Editor’s Note

The momentum which started, albeit slowly in the month of September, continued in October, especially during the nine-day Navratra period. Softening interest rates, festival buying spirit along with steady, rather low, prices of houses, all are resulting in gradual uptick in sales.

By when the real momentum will gather is anybody’s guess. But one thing is certain, whenever the revival happens, this time the Indian real estate market would emerge as a fundamentally strong one. There will not be much room for speculation. And such a fundamentally strong market backed by genuine buyers will not easily be shaken.

Navratra and Dusshera recently got over, and now at the time ofthe magazine going to print, Diwali isjust a few days away. The mood is festive and we found it hard to get to meet people and generate more stories for you. So the issue is a bit truncated as we too, along with the staff from the printing press, plan to join in the Diwali festivities.

About ten years back a consortium of developers was formed in Ghaziabad. This was formed to develop a then-secluded place as Crossings Republik. Today it is the most sought-after place in its price range. This became possible because of the efforts of the consortium, which led to fast and speedy development of the location.

Not exactly a replica, but on similar lines few more joint developments have been tried in the NCR since then. But none ofthem was as successful. Now, on the similar lines, and with much fanfare, 11 NCR-based developers have joined hands to develop Sohna in Haryana, with a fancy nomenclature – ‘South of Gurgaon’. It remains to be seen in the days to come if this strategy will pay, but whenever a group of developers move forward together for infrastructure development of any region, it is certain to bear better results than various developers doing the same thing separately in their own way. We only hope, the latest effort pays off!

E-commerce is the in-thing. But home shopping online? A bit difficult to digest. But it has started happening. Though the quantum is miniscule as of now, the change in mindset has started happening, it seems. But will this become an accepted norm? Shortlisting property by doing online recce is understood, but will the masses actually transact online for buying a house? Wetry to find an answer.

In our regular Developerspeak column, Mahagun Director Dhiraj Jain talks about the significance of real estate companies having celebrity brand ambassadors.

Rohan Sharma, Associate Director – Research & REIS, JLL India, details the benefits of land pooling. He says this is effective not only for development, but also for promoting social justice. By this method, he says smaller, irregular land holdings can be combined into larger, developed lots. Director of PHD Chambers of Commerce Ranjeet Mehta stresses on the importance of overhauling of India’s urban governance. The author also says that the ideal urbanisation can only be achieved and sustained by inclusive planning which provides affordable transportation, continuous water supply, modern sewage treatment and a good solid waste management system.

Apart from these the issue contains your regular reads, home loan rates of various banks and housing finance companies, property rates of various localities in top cities, new launches by major developers in key cities, Vastu this time on developers, and lastly your monthly horoscope by bejan daruwalla.