REALESTATE

The plan also did not provide an adequate vision and stance for facilitating affordable housing that the city requires so desperately. The DP was unclear about whether the densification measures would do any good for housing of low income groups and middle income groups, which form the backbone of residential activity for any Indian city.

Regardless of whether one is looking to buy a first or second home in Pune, the basic success fundamentals remain the same. One should go for locations which are close to primary workplace areas which have a good saturation of office complexes, if one can afford. Other important aspects to focus on are the availability of good social and civic infrastructure like schools, hospitals, shopping, etc., and presence of public transport.

A lesser-known fact is that Pune's real estate market is a direct beneficiary of its highly developed educational environment. People in Pune are willing to invest considerably in their children's education, and this includes a willingness to pay more for a home located close to a good school or college.

smart city initiatives can succeed only if governments are open to experimentation and willing to invest time and resources in learning from missteps,

In the pursuit of their development and urbanisation agendas, our cities have seen high-rise buildings replacing backyards, parks and forested areas.

With the Union Budget 2021-2022 round the corner everyone wants to know what Nirmala Sitharaman has to announce in her third consecutive Budget.

For real estate investors, currency gains might be sufficient enough to prompt global investors to execute exit strategies on cross-border investments. In fact, large institutional investors would be well-advised to implement investment strategies now, before the market picks up again.

India has over 40 tier II and tier III cities with million-plus populations, and some of these are growing as fast as their tier...

Interestingly, Delhi-NCR also has the highest saturation of malls in a leading micro-market – Gurgaon has as many as 28 malls with a total footage of more than 7mn sq ft for a population of 15.14 lakh (as per Census 2011).

With more money to spend, buyers can now look towards luxury living as opposed to mere living quarters.

The promise of high growth in warehousing and logistics is luring not only foreign investors but also private equity firms to India. Policies allowing 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) in warehouses and food storage facilities under automatic routes (where manufacturers can sell their products online directly) as also declaring some zones to be tax-free (i.e. free trade warehousing zones or FTWZs), has made the sector appear on the foreign PE investment radar.

The real estate industry welcomes the major reform that promises to bring in much-needed transparency and accountability to the rather opaque sector. It will create a much-needed consumer right protection umbrella for buyers of real estate, thereby increasing consumer confidence as well as creating lasting developer brands strong on quality and timely delivery of their projects.