Co-living houses fast fill up as offices open Houseliv

 Co-Living  operators are witnessing an upsurge in demand from working couples following the reopening of offices, as couples look to avoid hassles such as brokerage, maintenance and managing domestic help that come with renting a home. According to operators, a large number of employees have returned to work in cities with the easing of the Covid-19 pandemic. While individuals don’t want to share space now and are booking single occupancy rooms, couples are looking for double occupancy rooms for the long term.  “Before Covid-19, young single professionals used to book co-living facilities, but now a majority of the demand is coming from couples who want all the facilities managed by an agency. Keeping in mind the increase in demand, we had to come up with a new vertical, Housr Homes, where we offer fully furnished and fully managed one, two and three BHK apartments for couples, small families and individuals,” said HOUSELIV REALTY .

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Housr has more than 55 properties with 5,000 beds in its portfolio in Gurgaon, Bengaluru, Hyderabad  and Pune .

The solo to shared ratio for the company has gone up to 85:15 from 65:35 before the pandemic.

Of the total occupants in a facility, 10-15% are couples, a number that was negligible before the pandemic, according to the company.

“There is an entire ecosystem involved when a couple goes for rented accommodation. People have seen the kind of hassles they have to face in case of a Covid-19-like situation. From food to laundry, everything is taken care of and the working couple can just focus on work.

Most of the operators are witnessing more than 90% occupancy and are planning to double the number of beds to meet the growing demand.

Clients are even ready to pay higher rents for privacy and social distancing as the pandemic lingers on to some extent, said co-living operators.

Shared accommodation providers are offering tech-enabled smart living with fully furnished and managed residences across prime properties close to working hubs and commercial spaces.

These are especially designed to cater to couples and individuals who are looking for hassle-free, fully furnished premium residences in prime locations with uninterrupted hi-speed Wi-Fi, laundry at their doorstep and professional housekeeping.

“The operators are ready to provide value-added services since the young population, whether they are single or married, doesn’t want to spend time on household chores. Hygiene has emerged as a key preference, and co-living operators are focusing on it on a portfolio scale,” said Abhishek Tripathi, co-founder, Settl, a co-living operator which operates in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Gurgaon. “For couples, maintaining the same standard comes at a cost and that is the reason they prefer to stay at a co-living property close to the office.”

Every year, more than 20 million students and working professionals relocate across the country in search of a place to live. Almost 90% of the country’s student housing is unorganised and startups are hoping to fill the void with better facilities.

Tier-2 cities have also started to witness similar trends.

“The co-living segment is seeing good traction in smaller cities and trends like couples looking for managed space and more demand for single occupancy rooms can be seen here too,” said Houseliv Realty.

According to property consultants, Covid-19 has given the residential segment the opportunity to develop co-living, senior living, student housing and mixed-use developments while incorporating work-from-home and other lifestyle trends.

Property consultants said non-traditional forms of real estate assets such as data centres, healthcare,  life sciences educational institutions, senior living, co-living and student housing have become increasingly popular.

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Illegal constructions: BBMP issues guidelines to engineers

 Bengaluru Real Estate

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has informed the High Court that it has issued a detailed circular laying down the guidelines on the manner in which engineers concerned will have to act against unauthorised and illegal constructions in the city.

BBMP Chief Commissioner Tushar Girinath has issued the circular pursuant to the directions issued by the High Court in a matter pertaining to construction in deviation to building plan.

During the hearing in the matter, Justice R Nataraj had noticed that the bye-laws are flouted with impunity by the property owners as well as the engineers concerned responsible for implementation of the bye-laws. The court had further noticed that as per Section 321 (B) of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations (KMC) Act, 1976 and Section 252 of the BBMP Act, 2020, though the jurisdictional officers are to be held responsible, none of the engineers concerned conduct any inspection as provided under bye-law. The court had directed the chief commissioner BBMP to frame guidelines in this regard.

 The circular, issued on July 21, 2022, has stipulated guidelines for implementing Section 321 of the KMC Act and corresponding Section 248 of the BBMP Act, 2020. The affidavit filed by the chief commissioner also stated that if the in-charge officers failed in their duties in implementing the building bye-laws, penalty clause has also been included in the circular as per section 252 of the BBMP Act 2020. 

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The circular has detailed three types of deviations – a deviation/unauthorised construction carried out after obtaining plan sanction, but before obtaining possession certificate, a deviation/unauthorised construction carried out after obtaining possession certificate and lastly an unauthorised construction without obtaining any permission. The circular has in detail explained the responsibilities of different officers involved in the process to stop deviation of sanction plan, avoiding unauthorised construction and powers to initiate proceeding under Section 248 (1), (2), (3) and Section 356 (1), (2) of BBMP Act.

The guidelines require engineers to mark the building plinth line in the presence of owners/ representatives and upload the same with GPS coordinates along with the photographs. The engineers also have to undertake inspection within 60 days to check if the foundation work is as per the approved sketch and again have to upload with GPS coordinates along with the photographs within 30 days.

Justice R Nataraj has directed the chief commissioner BBMP to give publicity to the circular in Kannada and English newspapers within two weeks for the benefit of the general public.

HOUSELIV REALTY

Peripheral Ring Road: Is PRR Project That Is Critical To Decongesting Bengaluru Being Rendered Unviable By UPA-era Land Acquisition Law ?

Propties in Bengaluru

 According to an estimate by BDA , the land acquisition cost of the Bengaluru Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) will shoot by ₹14,000 crores if the compensation package is fixed as per Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Act 2013.

The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) on Wednesday (July 13) held another public hearing on the proposed Bengaluru Peripheral Ring Road (PRR).

The public hearing was held at B.R. Ambedkar Bhavan in Yelhanka amidst heavy police security. Objections over the environmental impact of the project, inadequate compensation and lack of citizen involvement in planning were raised during the hearing.

The BJP-led statement government is attempting to expedite the land acquisition process and launch the much-delayed infrastructure project that has been languishing for over a decade.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai recently reiterated that his government is firmly committed to constructing the peripheral ring road despite massive cost escalation and land acquisition challenges. He added the tenders for the project will be floated soon.

In April this year, the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), the nodal authority tasked with the responsibility for providing civil amenities for the metropolis, floated a global tender inviting construction infrastructure firms to submit bids to develop a greenfield 8-lane, 74 km PRR through a public-private partnership (PPP) on design, build, finance, operate and transfer model (PPP-DBFOT).

As per the tender terms, the winning concessionaire will get 50-year lease period for collection of the toll to recover the cost and then hand over the project to the State Government. The winning concessionaire would also be required to pay upfront part of the land-acquisition cost.

The BDA also notified the last date for submission of the bids as May 18 and the bid opening date as May 20.

In June, BDA decided to scrap the tender process and announced that it would issue a fresh one. The decision to scrap the tender was attributed to queries from potential investors who participated in the tender process, seeking clarification on the land acquisition cost.

Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) project

The PRR is planned as a 74 km stretch with a 100-meter-wide road. On completion, it will connect Tumakuru Road and Hosur Road via Hessaraghatta Road, Doddaballapur Road, Ballari Road, Hennur-Bagalur Road, Old Madras Road, Hoskote-Anekal Road, and Sarjapur Road. Along with NICE Road, which links Tumakuru Road and Hosur Road via the city’s northwestern, western and southwestern areas, Bengaluru will have a 116-km-long bypass on its periphery.

The proposed alignment of PRR will be located at an approximate radial distance of 17 km - 25 km from the city centre and is envisaged to be a bypass to the city for the long-distance personalised vehicles (cars and cabs) and commercial vehicles (trucks and LCVs).

The total land requirement for the project, which was initially estimated to be 733 hectares (1811.28 acres), was later revised to 1036.51 hectares (2561.27 acres) due to the change in length of PRR from 65.5 km to 74 km. The increase in length was due to realignment and inclusion of cloverleaf structures to integrate at Tumkur Road and Hosur Road with NICE road.

The project's total cost is Rs 14,934 crores, out of which Rs 9,318 crore is required for land acquisition and rehabilitation purposes, while the construction cost is estimated to be around Rs 5,600 crores. The state government has already provided administrative approval for the project. When originally conceptualised 15 years ago with the aim of decongesting Bengaluru and easing traffic, the project was estimated to be Rs 3,000 crore. But due to design, rapid urbanisation, and land acquisition challenges, the project could never take off despite repeated attempts.

The project is very significant to Bangalore city because it is expected to address serious traffic challenges. According to local authorities and the state government, Bengaluru needs PRR given the massive geographical expansion of the city to the current spread of 2196 sq km and explosive growth of vehicular ownership (2019 estimate - over 80 lakhs).

The ring road is also expected to provide massive economic benefits.

Bengaluru has been attempting to complete several large ring road projects to improve its city-region connectivity and alleviate traffic congestion. A Satellite Town Ring Road (STRR) is currently under construction.

Environmental Issues

The project has already received initial environmental clearance, which was required as it involves the diversion of 7.91 hectares (19.54 acres) of forest land in the Jarakabandekaval reserve forest.

Since the boundary of Bannerghatta National Park and Puttenahalli bird conservation reserve is located at a distance of 7.21 Km and 1.49 Km, respectively, additional approvals were required.

The proposed PRR alignment is close to Peenya Industrial Area and Jigani-Bommasandra Industrial Area, which are notified as severely polluted and critically polluted areas by CPCB.

As per the environmental impact assessment (EIA) done for the project, 36,824 trees will have to be uprooted for the project. At Thippagondanahalli reservoir, 20 km of the proposed road will be built and 13,355 trees will come in the way of the project. More than 630 trees have been identified in the Jarakabande Kaval reserve forest area.

Environmental groups also say that there are six lakes along the proposed road alignment, and construction will result in a significant loss of habitat for small mammals like squirrels and bats and birds like the Black kite, Brahminy kite, Common buzzard and the Indian peafowl. They argue that about 555 hectares (1,371 acres) of farmland will also be lost to the PRR.

BDA has proposed to mitigate the impact of the PRR on the environment by planting ten trees for every tree removed (a total of 3,38,380 trees to be plated). BDA has also undertaken to erect barriers on both sides of the road construction site to mitigate dust and air pollution. It has promised that no materials will be dropped from a height greater than 3 feet to minimise dust and that water will be sprinkled on the construction site at least three times a day.

Land Acquisition Challenges

A major legal hurdle for the project was cleared in Nov 2021 after the Supreme Court directed the Karnataka government and the Bangalore Development Authority to acquire the land for the formation of PRR and proceed to implement the project.

The SC permitted the project to go ahead in response to an affidavit filed by the Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka, Urban Development Department, Bengaluru.

Of the total land notified, government land consists of about 114.20 hectares, Kharab land consists 43.43 hectares and remaining private land is 555.57 hectares.

A section of land owners oppose BDA's proposal to compensate them under the BDA Act and have demanded compensation under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Act 2013.

According to an estimate by BDA that was done in 2021, the land acquisition cost would shoot up by more than Rs 14,000 crores if the compensation package is fixed as per 2013 Act.

Even when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government passed the bill in 2013, the critics had pointed out that it would increase the cost of infrastructure dramatically.

While the National Democratic Alliance government attempted to dilute the law by ordinances etc, it abandoned the idea after opposition from allies and a lack of majority in the Rajya Sabha.

BDA and the state government may need to come up with some innovative funding ideas to resolve the problem.

Team HouseLiv Realty REAL ESTATE BENGALURU

ದುಬಾರಿಯಾಗ್ತಿದೆ ಹೊಸ ಮನೆ ಕಟ್ಟೋ ಕನಸು: ನಿಲ್ಲುತ್ತಲೇ ಇಲ್ಲ ನಿರ್ಮಾಣ ಉತ್ಪನ್ನಗಳ ಬೆಲೆ ಏರಿಕೆಯ ಓಟ

ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು: ರಷ್ಯಾ-ಉಕ್ರೇನ್ ಸಂಘರ್ಷದ (Russia Ukraine Crisis) ಪರಿಣಾಮ ಗೃಹ ನಿರ್ಮಾಣ ಚಟುವಟಿಕೆಗಳನ್ನೂ (Real Estate Industry) ಕಾಡುತ್ತಿದೆ. 2016ರಲ್ಲಿ ನೋಟು ಅಮಾನ್ಯೀಕರಣದ ನಂತರ ಕಳೆಗುಂದಿದ್ದ ರಿಯಲ್ ಎಸ್ಟೇಟ್ ವಲಯಕ್ಕೆ ಏಟಿನ ಮೇಲೆ ಏಟು ಬೀಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದು ಚೇತರಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲು ಅವಕಾಶವೇ ಸಿಗುತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ. ಕೊವಿಡ್ ಸಂಕಷ್ಟದಿಂದ ಕಂಗಾಲಾಗಿದ್ದ ಉದ್ಯಮ ಇದೀಗ ನಿರ್ಮಾಣ ಚಟುವಟಿಕೆಗಳಿಗೆ ಬಳಸುವ ಉತ್ಪನ್ನಗಳ ಬೆಲೆ ಏರಿಕೆಯಿಂದ ಕಂಗಾಲಾಗಿದೆ. ಏಪ್ರಿಲ್ 1ರಿಂದ ಆರಂಭವಾಗಲಿರುವ ಹೊಸ ಆರ್ಥಿಕ ವರ್ಷದಿಂದ ಬೆಲೆಗಳು ಇನ್ನಷ್ಟು ಪರಿಷ್ಕರಣೆಗೊಂಡು, ಹೆಚ್ಚಾಗಬಹುದು ಎಂದು ಮೂಲಗಳು ಹೇಳಿವೆ.

Team Houseliv 

REAL ESTATE BENGALURU

House Sales Up 3% In March Quarter: ReportMumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Delhi-NCR were the dominant markets, with a share of almost 70-75 per cent in both new launches and sales

REAL ESTATE BENGALURU

 

Sale of residential apartments during the January-March quarter of 2019 rose by 3 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis to 33,000 units across seven major cities in the country, according to a report by real estate services and investment firm, CBRE.

According to the report, new launches during the period under review also stood at 33,000 units, up 14 per cent on a quarterly basis.

"While policy reforms such as Real Estate - Regulation and Development Act 2016 (RERA) and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) brought in the much-needed transparency in the residential real estate, the present upward movement is also credited to proactive and customer-centric initiatives undertaken by real estate developers. 

"The overall impact of both these reforms and proactive approach of the developers resulted in new launches and sales witnessing a yearly increase of about 11 per cent and 19 per cent respectively in 2018," it said.

The broad stabilisation of capital values and increasing disposable income also created a suitable environment for the recovery of the residential sector, it added.

Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Delhi-NCR were the dominant markets, with a share of almost 70-75 per cent in both new launches and sales. The other cities where the survey was carried out were Hyderabad, Pune and Kolkata.

Houseliv Realty

Karnataka govt’s proposal lifts mood in property market

Property Bengaluru

BENGALURU: Discussions in the state government about reducing the guidance value of properties have heartened developers and would-be homebuyers, providing further momentum to the real estate sector that’s showing signs of recovery after the second wave of Covid-19.

Last week, revenue minister R Ashoka said that the government was considering revising the guidance value by December and that any decrease would be implemented across Karnataka, barring industrial zones and areas along highways.

Guidance value is the minimum selling price of a property. The government fixes it based on the locality and type of structure. A downward revision will bring down property prices.

As per the norms, the government is supposed to revise the value every year. In January 2019, it announced a hike in the range of 5 to 24 per cent. “The guidance value could not be revised in 2020 because of the pandemic. As the government wants to take it up this year, we have initiated the process,” said KP Mohanraj, inspector general of registration and commissioner of stamps.

There have long been demands to cut the rates, which are very high in some areas and inflate property prices. For instance, the guidance value of a property on MG Road is more than Rs 1.9 lakh per square metre. On Lavelle Road, it is Rs 2 lakh per square metre.

Representatives of the real estate sector said that because of the Covid-linked slowdown, certain properties were being undervalued and sold. “While we welcome the government’s plans to decrease the guidance value, we hope it will consider the ground reality before finalising the rates,” said Suresh Hari, chairman of CREDAI-Bengaluru. He added that property sales had reached 30 per cent of the pre-Covid level.

There will be a knock-on effect on property tax if the guidance value is reduced. “The news has added to the positive mood, especially after the recent property tax muddle caused by BBMP’s flawed zonal classification. The government should also consider slashing stamp duty on registration of properties across price bands,” said MS Shankar, the general secretary of the Forum for People’s Collective Efforts.

Revenue booster

Lower guidance value is expected to increase the number of property registrations, which, in turn, will push the government’s revenue up. In August, more than 2.1 lakh documents were registered, fetching revenue of Rs 1,142 crore as against Rs 969 crore (1.7 lakh documents) in 2020 and Rs 911 crore (1.7 lakh documents) in 2019.

Team

HouseLiv Realty

365 homes a day! Mumbai property registrations hit 10-year high: Why real estate is set for a turnaround

REAL ESTATE INDIA

Property registrations in India's biggest real estate market scaled to a new 10-year peak in October. The number of housing units registered is up 8% year-on-year at 8,576 even though the Maharashtra government has now increased the stamp duty to 5% from 2% last year. Even compared to the pre-pandemic year of October 2019, registrations are 48 per cent higher this time around. Sequentially, the registration of housing properties is up 10% compared to September 2021. The registration data includes properties bought in both the primary and secondary markets. As India emerged from the first lockdown in 2020, the Maharashtra government in August 2020 said it would temporarily reduce stamp duty on housing units from 5% to 2% until 31 December 2020. Stamp duty from 1 January 2021 to 31 March 2021, was at 3%, following which it was increased to 5%. The stamp duty cut gave a huge boost to home sales. The total government revenues realized through sale registrations equaled Rs 550 crore, which was 136% higher on year. The registration of housing properties stood at 7,929 units during October 2020.

Get this: Over 2,400 residential properties—or 356 homes a day—were registered in Mumbai in the first seven days of the Navratri, the nine-day period that began on October 7, revealed data from Knight Frank. This period is considered an auspicious time to make big-ticket purchases. The daily registrations rate in previous months of August and September was 219 and 260 units, respectively.

The historically low interest rate on home loans, the lucrative festive offers along with flexible payment options and better consumer awareness has transformed Mumbai's real estate sector into a buyer's market.

"Month-on-month too, registrations are up 10%, signifying buoyancy in housing demand. They are also higher than the average of 6,000 monthly units registered during CY17-19. The overall value of units registered in Oct-21 stood at Rs 110 billion, (up 4% MoM but down 5% YoY). We believe momentum in Mumbai housing sales will continue going ahead in the festive season," said Edelweiss Securities analyst Parvez Qazi.

"The healthy growth in the residential property registrations volume is a sign of recovering markets. A consistent increase captured in the last few months demonstrates the strength of demand in the market as this continued surge in demand is despite the roll back of the government's stamp duty demand stimulant," said Gulam Zia, Senior Executive Director, Knight Frank India.

Recently, industry body Credai MCHI in association with data analytics firm CRE highlighted that the current calendar year could be the best in the last five years. "The industry is finally seeing green shoots of revival after a flat growth for half-a-decade and we are confident that this trend will continue till the end of this year given the upcoming festive season,” said Deepak Goradia, president, Credai-MCHI.

What about pricing?

The average ticket size in Mumbai in October declined 5% month-on month to Rs 1.28 crore. This is a 13% decline year-on-year and even lower than the average ticket size of Rs 1.34 crore in Calendar Year 2019. "This indicates that even after the end of the stamp duty relief (which had boosted sales of higher-ticket size luxury units), customers have again started to gravitate towards affordable units," said Qazi.

Is the housing cycle about to turn?

According to Edelweiss Securities, after a downswing in residential real estate spanning CY13–20, the housing cycle is set for a turnaround because of:

i) Affordability: It is defined as the house price-to-income ratio and it is the best in over two decades due to a combination of of muted price appreciation, lower interest rates, rising income levels and smaller unit sizes.

ii) Unsold inventory: A steady reduction since calendar year 2016; in fact after adjusting for stalled projects, the NCR is the only region with unsold inventory exceeding 24 months.. All other areas, including the MMR have unsold inventory at 24 month or less. Pune has just 13 months of unsold inventory. A similar phenomenon is visible in ready unsold inventory.

iii) Systemic liquidity: Ample in the wake of stimulus packages post-covid-19. History suggests Indian property space flourishes in periods of high liquidity. This is because declining interest rates are not only accompanied by an improvement in profitability, but also have the potential to fuel higher demand from end users. In addition, lower cost of capital boosts asset valuation. As a result, a Lower interest rate regime historically drove outperformance of realty stocks.

iv) Government support to realty space: While Maharashtra, West Bengal and Karnataka slashed stamp duty rates, the Delhi government reduced the circle rates by 20% till September 30, 2021. This is equivalent to about a 1% reduction in stamp duty.

v) Tech boost: Accelerated hiring by tech companies is driving robust demand in tech-dominated cities.

Consolidation is evident:

The share of top developers in launches (6–26% across cities in calendar year 2011) surged to 28–78% in the first half of calendar year 2021. And their share in absorption, which was 14–22% across cities in CY11, has built up to 20–51% through H1CY21. "Since demand tracks launches with a lag, it is a matter of time before the share of organised developers in absorption jumps to similar levels as launches. Bigger, organised developers are likely to benefit from both market share gains and demand revival going ahead. That many developers posted best-ever pre-sales in FY21 in spite of the pandemic indicates bigger realty players would continue to create outsized value for shareholders," said Aditya Narain, head of research, Edelweiss Securities.

In Mumbai, the brokerage has a buy rating on Godrej Properties, Oberoi Realty, Sunteck Realty and Macrotech Developers as it expects them to benefit from revival in housing sales in Mumbai.

Team

HouseLiv Realty