ritswaney

just been looking at properties on ..........com and the rates in whitefield seem to be in the 1.9-2K mark. is it a good time to invest in bangalore now? what would be good suburbs to invest in? ive heard about whitefield, kormangla and bannerghata road...

arin_12

Don't invest in Bangalore in Property Now. It has already gone high. You may not be able to a good return at all. You may get Better return in FD/PPF. And if you are planning to buy property for immediate occupation then wait for another 3 months.
You can see many FLATs are lying empty in many places. And even these places dont have any facility like Phone/Drainage/Cable though they are almost the City Limit.
Many places the rates are still 1500-2000 Rs but still for another 3-4 yrs you cant think of staying or building house !!!

Thanks

arin_12

Cars and kitchens tempt Indian housebuyers

Free cars and mortgage-free living are being dangled in front of house-hunters in Bangalore as developers battle to halt a property slump in India's Silicon Valley.

House prices have fallen by as much as 20 per cent this year in the sub-continent's IT capital on the back of a building boom and fears that the US sub-prime crisis will stall the huge recruitment plans of the city's flagship outsourcing companies.

After the meltdown on Wall Street, the Indian software industry's most important client, similar declines are being reported in technology hubs across the country. Vincent Lottefier, head of the Indian operations of Jones Lang LaSalle, the property consultant, said: “We are definitely seeing pricing pressures and corrections in areas where outsourcers are putting on the brakes.”

Freebies commonly thrown in by increasingly desperate developers include complimentary fitted kitchens, extra parking spaces and relief from stamp duty. Some, however, have been more generous. Orange Properties, a Bangalore company, has promised a free Maruti SX4, a four-door family car, with every 1,500 sq ft flat. The saloon costs up to 800,000 rupees (£10,120), representing a discount of 20 per cent on the 4 million rupee apartment.
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Similarly munificent sweeteners are being offered elsewhere. Unitech, another developer, will scrap monthly repayments for three years on properties in Noida, an IT hub close to Delhi.

Buyers appear unmoved amid suggestions that a new generation of young property purchasers is becoming savvier. Sudhakar Mallya, of Bangalore, who expects prices to fall at least another 10 per cent, said: “I have seen a lot of empty apartments. There is lots of supply and prices are still sliding. I will wait”

Signs suggest that the demand for residential property is still fading in the IT hotspots. Rents in some areas of Bangalore fell by nearly 10 per cent last year after builders provided a glut of supply in anticipation of a fresh influx of technology workers from across India, according to Cushman & Wakefield, the property consultant.

Jones Lang LaSalle estimates that apartment prices have fallen by 15 per cent this year in Gurgaon, a leading outsourcing centre, and in Chandigarh, an emerging IT hub, prices have slumped by 25 per cent.

The commercial property market has recorded a similar trend. In Whitefield, a Bangalore suburb once regarded as a prime location for IT firms, there was an estimated 1 million sq ft of spare office space in the first three months of this year. Last month an auction of several plots of prime property in the Bandra-Kurla complex in Bombay, a development being touted as the Indian Canary Wharf, failed to find any buyers.

The malaise follows a property boom in which average house prices rose by as much as 50 per cent last year and the sector attracted an estimated $5 billion (£2.5 billion) in foreign direct investment. In contrast to the market frenzy last year, the incentives for buyers to hold tight increased this month after lacklustre financial figures from the four largest Indian IT companies - Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro and Satyam - stoked concerns over the health of the sector.

TeamLease Services, India's largest recruitment firm, said that it had experienced a large fall in hiring intentions. Sampath Shetty, a vice-president, said: “Dollar depreciation, the sub-prime fiasco, the US recession and recent falls on the Indian stock exchanges have definitely had an impact on employment growth in the past few months. The IT sector is the worst hit. There is a wait-and-watch approach in India.”

- TimesOnline

arin_12

Pujit Aggarwal, MD, Orbit Corporation, said demand has been poor for the last 3-4 months in Mumbai’s premium and CBD segment. “If this demand continues to be poor, prices may correct to some extent because everybody needs money or cash flows to pump into projects. So, developers may look at reducing prices.” He expects further correction of about 10-15%.

Gulam Zia, Head of Advisory Services, Knight Frank, said the Mumbai market doesn’t have much to add to supplies, a very little supply is coming in. He feels prices in Mumbai are not really follow suit with the rest of India.

According to Zia, metro markets have already seen a correction or downward trend between ranges of 10-15%. “In Tier-II markets, it’s just about touching 10%.”

Zia too expects a further 5-10% correction in suburban areas of Mumbai like Andheri, Bandra, Borivali, Ghatkopar, Kurla, Mulund, Thane, and New Bombay.

Excerpts from CNBC-TV18's exclusive interview with Pujit Aggarwal & Gulam Zia:

Q: How does the realty market look to you from the manner in which experts are speaking about the market, it looks like two distinct markets, Mumbai and the rest of India?

Zia: The point that you have raised is absolutely valid. Mumbai has its own way of reacting to market realities. On the Pan India scenario, the markets are looking pretty vulnerable to melting down or prices coming down. But this is not really an indication of alarm bells ringing because the fundamentals are still strong. You have people keen to buy, have that demand-supply gap existing, and have the buyers out there. It is only a question of going back to the right prices, which we are waiting for. The Mumbai market is acting very strange. The Mumbai market doesn’t have much to add to supplies, a very little supply is coming in. Hence, prices are not really follow suit with the rest of Indian market.

Q: How much have prices slid in the various other markets like Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, or Bangalore? What is the percentage decline, where do you see the bottom emerging, and how much more can they fall?

Zia: Let us categorize them into two segments for the ease of communication. One are the metro markets that’s NCR, OMR and so on, and the other are the Tier-II cities like Pune, Hyderabad, and so on. The fall has been higher in the metro markets. In NCR or OMR, we have already seen a correction or downward trend between ranges of 10-15%. In Tier-II markets, it’s just about touching 10%. That’s roughly the correction that we are seeing in the market.

Q: What is your sense on the demand-supply situation currently, have rental prices cooled off a little bit in the commercial space?

Agarwal: There is segmentation taking place in the Mumbai market. You have segments that are within the city which is around Rs 10,000 per sq ft. Then, you have other areas which is the premium segment. You also have other belts where you have the concentration of CBDs, or Central Business Districts.

Areas with rentals in the range of Rs 10,000 per sq ft are within the city. There is good supply and reasonably good off tick. But in other segments, which are the premium and CBD segment, demand has been very poor for the last 3-4 months. If this demand continues to be poor, prices may correct to some extent because everybody needs money or cash flows to pump into projects. So, developers may look at reducing prices.

Q: What are the CBD districts? Would you mean the suburban areas?

Agarwal: When we talk about the CBD districts, it is the Bandra-Kurla complex belt. We are talking of the belt which is mushrooming around there. So, that is one area. The other is Central Mumbai, which is mill land. The third CBD is New Bombay and Andheri. So, there is supply coming in over there and because the supply is coming in, corporates have shied away. A case in point is typically the BKC sell which took place where you had people queuing up to buy land in BKC. You have found that there were properties in BKC that are prime properties and there were takers for those properties.

Q: How much have prices fallen in the pockets mentioned?

Agarwal: There have been selective deals where we have seen prices falling by about 10% and not more than that. One should observe the stock exchange performing the way it has. The stock exchange has been a single significant factor in the fact that prices have been either stable or have somewhat corrected. If we see this stock exchange moving the way it is moving right now, in a rangebound situation, we may see further correction of maybe about 10-15% more.

Q: Even the Mumbai market is facing price pressures?

Zia: That’s right. However, Agarwal is referring more to office properties than commercial properties. The areas of CBD etc that he is referring to are all office properties. The South Bombay housing stock is very vulnerable as hardly anything is coming up. There is no new supply coming in areas like Cuff Parade, Napean Sea Road, or even Central Bombay and that is why property prices are still holding strong.

But in suburban areas like Andheri, Bandra, Borivali, Ghatkopar, Kurla, Mulund, Thane, and New Bombay where housing supplies are coming into the market, we are seeing these price corrections coming in. Those price corrections are to the tune of 10% or thereabouts right now, which is expected to grow because supplies are coming in. It is expected to keep flowing in the next couple of quarters and hence there will be a direct pressure on price points.

Q: So another 10% is not ruled out?

Zia: I would say further 5-10% is expected. So, a correction of 20% would not be too speculative.

- MoneyControl