Archive for the 'Newsbytes' Category
Retail bank customers need not worry about any rise in the equated monthly installments (EMIs) on their home loans with banks expected to absorb the rate hikes by Reserve Bank of India. The special home loan rates of banks will continue for now. OP Bhatt, chairman and managing director of State Bank of India, said their special home loan rate of 8 per cent is open till September 30. "We will take a call at that time," Bhatt said.
Private banks, which had a special home loans scheme of 8.25 per cent, may continue for a while as CEOs of all large banks agreed that raising lending rates is not immediate on their agenda. If banks keep their rates static, housing finance companies like HDFC and LIC Home Finance will also follow suit to keep the rates at present levels.
"Home loan rates will not be impacted immediately. Everything will depend on what action banks take on the pricing of their retail loans. Our special schemes are on till the end of August after which we will take a call depending on the interest rate situation at that time," VS Rangan, executive director of HDFC, said.
DLF, Unitech, Emaar & Ansal Gearing up to Launch Plush Homes
Published by Newsroom July 30th, 2010 in Newsbytes. 0 Comments
Yet another piece of the real estate market bappears to be getting back in shape. After realtors focused on the affordable housing space, where demand remained reasonable when market prices crashed two years ago, they are now launching luxury homes as the segment is witnessing early signals of an upswing in demand. Sensing this turnaround, a host of property developers including DLF, Unitech, Emaar MGF and Ansal API are gearing up to launch plush housing projects, where a single unit costs upwards of Rs 2 crore, over the next six months.
"Now that the job market is looking up, consumers are once again regaining the confidence to put money in swank projects," said Shravan Gupta, executive vice-chairman and managing director at Emaar MGF. The Delhi-based property developer plans to launch around 2,000 upscale units over the next six months across cities such as Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Punjab, Bangalore and Kerala.
Unitech, the country's second-largest builder, which had focused on affordable housing space, too plans to launch a few luxury projects to target high-end home buyers. Unitech spokesperson said it has a few projects in the works in the luxury housing segment located in the national capital region. Luxury homes are targeted towards high net worth individuals and the price range of such apartments varies from city to city. While in metros such as Mumbai and Delhi, the cost of such high-end houses can begin from Rs 2 crore, in tier-II cities they can be around Rs 1 crore and above.
Chennai-based Oriental Hotels Ltd Plans Expansion
Published by Newsroom July 30th, 2010 in City Scape and Newsbytes. 0 Comments
Chennai-based Oriental Hotels Ltd is planning to expand its footprint by adding more hotels. The company will add two more properties to its existing eight in the next two years, when its total room inventory will be 1,250.
Currently, the company's eight properties are managed by Taj. The proposed properties in Coimbatore and Bangalore will also be managed by Taj. While the Coimbatore property, which is likely to be up and running in the next few months, will have 180 rooms; its property in Bangalore will have 200 rooms and will come under the 'Gateway' - the mid-market brand of Taj. Besides, Oriental Hotels is also in the process of renovating and upgrading its hotels in Chennai - Taj Coromandel and Taj Fisherman's Cove.
Puravankara Projects Q1 profit zooms to Rs 37 cr
Published by Newsroom July 30th, 2010 in Newsbytes. 0 Comments
Bangalore: Real estate developer Puravankara Projects' net profit for the first quarter of this fiscal grew over three times to Rs 36.69 crore from Rs 10.24 crore recorded during the corresponding quarter of last year. This was achieved on the back of a 108 per cent increase in revenues at Rs 116.29 crore (Rs 55.97 crore).
COST OF REVENUES
The company has currently 20:25 million sq.ft under development across Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi and Kolkata. The company's cost of revenues went up from Rs 38.36 crore to Rs 66.38 crore, which includes more than doubling of material and contract costs to Rs 42.53 crore (Rs 16.12 crore). The company has also added 17.86 million sq.ft of developable area to its land bank during the quarter; the current land bank is 143.25 million sq.ft of developable area.
NTC may garner Rs 5k cr from sale of Mumbai land
Published by Newsroom July 30th, 2010 in City Scape and Newsbytes. 0 Comments
New Delhi: State-owned National Textiles Corporation (NTC) is expected raise over Rs 5,000 crore from sale of about 55 acre of surplus land in Mumbai in the current fiscal, textile minister Dayanidhi Marai on Thursday said.
"NTC has drawn a roadmap to generate Rs 5,000 crore by the end of the current fiscal by selling most of its properties in Mumbai,"he said here after inaugurating the auction for the land vacated by two of the closed mills - Podar Textile Mills and Bharat Textile Mills.
On the basis of Rs 100 crore per acre as reserve price fixed by the NTC for various properties, he said, it would be possible for the company to generate over Rs 5,000 crore in 2010-11. The auction of about 11 acres of land belonging to Bharat Textile Mills and Podar Textile Mills may fetch the NTC over Rs 2,000 crore while over Rs 3,000 crore would be mopped-up from sale of six other mill- surplus land in Mumbai,a textiles ministry official said.
