Now Model Cities to be launched in UP

Need to bridge the gap between villages and cities to benefit both farmers in the villages as well as consumers in the cities, says Chief Minister

Whatever the media says about him and his father, Netaji, as the grand old man of Samajwadi Party is fondly called, Chief Minister Ahilesh Yadav never fails to amaze me with his ideas. Who would think about building cycle tracks to run along trams and Metro routes in our cities? Who would think about pushing DMRC and getting the Greater Noida Metro ready in two years?   When our politicians were busy chalking out strategies to woo landowners, he made the UP Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) quietly pay top dollar for most of the land required for Agra-Lucknow e-way. The 320-km, six-lane, greenfield Agra-Lucknow Expressway is being built at a cost of Rs 13,000 crore and it should be operational by November 1, 2016.

Why you may want to wait when the project is complete

Considering the courts are flooded with complaints against developers and buyers end up on the road every Sunday protesting late delivery of their homes, there are plenty of reasons to make your purchase after the projects are complete. 

Sometimes, condos don't actually end up getting built. One of the first steps a developer takes when launching a condo is getting the offering plan—the document that spells out the specifics of a project—approved by the authority, a lengthy revision and approvals process that must happen before a developer can start making deals with purchasers. But a developer is only required to build as planned once the offering plan is cleared. But if the offering plan is never cleared, the developer may never be able to close. So the apartment you expected to buy won't get built, and it could take months or even years to get your deposit back.

The Game Changer

Buying an apartment when it's still a hole in the ground involves more risk than money in your bank account: you don't know for sure that the project will get finished. DLF’s new build and sell strategy plans to change the way the real estate game is being played

In the real estate development world, buying an apartment early in its sales cycle is likely get you the lowest prices. But just because the early bird supposedly gets the worm doesn't mean it's the best strategy. As they say, an offering plan does not a building make. In fact, there are plenty of reasons to make your purchase after the developer has already built the condos. This is exactly what India’s largest builder, DLF, plans to do: design, build and then sell apartments. The debt-laden developer is ready to take the huge risk – maybe more debt, too – and force others to toe the line.

TAKE THAT!

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan surprised everyone by cutting the repo rate by 50 basis points to 6.75%. But will it revive the real estate sector? No, only lower home prices will.

There is hardly anyone who isn’t a fan of the RBI Governor. “I don’t know what you want to call me, Santa Claus or hawk. My name is Raghuram Rajan and I do what I do,” he told the media. In true Rowdy Rathore style, Rajan put it bluntly that he was front-loading and it was now up to the banks, the Government and the businesses to show that this is what was holding them back. It was in August when he gave a clear message to those demanding interest rate cut as if the whole economy depended on it. "It would be a great help if realty developers sitting on unsold stock bring down prices. Once the prices stabilise, more people will be keen to buy houses," he said. The RBI Governor added that property prices needed to fall before interest rates on home loans came down any further. "I think we need the market to clear. With growing unsold stock, we need to see the ways to do it. Some of it might be by making loans easier, but we also don't want to create a situation where prices stay high at the level which means demand can't pick up," he said. Rajan was very vocal all through these days about the dangers of unwarranted rate cuts.

To buy or not to buy!

That is the question. Here are some answers.

So, you're thinking of buying a property, but you're not sure if it's the right time. And, if you've been doing even the slightest research, you're probably more confused than ever. Let's see if we can help you. Right now, there are a lot of divided opinions, probably more than ever before. Leave aside those silly spruikers who always tell us that "now is the time to buy" and consider only the genuine commentators and experts. And this is where opinions do seem to be genuinely and deeply divided. There are some really good people who are making really good arguments about why this is not the time to buy. And, in the other camp, the opposite is true. A lot of good people think it is a good time to buy.

The Best Real Estate Advice

Sometimes it’s hard to find investors who will give you the kind of advice that you really need. So what do you do?

A question that I’m often asked and which has been bothering me also for a while now is where can investors go to get the advice that they really need - the kind of advice that they can trust? It’s easy for me to ask them to mail their questions to editor@realtortoday.com. I won’t deny that lots of people do write to me, but there have been times when I’ve seen plenty of “sources” of information that are tainted and skewed away from what is best for investors and that really bothers me. So as I write today, it got me thinking about the question all over again.

No Lessons Learnt

Even after repeated acts of violations by rogue developers, we refuse to learn our lessons and return to invest with them

Even if you’re no backwoods philosopher, but when someone says it’s safer to live under a tree than invest in a Noida home, how right is that? Real estate, especially in Noida, has become something of a bad word to most investors. Rogue builders abound, so does a politician-authority-developer nexus. What’s surprising, however, is the buyer’s indifference to it all. Even when it’s well established that A, B & C builders are best avoided, you get the news that they are launching new projects and the response has been terrific.