Real Estate is at the epicenter contributing to shape up today’s world. The construction industry is also treated as the backbone in a developing country like ours but in recent times it has been seen slowing down by low margins, negative cash flow from operations, rising interest costs on high working capital , execution delays and poor corporate governance.
Despite the market slowdown and high competitiveness among the ‘Big Boys’ in the Indian residential real estate business, smaller builders of residential projects can still corner a healthy market share. It is all a matter of knowing which league to play in, and how to play.
The building approval process in India is relatively slower and more expensive in comparison to several other countries as indicated by a recent World Bank assessment. The report highlights that an average 37 procedures over a period of 195 days are needed for obtaining construction permits in the country vis-à-vis 15 approvals over an average 157 days in the OECD region.
Just over a decade ago nobody would have even thought about the redevelopment. What then changed in the last two decades? Well, almost about everything changed as far as vision about the urban infrastructure and living is concerned.
The proposed revision of the stamp duty in Maharashtra for leave-license would definitely impact the rental market in the residential, commercial and retail asset classes. The corporate commercial property market would be less affected, since this asset class typically operates on leases locked in for longer tenures which can extend up to 3-5 years. However, retail property leases would feel the pinch, since this sector typically works on annual leases in the form of leave and license.
“For the real estate and housing sector, this years’ budget has exceeded expectations given the pressure on fiscal situation. Most importantly, it has taken into account the crying need to focus on affordable housing sector by allowing ECB for low cost housing, road as well as construction. Withholding tax on ECBs for affordable housing has been reduced from 20% to 5% for 3 years and this move will help ease the liquidity in the sector.
Our reaction to Union Budget 2012-13 is mixed at best. It seems fair to state that the Indian real estate sector does not have much to cheer about.
In contrast to what was been witnessed in many of the more volatile cities over the last couple of years, Chennai’s residential property market saw steady growth in terms of pricing, demand and supply. Chennai’s residential property market is predominantly end user driven, and this fact did a lot to sustain consistent absorption throughout 2011.
The PE players have expressed concern about difficulty in exits, governance issues in investee companies and certain taxes such as the Dividend Distribution Tax which are excessive and do not conform with global standards.
India is the ninth largest construction market in the world according to a Global Construction 2020 report by Oxford Economics. Growing at an estimated cumulative annual growth rate of 8.9%, it is expected to become the third largest market by 2020 and is globally acknowledged as an extremely lucrative business opportunity.
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