Aakar Realty Enterprises '_____ Realty Mediators

Mumbai’s density of population highest in Asia with 27,000 people living per sq.km . Mumbai is ‘cramped up’ says the with as many as 27,000 people live per square km i, making the metropolitan one of the densest cities in Asia. The Asian Green City Index, commissioned by German firm Siemens, analysed the environmental sustainability of 22 major cities in Asia with respect to environmental and climate protection. The unique research project came up with interesting findings, including the fact that Singapore is Asia’s greenest metropolis. Singapore stands out in particular for its ambitious environmental targets and its efficient approach to achieving them. However, in other Asian cities as well, environmental awareness and climate protection guidelines are playing an increasingly important role. According to the findings, of the 22 cities, Mumbai is the densest city in the Index with 27,000 people per square km — more than 27 times more tightly packed than Wuhan, which has less than ...

Residents of Mumbai’s ubiquitous chawls may soon be able to live in self-contained flats measuring 300 sq ft each. Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan’s decision to permit a floor space index (FSI) of 3 as against 2.5 for old and dilapidated buildings in the island city has removed the final hurdle in the redevelopment of chawls. Builders had stopped the redevelopment on the grounds that the compulsory provision of bigger flats was eating into their share of the incentive FSI. In case of individual buildings like those in Dadar’s Hindu Colony where each flat is spread over at least 1,000 sq ft, the law permits only 750 sq ft to residents after redevelopment. “As a result, residents refused to go in for redevelopment. Builders’ had to give a portion of their incentive FSI so that residents could get a similar-sized flat in the redeveloped building,’’ said an industry observer. “This made redevelopment economically unviable.”     The proposal was earlier cleared by former chi...

  As a budgetary demand, industry body, ASSOCHAM has demanded an extension for deduction of interest on housing loan. Section 24 of the Act provides for deduction of interest on housing loans upto Rs 1.5 lakhs for self occupied property on borrowings done after April 1999 and acquisition/construction completed within 3 years. This limit was introduced by the Finance Act, 2001 and therefore this limit needs to be revised to at least Rs. 2.5 lakhs. Moreover, in the context of the time required for completion of large housing projects, it is recommended that the time limit be extended to 5 years. The present limits are extremely low. This amendment will give a boost to the ailing real estate sector.

In an important decision of far-reaching consequences for investors wanting to set up shop in Ahmedabad and north Gujarat, the state government has decided to come up with a law that will go a long way in facilitating poor farmers to sell the land they have been tilling for decades. The new law - proposed in the current state assembly session - will make these farmers legal owners of the land. The law is learnt to have already got government of India approval.The state revenue department has given its stamp of approval to a bill to be brought in the last week of March 2010 that will make more than 12,000 farmers automatic owners of the land they had received during the land reform days of 1950 and 1960s. “By becoming land owners, the farmers, who own small land pieces scattered in north Gujarat and Ahmedabad, will be able to sell them without hassle,” a top bureaucrat said. “These farmers failed to become the owners of the land they tilled as they could not pay nominal occupancy fees...

Deed of conveyance, between a cooperative society and the owner of land on which the society’s premises stand, is going to be increasingly crucial in the times to come, speakers at a meet on deemed deed of conveyance of housing societies said on January 24. City-based Conveyance Practitioners’ Group organised the meet which received big response from citizens, in the backdrop of low awareness about the implications of the amendments in the Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act that provide for deemed conveyance of properties in favour housing cooperatives. The amendment seeks to help out cooperative housing societies which don’t get cooperation from builders or developers to complete formalities about the deed of conveyance. It provides for “deemed” conveyance of properties in favour of societies under certain circumstances. The subject has assumed additional significance as many cooperative societies are desirous of redeveloping their buildings to benefit from the modified rules of floor ...

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) recent decision to raise repo and reverse repo rates by 25 basis points each has reinforced the possibility of correction in realty prices henceforth as already declining demand is likely to fall further due to higher home loan rates. Experts believe that although there is no specific mention of the realty sector in RBI’s monetary policy review, prices will subside by 10-15% before the end of this financial year. This may be mainly due to the fact that volumes continue to be low and the developer is at a shortage of liquidity. Also, the interest rates on housing loan continue to be high affecting volume of transactions in the industry. In its quarterly monetary policy review meet recently, the apex bank hiked repo rate, at which RBI lends to banks, to 6.50%; and reverse repo, the rate banks receive for depositing funds with RBI, to 5.50%. Interest rates that have started moving higher are affecting affordability and delaying decision making. Due to al...

   Planning to take a home loan? Be prepared to shell out double-digit interest rates soon. Lenders say it’s only a matter of time before they are forced to pass on the higher cost of funds to borrowers after the Reserve Bank of India increased key policy rates by 25 basis points on Tuesday. The rate hike, the seventh successive one since January 2010, is aimed at controlling inflation which the RBI described as a “dominant concern”. The rate of inflation as measured by the wholesale price index is now forecast to be at 7% by end-March, much higher than the original estimate of 5%. At present, new borrowers get loans at close to 9.5%. But borrowers who have availed of home loans around five years back are already paying over 12% following successive increases in prime lending rates. The increase in policy rates may seem modest. But banks are already in deficit mode and borrowing over Rs 1lakh crore from RBI on a daily basis. “The liquidity situation is very tight and the cost...