Editor’s Note November 2018

With the much-awaited festival season being over, it is time for some reality check. Though Diwali got over only a few days back and it will take some time for concrete data to come, trends suggest that sales during the period have not been very enthusiastic. People, we spoke to, said sales of housing units increased only marginally during the previous weeks. In comparison to the last festive season, the sales this time were definitely better but they would have been much more had the NBFC crisis not happened. Industry experts are of the opinion that sales will now pick up and continue do so till at least March-end next year. This is primarily because people start their tax planning and take home loans for tax benefits.
In a summit organised by Naredco in Gurugram on October 26, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced the opening of a window for group housing in Gurugram. It will remain open for 60 days. Khattar also said the transit-oriented development (TOD) policy has also been extended for another 90 days. Hinting at his Government’s sensitivity towards the sector, Khattar added that Haryana is the only state that has two RERA authorities, out of which one is exclusively for Gurugram. Also present on the occasion were HARERA members and senior Government officials who shared words of wisdom with the large gathering present at the summit. Read the full coverage of the high-profile Naredco event in this issue.
The ongoing NBFC crisis post-IL&FS default has made things even more difficult for developers, says Shobhit Agarwal, MD & CEO – ANAROCK Capital. After the banking system’s freeze on real estate funding due to rising non-performing assets, NBFCs and HFCs were the sole source of funds for the cash-strapped developers. Now, however, NBFCs themselves are struggling and their loan disbursals to developers have slowed down significantly.
Delhi/NCR-based realty firm Signature Global is going leaps and bounds on affordable housing. Recently, the company delivered its first affordable housing project in Gurugram and announced plans to launch six projects in the current fiscal with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore. While five of these will be in Gurugram itself, one housing project comprising 7,000 units will come up in Ghaziabad, UP. The company has already launched nine projects in Gurugram comprising 9,400 flats under the Haryana Government’s affordable housing policy.
In his piece to Realty & More, Anuj Puri, Chairman of ANAROCK Property Consultants, lists three important factors to sum up the year 2018 till now for the real estate sector in the country. According to him, housing sales jumped nearly 8 pc in the first three quarters; NBFC crisis is hijacking the real estate growth story and will have its fallout into 2019; and the General Elections will play a key role in the sector’s fate next year
In a promotional piece, Pankaj Jain, Director, KW Group, writes that his company has brought together international-level shopping experience at KW Delhi 6 with its promise of timely delivery and amazing investment growth for the customers.
Anuj Kejriwal, MD & CEO, ANAROCK Retail, writes that the Indian retail sector is on a faster roll than ever before. Rapid urbanisation and digitisation, rising disposable incomes and lifestyle changes – particularly of the middle-class – are acting as booster rockets for the sector, which is projected to grow from $672 billion in 2017 to $1.3 trillion in 2020.
Apart from these news features and well-researched reports, the issue also has regular articles on Vastu, tax-related Q&A, horoscope for the next month, property rates of various localities and new launches across major cities.
Enjoy reading!