit Holders/Investors, the other primary players in REITs constitute the Trustee, Sponsors, Managers and Principal Valuer.

The India REIT regime is aimed at providing:

• an organized market for retail investors to invest and be part of the Indian real estate growth story
• a professionally managed ecosystem that is risk averse and is aimed at protecting the interest of public
• an exit platform for the real estate sector to ease out liquidity burden

Investments through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV)

REITS may invest either directly or through a SPV. Where the investment is through a SPV, it is required to hold controlling interest and not less than 50% equity in such SPV. Also, the SPV is required to hold 80% equity in the REIT assets. It is to be noted that multi layer SPV structure may not be permitted and multiple schemes under REIT are not permitted.

REITs Key Advantages

REITs will help to finance, develop and manage infrastructure that drives growth and productivity in a developing country like India. In addition, they can facilitate the process of setting up large-scale housing for ordinary citizens, key workers and the disadvantaged. In short, these securitization vehicles can help to build enhanced communities that will enrich hundreds of millions of lives across the sub-continent.

India’s REITs can also help to bolster smart urbanization, underpinned by economic and social infrastructure. They can capitalize roads, vital community utilities, data centers, logistic facilities and transport systems, to name a few. Furthermore, they are efficient platforms for implementation of social infrastructure, including childcare, senior citizen care, health facilities and students’ accommodation.

In India, in the absence of a regulator for the real estate sector, introduction of REITs is a welcome move that promises to bring in liquidity, transparency, better governance, organized platform for retail investment and an ecosystem, which is professionally managed and protects investors. Largely, the Indian REIT regime is at par with the international REIT format and seems to have what is needed to provide the right impetus to the Indian real estate sector.

Although a lot has been done liberalize investments in REITs, further taxation and regulatory incentives are required to make REITs a real success in India and attract the desired investors. In light of the above, it is imperative for the Government to fast track taxation and other regulatory amendments and reforms to promote REITS in India in order for it to have the desired effect on the economy.

The market for REITs is relatively nascent in India. However, with various enabling factors such as the growth of the economy and the middle class, and a concomitant need for housing and infrastructure, we are positive that the market for these investment vehicles will witness considerable growth in the near future.

The Indian real estate sector has undergone a phenomenal transition in the past decade due to accelerated rate of urbanization, liberalization of the sector through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), sound development of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and overall increased competitiveness and job creation. Prior to 2014, what looked like extreme urbanization trends concentrated in only five global cities of India such as, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai, the Smart City initiative seems to have shifted the discourse to investments in tier 1 and tier 2 cities. Let us observe how the development of India’s smart cities becoming significant catalysts for economic growth impacts the Indian infrastructure in the years to come.

Urban areas are expected to house 40% of India’s population and contribute 75% of India’s GDP by 2030. This requires comprehensive development of physical, institutional, social and economic infrastructure. Smart Cities is an innovative initiative by the Government of India towards improving the quality of life and attracting people and investment, setting in motion a virtuous cycle of growth and development. Projections are such that, not only will investment into sectors like roads, airports and smart cities create better quality infrastructure, but it will also generate private equity investment opportunities into the core sectors. Though it is a very nascent concept especially in India because of the existing socio-economic conditions, but an effective leadership and an optimum utilization of the resources by the players in each sector involved in this concept can deliver smart infrastructure.

In the approach to the Smart Cities Mission, the objective is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure, a clean and sustainable environment and application of ‘Smart’ Solutions, thus, improving quality of life of all citizens. The focus is on sustainable and inclusive development, catalyzing the creation of similar Smart Cities in various regions and parts of the country. The mission requires development through retrofitting, redevelopment and greenfield planning applied across cities, which in turn creates employment opportunities in the real estate sector. First, the growth of a Smart City project can give way to massive opportunity, particularly when we talk about demand for affordable homes. The smart cities projects are increasingly allocating enough land and housing for low-income groups (LIGs), thereby increasing the demand for realty in the country. Second, smart cities also offer an excellent investment options with a sustainable scope for price appreciation, especially for a long-term investment purview. Third, the smart cities project will be an amalgamation of commercial and residential projects in India, in close quarters. Evolution of these smart cities will push the demand of office spaces as well as hotels, in addition to service apartments and shopping malls. The real estate sector contributes about 6% to India’s GDP. With the vision of building 100 smart cities, many expect this share to increase to 10-12 percent by 2022. Thus, the developers will get a huge window of opportunity to offer new projects in the upcoming smart cities, which boost the regional, social and economic infrastructure.