Delhi real estate regulator by this year-end

Source :economictimes

NEW DELHI: Delhi will have real estate regulator by this year-end, Urban Development Minister S. Jaipal Reddy said Thursday.

He also said the government was talking to other states to have similar regulators.

"The state governments have sounded positive. It would take time to happen. But Delhi will get a regulatory authority for the real estate by this year," Reddy told.

He said the legislation process for the real estate regulator for Delhi would soon be completed as the draft bill has been circulated to the stakeholders.

According to him, the regulator once in place would prevent real estate players from indulging in unnecessary profiteering.

The minister also said the Metro rail will stretch to 190 km in the national capital region by the time the Commonwealth Games start here October 3.

LIC Housing Finance to focus on projects for senior citizens The company will launch one retirement home project in each state every year

SOURCE:Mint: Devesh Chandra Srivastava,Sun, May 9 2010. 10:02 PM IST

New Delhi: LIC Housing Finance Ltd (LICHFL), the housing finance arm of state-owned Life Insurance Corp. of India (LIC), plans to enter the retirement home business with the launch of two projects in Bhubaneswar and Jaipur.

“Every year, LICHFL plans to develop housing projects for senior citizens who are 50 years and above in age. The first project at Bhubaneswar is at the approval stage,” said R.R. Nair, LICHFL’s director and chief executive officer.

The company, which has acquired 7 acres and 5 acres of land in Bhubaneswar and Jaipur, respectively, will launch one such project in each state every year. The cities will be selected on the basis of their demography.

“We would select only those cities that have significant population in that age bracket. For instance, Kolkata is such a city,” he said. “Places of pilgrimage such as Rishikesh or Haridwar could also be of interest as these attract the elderly in huge numbers. However, capital cities will be our first choice.”
Prior to the announcement of this plan, the firm developed such a project in Bangalore that was launched in 2006.

“This is not an activity under any corporate social responsibility, but it is a fully commercial venture. Apart from the sale value, buyers are charged Rs1,500 per month for amenities,” he said. “Spread over 7 acres, the Bengaluru project houses 98 units with community facilities.”
Between 600 sq. ft and 800 sq. ft in size, the units were sold at Rs6-8 lakh. “The pricing for the upcoming projects has not been decided, but it will be quite reasonable,” he said, declining to give details.

The firm, awaiting the Reserve Bank of India’s approval to start its banking arm, expects to disburse loans of up to Rs20,000 crore in the current fiscal. Nair said the firm had given loans worth Rs15,000 crore in the last fiscal, registering a growth of 70%.

The LIC unit’s plans come as other real estate developers and financial institutions have also entered the field of homes for senior citizens. Chandigarh, Dehradun, Pune, Udaipur, Indore, Jabalpur and Ranchi are ranked the highest among tier II cities for post-retirement living because of cheaper land rates and livable infrastructure, according to a recent report by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry, or Assocham.

Real estate firms such as Impact Senior Living Estates Ltd and Rakindo Developers Projects Ltd have already started developing such projects in Amritsar and Coimbatore, respectively, on a lease model. Rakindo Developers is a joint venture firm between Rakeen Group of UAE and Trimex Group of India. Another realty firm, Ashiana Housing Ltd, plans to develop retirement homes at Jaipur, Jodhpur and Lavasa. It has already developed one such project at Bhiwadi near Gurgaon.

“These homes are economically packaged to service the old around healthcare, hospitality and wellness,” according to Saumyajit Roy, assistant vice-president, senior living, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj.

The homes will come with monthly charges that will pay for specialized services for its residents.
“With associated services, these houses are higher in value compared to regular housing,” said Ankur Gupta, joint managing director, Ashiana Housing. “Retirement homes are lifestyle products that have got a business value.”

But unlike the US and other developed markets, India does not have any regulation on title ownership after the senior citizen’s death, raising the prospect that the nature of the property could change.
“Once the second generation starts living, the project will no longer remain a senior citizen’s project,” Roy said.

DLF looks to exit IT SEZ in Chennai, seeks 700 crore refund from govt

Source :12 May 2010, 0121 hrs IST,ET BUREAU


CHENNAI: Concerned over the delay in getting clearance from the Centre for its IT SEZ in Chennai, India’s largest listed developer DLF has decided to pull out of the project, communicating the same to Tamil Nadu government.

Tamil Nadu’s deputy chief minister MK Stalin informed the state assembly on Tuesday that DLF is keen to exit the proposed IT-SEZ project, which was to come on 26.24 acres at Taramani in Chennai. It has offered to return the land and also asked the state government to return the Rs 700 crore that it had paid earlier for the site. The government is yet to take a call on DLF’s request.

"At Taramani in Chennai, an IT related SEZ was proposed on an extent of 26.64 acres and DLF was selected through the transparent open tender procedure. Though this firm had already remitted Rs 700 crore to the Government towards the cost of the land, they have been requesting return of this money as approval by the Central Government for the SEZ is getting delayed," Mr Stalin told the house.

It is learnt by ET apart from problems on securing clearance front from the Centre, there also seem to be differences between DLF and government agency, Tidco (Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation) over the terms and conditions of the agreement for the SEZ.

"As per the agreement, at least 2.5 million square feet of IT/ITes space needs to be developed in the SEZ . But DLF is not keen to develop this in an SEZ because existing units cannot be shifted to a new SEZ," Tidco chairman and managing director Sunil Paliwal said.

DLF, on the other hand did not wish to comment on the subject. When contacted, DLF Southern Homes MD KK Raman said, "We have no comments. We have several options." But he didn’t elaborate on what these options are. Official sources said neither any decision has been yet on re-tendering the project nor about returning the amount paid by DLF. "Negotiations are still on," a senior official said.

DLF’s project may have hit a wall but the SEZ project on 25.27 acres by another national player, Tata Realty and Infrastructure at Taramani was on track and is scheduled to be completed in a couple of years.
Stalin said "This project (Tata Realty) involves building a state-of-the-art SEZ for IT with an integrated international convention centre with about 40 lakh Sq. ft. of I.T. and I.T.E.S./commercial space, an Integrated International Convention Centre to seat 1,500 delegates and 275 Service Apartments and suites at an estimated cost of 2,410 crore of rupees. Construction works are in progress now,".

He was replying to an adjournment motion moved by the opposition alleging irregularities in the MoU signed by the Government with Tata for the IT-SEZ project. He told the house Tata was not chosen arbitrarily without following any procedure. It was chosen by Tidco through the transparent tender procedure. It was during the previous AIADMK regime, 123 acres of lands were given to the firms of its choice arbitrarily without any tender.

That way, through Government orders, 80 acres of land was given to Wipro, 50 acres to Satyam Computers, 50 acres to HCL, 20 acres to Cognizant, 25 acres to Mega Soft, 25 acres to Bench mark Soft, 50 acres to Advance software. Again, without floating any tender, AIADMK Government had signed an MoU with Lee Kim Tah Holdings, Singapore to develop a township at Siruseri IT park for allotting 104 acres of land at a price of Rs 15 lakhs per acre.

Measures to ensure a quality building

Needs focus:Foundation work on for a building in Coimbatore. — 

 

For those constructing a new building, a number of factors need to be taken care of to ensure safety during construction and have a quality structure.

Chairman of the local chapter of the Builders' Association of India D.R. Sekar told The Property Plus that selection of site is important. Some areas in Coimbatore have black soil and some are located near water bodies. In these places, the foundation needs focus and it should be appropriate. Soil testing is another important task. The services of a soil consultant should be taken to know the soil bearing capacity.

Mr. Sekar points out that Coimbatore is in a seismic zone and hence the buildings should also be quake- resistant. Awareness on earth quake resistant buildings has improved during the last three to five years. Earthquake resistant buildings cost about 10 per cent higher than a normal structure because of the increase in steel use.

The design of the building is another key factor. Those who go in for high-rise buildings should take the services of a structural consultant. They should also decide the purpose of the building to determine the load factor. After construction, the owner should have the “as built drawing”. This will help in maintenance.

Selection of materials and having the right plumbing fixtures are also important, he says. The Government should relax the building rules to suit the developmental trends. However, it should be stringent in enforcing these rules.

According to Mr. Sekar, the cost management should not compromise on the quality of the building.

The builders should also adopt all safety norms while constructing a structure. Several accidents in buildings occur because of negligence or human error. 

Hence, safety factor is important while constructing a building. The law is stringent now on site accidents, he says.

M. SOUNDARIYA PREETHA 

Photo: S. Siva Saravanan
Source:The Hindu,CBE,2nd May 2010 

Strengthening structures

For many years, there was no classification of the earthquake zone in Chennai. Then, in 1977, it was classified under zone II. 

A further revision in 2001 led to it being classified under zone III. 

This meant that building designs had to be altered to resist the intensity of earthquakes, as indicated in zone III. Zone classification is done based on the intensity of past earthquakes.

Therefore, buildings constructed under the old zone classifications, now need attention. Most of the Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) frame buildings, especially multi–storeyed buildings, have a ground floor primarily left for parking and other open utility areas. 

Otherwise known as stilt floors or soft storey in earthquake terminology, these are flexible and weak, and cannot withstand even small quakes.

Stilt floor buildings or soft-storeyed buildings have mostly collapsed in earthquakes around the world. This was particularly evident in the 2001 Bhuj earthquake.

Research showed that such collapses were predominantly due to soft-storeyed buildings or partial infill masonry in RCC frames. 

Thereafter, the IS codes for seismic forces were revised to ensure stability of the new constructions during earthquakes. 

However, several old buildings constructed as per earlier IS codes still exist in earthquake-prone areas.

In stilt floors, the floors above displace themselves as a single block and transfer a large amount of horizontal force during an earthquake and make the columns in the stilt floor fail.

Another reason for the collapses during Bhuj 2001 was the partial infill of masonry in the RCC frame. During past earthquakes, reinforced concrete (RC) frame buildings with columns of different heights within one storey suffered more damage in the shorter columns.

This is due to captive column effect in earthquake terminology. Poor behaviour of captive columns is due to the fact that in an earthquake, a tall column and a short column of same cross-section move horizontally, equally. However, the captive column is stiffer as compared to the tall column, and it attracts larger earthquake force. .

In new buildings, captive column effect should be avoided to the extent possible during architectural design stage itself. 

When it is not possible to avoid captive columns, this effect must be addressed in structural design. Several researchers worldwide, including India, have investigated the behaviour of RC frames with partial infill walls under lateral loads.

This author has studied experimentally and proved that adding a small brickwork insert in the opening improves energy dissipation capacity by at least two times, and the cost of this insert is very marginal.

R. SURESH BABU

PTK Architects
Source:The Hindu,CBE,2nd May 2010