Thursday, November 12, 2009

Convenience is the key!

If you ask any perspiring soul emerging from an MMTS, or one who has just braved one of Hyderabad's jams, how it will feel to be able to walk to the workplace, the response is likely to be wishful and dreamy eyes!

Some of my friends who stay in Sec'bad or ECIL take almost 2 hours and more to reach homes after a tiring day at work!!

Walk to work concept is like a dream for any of these professionals! Staying, close to my workplace, I understand that luxury very much!

Real estate developers across the city are fast taking to the concept of walk-to-work in a bid to exploit an employee’s preference to live close to his workplace. Developers like Aliens Group and Aparna etc have centred their projects like Aliens Space Station 1 and Aparna Sarovar on the walk-to-work concept and are confident that they have figured out the winning formula.

Walk-to-work is a smart concept and in this age of hurry burry and traffic jams and 24X7 lifestyle, it will definitely be a hit forumala. While the infrastructure sector is flourishing, the thrust is believed to have come from the housing sector. The walk to work concept takes into account one’s convenience, housing needs and that people don’t have to put in long hours of travel on their way to work.

IT and BPO industry are lucrative segments in India and have people working for very long hours to meet the onsite demands and work. We have realised that this concept has the potential to serve these sectors in a fruitful way in the sense that the employees productivity is expected to increase manifold when there is no pressure for them to head towards their homes which are an hour away from the workplace.

With Gachibowli becoming the next business hub, developers in the city are coming up with major projects around Gachibowli to cash in on the walk to work idea! Integrated townships near workplaces is the next "in" thing and very soon becoming the essential ingrediant of all our future projects.

Major builders like Aliens Group who have pioneered the concept have been able to get good no. of sales and taking cue from that they have incorporated it in a number of projects since then. Gachibowli has proved to be a very successful location because people prefer newly urbanised zones.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Hyderabad is the place!

Hyderabad's real estate segment has been in limelight ever since the launch of new state of the art airport at Shamshabad in 2008. The city's real estate vistas have multiplied and property developers and real estate gaints and home seekers are making the most of this boom.

Hyderabad is still working its infrastructure profile to attract more and more MNCs and corporate biggies to the city. Many national players and real estate developers have lined up investments for Hyderabad. In the last couple of months, in spite of the rough weather, at least 20 new infrastructure and property projects have been launched in and around the city.

Infrastructure firms have announced big investments for their realty business. The HUDA is developing eight-lane access-controlled expressway in the city. This proposed expressway is a part if the Outer Ring Road (ORR) project and would be taken up in three phases.

Aliens Group, Lanco, Lodha etc are coming up with BIG projects. Also, recently heard Philippines-based real estate firm Ayala Corporation is foraying into Hyderabad's real estate.

High profile firms are venturing again to buy stakes in a real estate projects at Hyderabad. Projects in Hyderabad involve development of office, residential, retail and hospitality space.

Investors and real estate companies are making the most of the development activities happening in Hyderabad. However, the winner in this situation will be the property seeker since he will have a plethora of options, in varied budgets, to choose from!

Friday, September 18, 2009

Lean is in-Part II

To improve the productivity in construction is vital, given the market condition and tightened supply of raw materials. It is a bed time story in the construction industry that performance improvement-even at a small scale can have significant impact on the economy of real estate markets and thence on the national economy.

Demand for improvement in the construction industry will provide higher quality in the output, reduce construction costs and thereby end product pricing, help in offering a better process and end product to the customer and increase safety and conditions at the construction site.

Aliens Group and other builders, having realized that this is the best way so far to reach their goals, have adopted techniques of lean construction in their construction process.

Two of the well known strategies employed in Lean construction are:

Making construction like manufacturing: to reduce the complexity of construction processes to a level where the principles from the ordered world of manufacturing can be used/applied directly for improved efficiency and simplified implementation

Developing construction as a process: making the process in a way such that more and more processes of the construction are done offsite, thereby making the construction site work mere assembling work, thereby giving more scope for strategy and planning.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Lean is in

In this blog, I'll introduce the latest fad in the construction industry.

Lean thinking means more output with less effort, less time, less space and less equipment. You get the idea, right?

Given the market conditions, lean construction is the order of the day.

Like how recession streamlined processes in many industries by making efficiency the key, recession has brought in lean construction into the construction industry that had for a long time required such check!

Lean construction refers to streamlined and efficient construction operations and construction enterprise management arrangements that make construction process more robust.

Lean construction concept brings with it,
Shorter construction periods
Improved designs
Reduced costs, less waste
Improved safety and health
Improved quality, fewer defects
Productivity gains
Satisfied customers
:)

Next, we'll see more on this.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Update on real estate India

It wasn’t that the demand for realty died down. It only remained dormant; this was more an upshot of the subprime crisis bubble in the US. People were scared invest given the tightening of funds, general uncertainty in their earnings and savings and all that. This had a rippling effect with reactions like check on prices, sluggish construction pace and nationwide lukewarm sentiment on real estate prices.


Things are now looking up. There was this apartment in my flats that had gone down from 90 lakhs to 67 lakhs during the last six months and the neighbouring house owner now quotes 80 lakhs for the same floor plan. I’m trying to say that there has been a price correction in the last one month. The builders are now more confident of delivering on time. I read this in an article in Deccan Chronicle, Aliens Group managing director Hari Challa says and I quote, “We assure that we will complete Aliens space station-1 by September, 2011, which was clearly mentioned in the agreement copy. Work has been going on in full swing as we have already sold 75 per cent of flats". I checked up on their site and progress and the customers now seemed happy.


There is lot more stability in things even in general.


The pent up demand that was there in the market has started getting converted into business and people have started buying, yes, the pace could be better than this, but the buying is happening.


There have been stimulus packages, there is some good work on ensured availability of liquidity to the home buyers, interest rates have softened and this has generated a positive air and demand in the market. The cut in housing loan lending rates may attract a few more buyers into the market.


Interest subsidies and extension of tax holidays for projects that will get completed by 2011 has brought about positivity in the micromarkets. This has encouraged developers to take up new projects and expedite ongoing projects. This builder (my friend has bought a flat there) whose construction work was going on at a sluggish pace has picked up speed and the works seems to progress in full swing.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Real Estate in India

Post deregulation and liberalization, real estate in India has seen a rapid expansion. Burgeoning middle class and growing demand, the super strong demographic impetus, revised investor friendly policies, huge quantum of FDIs, rural exodus and urbanization, expansion of real estate in terms of becoming a more structured and organized sector have all enthroned real estate sector in India. The new stand adopted by Indian government regarding foreign direct investment (FDI) policies has encouraged many countries to invest in India. India has displaced US as the second-most favored destination for FDI in the world.
Not only is real estate one of most crucial economy driver, it is the second largest employer after agriculture in India. With the conducive real estate environment (residential, retail and commercial) in metros of India such as Mumbai, Delhi & NCR, Kolkata and Chennai, Hyderabad etc and in tier two cities, the foundation for real estate looks strong.
More and more real estate biggies cashed on to this sentiment and built luxury homes. Ultra-luxurious and grandiloquent! Golden Gate Properties, EMAAR MGF, Mantri, Unitech, DLF, all of them competed to dole out homes more pompous than the other.
Then..
Market slump crippled real estate sector. It bore the cardinal shift from being a seller’s market to buyer’s. It reached the point of abyss when builders had to put their projects on hold. It could only look up from there!
Today, the sentiment is more positive, you can see that in the faces of builders, in the smiles of the sales guys and investors. Major projects have taken off, regulatory bottlenecks have been cleared, the construction is picking momentum and the future bodes well.
Another cardinal shift has been the shift from luxury housing to affordable segment. Taking lessons from the mercurial dynamics of housing from the slump and the disastrous fall of its sibling elsewhere, real estate in India realized that chanting the budget housing mantra is the order of the day.
DLF and Omaxe have started the trend and announced their long term investment plans in affordable housing and others are catching up fast.
That’s the market scene in Indian real estate at a bird’s view glance.
Each post in this blog will analyze the Indian real estate sector, major players, latest developments, technologies and beyond.