Jaipur Tomorrow!

Going to Jaipur tomorrow for a long deserved vacation. Will write about it in the coming days with pictures.

Jaipur Tomorrow!

Going to Jaipur tomorrow for a long deserved vacation. Will write about it in the coming days with pictures.

Profit Sharing – Become a Co-Investor With Me, Ground Floor, Both Sides Open Shop, Garden & 60 Meter Road Facing, Underconstruction Super Mall Property, Sector 66, Gurgaon, India

Profit Sharing – Become a Co-Investor With Me, Ground Floor, Both Sides Open Shop, Garden & 60 Meter Road Facing, Underconstruction Super Mall Property, Sector 66, Gurgaon, India

Property Name: Landmark the Mall

Website: http://www.landmarkthemall.com/

Shop Size: 820 sq. ft.

Possession Date: December 2010

Investment Size (Your Share): Approximately Rs. 45,00,000 / US$ 90,000

I have paid 45% of the total base price to the builder.

The person who joins in will agree to pay X% of property value (on construction linked basis) and will get X% joint ownership in the property.

My contribution will not pass on any interest burden to my co-investor. Therefore he/ she gets to use my share of the invested capital (interest free) to make a profit in future).

Plus:

(i) You hedge your risk by co-investing with a decent partner (I am a regular guy with a regular job);

(ii) You don’t have to worry about any down payment (I have already made that for us);

(iii) You save huge interest on payments to the builder (as I have already paid around Rs. 40,000 lakhs);

(iv) Your payment to the builder will be structured – linked to construction and therefore you only part with the money in installments once every 3-4 months (this is further hedging as you will be paying as the construction actually unfolds); and

(v) Finally, since exposure is joint and shared, we can hold till for as long as we want to.

Profit Sharing – Become a Co-Investor With Me, Ground Floor, Both Sides Open Shop, Garden & 60 Meter Road Facing, Underconstruction Super Mall Property, Sector 66, Gurgaon, India

Property Name: Landmark the Mall

Website: http://www.landmarkthemall.com/

Shop Size: 820 sq. ft.

Possession Date: December 2010

Investment Size (Your Share): Approximately Rs. 45,00,000 / US$ 90,000

I have paid 45% of the total base price to the builder.

The person who joins in will agree to pay X% of property value (on construction linked basis) and will get X% joint ownership in the property.

My contribution will not pass on any interest burden to my co-investor. Therefore he/ she gets to use my share of the invested capital (interest free) to make a profit in future).

Plus:

(i) You hedge your risk by co-investing with a decent partner (I am a regular guy with a regular job);

(ii) You don’t have to worry about any down payment (I have already made that for us);

(iii) You save huge interest on payments to the builder (as I have already paid around Rs. 40,000 lakhs);

(iv) Your payment to the builder will be structured – linked to construction and therefore you only part with the money in installments once every 3-4 months (this is further hedging as you will be paying as the construction actually unfolds); and

(v) Finally, since exposure is joint and shared, we can hold till for as long as we want to.

Real Life Blogging

Once a blogger always a blogger … I guess.

What ever happened to mutual respect and benefit.

I write about stuff and you see it … vice versa.

But then what?

The other day someone sent me a mail to read the blog they had posted. I ignored the request. He then sent me another one days after. I ignored it. He persisted. I then finally saw his blog and liked the stuff posted.

Finally, a few days after, I left a comment and someone commented on my comment and then some commented on my commenters comment and my comment.

After a while the whole thing became addictive. I would check this guys blog more than I would check mine, to see if there was someone who had commented.

This is what every blogger would love and want.

It is a great ego booster and pumps up your morale.

But, this is where is all ends … but should not.

How do we make the experience more alive and real.

The only way I could think of making blogging more meaningful and alive would be to keep blogging more and more and more.

It is like going to a park everyday … day after day.

There are people who are regulars and they bring people with them friends, visitors, casual walkins all.

You say hi to the ones you meet regularly and like to chat with and they introduce you to others and they to others.

So, be faithful to your blog and to people who you blog with.

Bloggers are world people and blogging is a world activity.

Bloggers are the only community that makes webbing sensible and real.

But it depends entirely on you to get blogging real life.

Trade Junk!

Anyone interested in my junk!

Have lots of stuff that I can give away.

Am sure you guys have some that you could live without.

Take my stuff and give me yours.

Or just take mine.

Let me know if I can be of help.

Lots of stuff lying around for years.

Can start with a baby chair that we got from London last year.

If you are in Gurgaon or anywhere and will pay for the postage, the chair is yours for free.

Then there is a dining table, very basic, we could do without.

Shoes, clothes, toys, books, etc.

Wisper your need and I will shout in response.

Send me a list of what you have.

If you have nothing, my stuff is where you could being your home with.

If you have everything, it will not harm you giving.

Lets trade.

Lets Trade Lives!

Are you alive.

If yes, I want to know more.

If not, why not.

Send my fellow bloggers stuff about you on my blog and they will send you stuff about them.

They will. They will.

Imagine, someone somewhere somewhat somehow someday.

Imagine, here now real alive.

Life’s moments are special.

Profit Sharing – Become a Co-Investor With Me, Ground Floor, Both Sides Open Shop, Garden & 60 Meter Road Facing, Underconstruction Super Mall Property, Sector 66, Gurgaon, India

 Property Name: Landmark the Mall

 Website: http://www.landmarkthemall.com/

Shop Size: 820 sq. ft.

Possession Date: December 2010

Investment Size: Approximately Rs. 45,00,000 / US$ 90,000

I have paid 45% of the total base price to the builder.

The person who joins in will agree to pay X% of property value (on construction linked basis) and will get X% joint ownership in the property.

My contribution will not pass on any interest burden to my co-investor. Therefore he/ she gets to use my share of the invested capital (interest free to make a profit in future).

In return for my first investment, I retain the right to decide the time to sell. On selling, we share the profits in the same ratio as our investment.

Together lets rock the world.  

It’s Better To Pay A Higher EMI And Buy A House – Go and Buy A House Right Now, Says Pranav Ansal MD, Ansal API Properties

Go and buy a house right now, says Pranav Ansal MD, Ansal API Urmila Rao Source: http://money.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?sid=10&cid=70&articleid=7669

Even if loans are expensive, Pranav Ansal, vice-chairman and managing director, Ansal API, says people would be better off paying higher EMIs than continuing to stay on rent. At the same time, he feels that competition will make developers offer something extra to homebuyers and that mid-income housing is where the real  market is as most buyers are looking for homes in this space. Excerpts from an interview with Urmila Rao How would you term the current real estate market scenario? Is it price correction or a crash? It is not a crash. There has been no dip in the sales of projects by major developers. The products of reputed builders are selling and their volumes are still the same. However, a lot of new builders with credibility issues are not able to sell because customers are skeptical about putting in money fearing failure in delivery. The slowdown has happened only to this extent. Industry body Assocham’s report says that the banks’ home loan disbursal rates have declined. Rating agency Fitch recently talked about a 16 per cent drop in home registrations in Mumbai. There have been no dips at all in some markets. We operate in 16 cities in northern India and I have not seen a decline in any of these cities. I also don’t see any decrease in sales in Mumbai. HDFC has seen 60 per cent growth in home loans. Well, they were expecting 100 per cent growth, and it is just 60 per cent. But still, there is growth. How do you justify the discount offers, freebies and schemes that even reputed developers are offering? Are these not a strategy to boost falling sales? If the market is very competitive, then people have to give various sops. It’s a part of marketing in areas where there is oversupply. We did that in some of our projects. But in projects where there isn’t too much competition, we don’t offer anything. Sops are purely a result of the demand and supply equation. In cities like Lucknow and Jaipur, where we are the largest developer by far, we don’t give any sops.  Our scheme of EMI holiday (paying EMIs after the possession) is the future for all property transactions. Ten years down the road, 90 per cent of the homebuyers will be on EMI holiday schemes.  Why didn’t the EMI waiver scheme start earlier when the residential market was on an upswing? Yes, the scheme started just one-and-a-half to two years back. The builders went to the bankers and it took time for the banks to understand and get involved in this scheme, do the paperwork and get clearances. Now, the EMI waiver scheme has started even for commercial projects. Freebies are a function of competition but the EMI holiday scheme is what the market is going to be in the future. Will we see an end of the schemes when the market firms up again? The EMI waiver scheme will stay. The sops will stop. What is your advice to the end-user buyer at a time when home loan interest rates, inflation and premium housing costs are up? People buying homes fall in two categories—those who want to move out of joint families and those who are living on rent. Rentals are increasing at a pace much higher than inflation. So, it still makes sense for a customer to pay a higher EMI and buy a home.  This move has two advantages. First, from the point of view of income tax benefit and second, ownership of property. Unlike rentals, payment of EMI for 15-20 years gives a person ownership of the property, creating an asset for him. Of course, price increase is a concern because earnings have not risen that much. But, more than earnings, this is linked with the rental outgo. A person could get to own a property after 15-20 years if takes a call and pays the higher home loan interest rates now. But, if he doesn’t, then he will have to pay a much higher price after 15 years. That is why property transactions happen despite higher inflation. So, a person staying on rent should consider buying a home? Paying rentals does not end up in ownership even after 10 years. Also, you will maintain a rented house only up to a certain standard. You don’t want to invest a lot in maintaining a house that you don’t own. Many developers are getting into mid-income housing. Is this a new trend? Mid-income housing is where the market is. Almost 90-95 per cent of the country is mid-segment buyers. Premium housing accounts for only 1-2 per cent of the market in India. Many developers are building premium housing simply because it adds to their profile. Developers who realise the demand for mid-income housing and cater to it will always be there. Niche market is very exciting and tempting, but is a very small market compared to the mid-segment market. This segment is here to stay.  How do you define mid-income housing? Every city has its own definition depending on its income brackets. So, for Delhi NCR, mid-segment is Rs 50-75 lakh. Most of our projects in Gurgaon, Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad are in this range. In Kundli, it’s about Rs 40 lakh. What can we expect in the coming year? Major developers will not have delivery issues, but a lot of new developers will not be able to cope up and some of the projects will never see the light of the day. So, automatically, supply will come down and the value of deliverable properties will go up further.  This is the fourth slowdown that we are seeing in 40 years of our operation. This time it is even greater because there are more people in the business and a lot of them will have serious issues. In one to one-and-a-half years, we are likely to charge another 5-10 per cent premium on our products owing to our credibility. – urmila@outlookindia.com

Should You Invest in Real Estate Today?

Source: http://profit.ndtv.com/2008/10/31171015/Covering-the-home-ground.html

NDTV Correspondent

Tuesday, November 04, 2008 (New Delhi)

Will real estate be the next sector to fall, even as we are dealing with a 60 per cent crash in the stock market? Let’s help you find out what you can do even as this crisis comes to our doorstep.

In India, figures show that almost 70 per cent of residential homes in India are sold between October-November to March of the following year. So perhaps if you are right now looking to buy a home, the big question on your mind is should I buy a home or should I postpone this decision Are prices likely to come down? Can I get a better deal. Several of you who are keeping your eyes open for the right property have also seen a slew of offers from builders.

So, are prices going to come down?

Absolutely. What we’re headed for is a real estate meltdown in India and the stress signs are evident to everybody. With every market in distress, why would real estate be left out?

Prices went up on an average 300 per cent between 2003 and 2007. Check prices between 2007 and 2008, they’re cooling down.  Ten per cent is already shaved off and there’s a lot more to go.

Real Estate Meltdown – The price slide begins

We’ve taken one area in a city which has been booming to check the prices and this is how they stack up.

#NCR- Gurgaon ran up 300 per cent between 2003 and 2007 and this year down about 12 per cent.

#Navi Mumbai ran up even more on an average – 330 per cent up in 5 years- cooled now by about 15 per cent already.

#Bangalore and Chennai ran up less than Delhi and Mumbai- about 200 per cent and these markets are now down.

When do prices come down ?

Simply when there are not enough buyers for any goods and then sellers are forced to put the goods on sale or bring down the prices.  It is not hard to predict where prices of real estate, especially residential homes, are likely to go from here. There are obvious signs that buyers are disappearing. The first big reason why they are; Prices of residential homes in this country are way above affordability. It’s a joke which probably you’ve cracked with your friends as well. It is scary when nothing liveable in your city or suburbs is available for less than Rs 50-60 lakh. How many people can really afford homes of Rs one crore and above? But when the party is on, everything goes up and last two years speculators and investors have driven prices to an unaffordable level in most leading cities and towns of the country.

Top that with rising home loan rates, making an expensive home purchase even more expensive and unaffordable. A Rs 60 lakh loan today means you end up paying almost Rs 75,000 as EMI.

And while we are hoping home loan rates should come down, especially after the RBI slashed repo rates, large banks have come forward to say they may not be able to do that in a hurry because inflation is still in double digits.

High inflation also means more money for daily expenses and less for paying loan EMIs.

Add to this the job market uncertainty. Job losses, pay cuts, and not enough new opportunities in the coming two years are a very real possibility in several sectors. Where will the new buyers come from?

We’ve all seen and have been hurt by the severe stock market meltdown.  People have made notional and real losses in stocks and its only human to cut back, run for safer havens and not take big investment calls when you bleed on portfolio.

The mood is somber, overall pessimism with the economy is not helping.

If buyers have disappeared, sellers are pretending that things are still normal. But they are not. Here are the signs.

Time was when we were in a seller’s market – we had to buy what they sold and NOW, else it would be gone. Stories about entire towers of flats being sold out on day one of the opening of a new development were not unusual. But that was 2005-2006. Not today.

We’re reached a place where sellers are wooing buyers with zero EMI deals, freebies, discounts and have begun to talk of carpet area rather than super area.

So, is there a meltdown ahead?

A look at the signs that shout: YES. While the sellers are not decreasing prices yet and buyers are not buying anymore what we have is a deadlock in the market. The sellers are doing all they can to attract buyers without dropping prices.

Real Estate Meltdown Signs

Seller

# No EMI till possession schemes – this essentially means that you will for a down payment, be able to defer EMI till you get possession – but if the builder is unable to complete the project your down payment gets stuck.

#Freebies like waiver of stamp duty, white goods. think of the value of the gift in percentage terms.

#Now ‘free’ Mercedes cars. What is the builder earning that he can give a “free” mercedes cars?

#Aggressive sales pitch through SMSs. This never happened earlier – it was a sellers market, but sales pitch is now feverish.

#Phone calls to sell new developments.

Look at how investors are already punishing the real estate companies listed in the stock markets and some of these are almost the blue chips of Indian Real estate.

Unitech is down 87 per cent in one year. India bulls real estate is down 82 per cent, DLF has melted down by over 75 per cent, HDFC has lost over 70 per cent and Akruti city around 31 per cent.

And wise men say, stock markets are the best pre-cursor to what the future holds. January this year, you had a stock market collapse and right after you saw real estate prices cooling off by 10-15 per cent.

Clearly the confidence in real estate companies delivering has gone missing. Most don’t believe that these companies will be able to raise capital at reasonable rates to complete projects or be able to sell at expensive rates.

What To Do: Investor who wants to buy

# Wait, better prices ahead

What To Do: Investor who has already bought

# Sell, if you need the money

Home Buyer

#Buy only if building already ready for possession or begin building down payment for the next year.

Ready Or Not?

# Check if construction is still on.

# Ask developer for completion date.

# If construction has stopped, get likeminded people together and

approach the developer for refund or approach the consumer court.

Ofcourse, there’s yet another aspect you need to look into if already having bought a property and sitting on an expensive home loan. Suppose the EMIs are becoming unaffordable due to a job loss, or pay cut, what should you do?

Here’s a view from ICICIdirect.com:

# Restructure home loans with your bank in case you can’t afford the EMI.

# Look at a balance transfer option to a lower rate bank/institution.

# Pre pay a part of the loan to keep the EMI at the same level

# Increase the tenure on the loan. BUT ensure that it does not cross your retirement.

# If pre-paying check for pre payment charges, if any, that your lender charges.