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GNN HAS IDENTIFIED A NEW LANDFILL SITE WITH THE PROVISION OF SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT SCHEME Ghaziabad: The longstanding complaint of Ghaziabad residents regarding the provision of a landfill site as the existing ones are almost filled is going to be attended as soon as the administration and Nagar Nigam finalise the site at Dunda Hera, followed by the provision for solid waste management system. According to Dr. KK Tyagi, health officer, GNN, "The landfill site at Dunda Hera has been finalised after the removal of stay order. We have already sent a letter to the administration in Lucknow for changing the land use and after that the site can be used for dumping the waste of entire Ghaziabad. In fact the Jal Nigam has been constructing a solid waste management system and it will also come into operation. Though another site was identified at Dasna but that couldn't be finalised." Till now Ghaziabad has two landfill sites which are almost filled to capacity and third one h

After being delayed over and over again, the project of widening the National Highway (NH)-24 might soon see some development. The matter has been taken up after complaints from residents about the inordinate delay of the stretch, especially from Hapur to Brij Ghat. As per the original plan, NH-24 was to be widened to eight lanes. The work on the stretch started four years back. With the delay the project cost has escalated by Rs 17 , crore. "The expansion of NH-24 is of utmost importance. Given the traffic load any delay will not be taken lightly The Ghaziabad . Development Authority (GDA) has already given Rs 15 crore and the Noida Authority is in the process of giving funds," says District Magistrate, Deepak Aggarwal. He also added that the work would definitely start by the end of January next year. With delay in the project, bottlenecks have started forming on the stretch. "NH-24 will become a choke point soon if the District Administration does not take some action

Buy Our Unsold Flats At Current Rates: Squeezed Realtors To Ask Govt In the first of its kind bailout demand, real-estate companies are planning to ask the Government to buy out their unsold flats at current market prices and sell these at a later date. The proposal floated by one of the big Delhi-headquartered and listed real-estate companies is one of the many ideas to be hard sold at the Planning Commission tomorrow. A real estate company's chairman and managing director who did not wish to be quoted told The Indian Express, "We will discuss this tomorrow with Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia." He, however, did not disclose the inventory position of the large firms in India. According to Jaskirat Singh, owner of Delhi-based real estate broking firm Grand Real Estates, about 30-45 per cent of properties worth Rs 50 lakh and above launched over the last six months remain unsold for DLF and Unitech. In the case of Omaxe, it is 25-30 per cent, he

DDA’s dream home draw results to be out today New Delhi: The fate of 5.67 lakh applicants, all hoping to win the opportunity to own a DDA flat, will be decided on Tuesday. The draw of lots for the 5,010 flats up for grabs will be held at noon. In an attempt at transparency, the computerized random draw of lots will be carried out before a jury comprising senior bureaucrats, professors from IIT and experts from the media. The results will be available on the DDA website from 3 pm onwards and the results will also be published in some newspapers. In a mad rush to own a home, the DDA offer of 5010 flats had attracted over 7.5 lakh buyers of application forms. About 5.67 lakh forms came back to DDA at the final count. Further, not too many forms were rejected after scrutiny. Out of the 5,010 flats, 352 are three-bedroom units, 889 are two-bedroom ones, 3,231 are one bedroom flats, while 286 are expandable. In space-starved Delhi and amidst skyrocketing property prices, these flats

DDA mega scheme to offer 14,000 flats New Delhi: If you don’t find your name in Tuesday’s draw for allotment of 5,010 flats under the mega DDA scheme, don’t lose heart. The housing agency is readying an even bigger project which will put a whopping 14,000 flats on offer. Having finally woken up to the acute housing shortage in the capital, DDA is now in the process of constructing flats for all three income groups — high, middle and low — in places like Vasant Kunj, Dwarka, Rohini, Jasola, Narela and Pitampura. Sources said the upcoming DDA project will deliver around 3,150 flats for the high-income group, around 770 for middle-income group, 8,000 for low-income and 2,000 for economically weaker sections. Approximately 3,600 of these flats will come up in Vasant Kunj and around 2,100 in Dwarka, a DDA official said. Close to 800 HIG and MIG apartments are also being constructed in localities like Pitampura, Mukherjee Nagar and Motia Khan. The scheme, likely to be announced by 2

New Delhi: Despite many banks have cut their prime lending rates (PLR) recently, existing customers have not benefited from the move. Even after one month of the rate cut, a majority of home loan borrowers under floating rate schemes found out that banks including SBI, PNB, IDBI Bank, have not passed on the rate cut to them. Banks offered this benefit only to new customers. A Delhi-based borrower, who has taken a home loan from a PSU bank, said though the bank has cut PLR by 0.75 percentage points, his rate is unchanged at 11.5%. He borrowed the money a couple of years back at 8.5%. When interest rates were increased, banks promptly raised the rate. ‘‘But, now as the rate has gone down, the bank has not cut it,'' he said. And these banks do not even inform about hiking rates. When rates go up, they just increase the tenure, keeping the EMI unchanged. This saves them from the trouble of taking new cheques for the increased amount at higher rates. A senior IT professional P

PSU banks cut rates, but it may not help much New Delhi: All PSU banks on Monday bowed to government pressure and announced halfmeasures for giving the faltering housing sector a leg-up. So, all 26 of them came up with a concessional home loan rate scheme that is limited to loans up to Rs 20 lakh — a step described as ‘‘window-dressing’’ by housing companies. They felt this was unlikely to breathe life into a comatose property market, especially in the big cities. These concessional loans will be available only to new borrowers (ostensibly to attract new buyers into the property market) but offer no help to existing borrowers who are groaning under a steep increase in loan rates. These banks — and other private banks and housing finance companies — had speedily hiked interest rates when overall rates went up, but have been slow to reduce home loan rates when money has otherwise become cheaper. PSU banks will charge 8.5% per annum on home loans up to Rs 5 lakh and 9.25% on those b

Maintenance charges and super built-up area have been increased and builders want payment in advance Buyers who bought apartments in Gurgaon and Greater Noida from DLF Ltd and Unitech Ltd are complaining that the builders have increased maintenance charges, sought advance payment of such charges, and increased the so-called super built-up area of their flat resulting in an escalation of costs. Unplanned costs: A DLF complex in Gurgaon. The company has doubled the maintenance fee from what was agreed to in the buyer's contract. At least three projects around capital New Delhi--DLF Pinnacle, Unitech Horizon and Unitech The World Spa--have seen changes in charges and terms from what was originally stated in the buyer's contract, buyers say. DLF and Unitech say they are within terms of the agreements with buyers and such changes are not unusual. The increase in charges that have taken payments by a few lakhs comes at a time when demand for real estate is waning and developers find

Excise cut 4% across the board to boost demand Govt To Spend Rs 20K Cr More; Home Loan Package Coming New Delhi: Faced with a somnolent economy that’s not responding enthusiastically to monetary measures such as interest rate cuts, new finance minister (and Prime Minister) Manmohan Singh on Sunday took the twin route of fiscal incentives and government spending to stimulate growth. He has identified two important levers that might spur the economy back on the growth path. First and perhaps the most important, is keeping comsumption levels in the economy high, even if that requires the government spending from its own pocket. The second is related to the first: Ensuring that employment levels do not fall, not only to ensure continuing consumption but also because growing unemployment is suicidal when elections are just a few months away. With these two broad-brush objectives in mind, Planning Commission deputy chairman and trusted man of the PM, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, unveiled a

DMRC plans east-south link, Phase III proposal includs Ghazipur-Dhula Kuan and Noida-NH-8 lines If all goes well, there will be a Metro link between Ghazipur and Dhaula Kuan by 2015. The proposed route is part of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation's (DMRC) Phase III plan, sent to the Delhi government for approval. Other highlights of the Phase III plan are a link between Noida's Sector 18 and National Highway 8, and an additional line between Central Secretariat and Kashmere Gate. Senior DMRC officials said the corporation had prepared an initial plan of 85 km for Phase III. Construction for this phase will start by the end of 2010. To be completed by 2015, the additional network is expected to cost Rs 23,000 crore. "Our hands are currently full with the 128 km of Phase II projects but we have definitely started planning for Phase III," said DMRC Managing Director E Sreedharan. Other Phase III routes include a line connecting Ashoka Park and New Delhi Railway Station throug

'We are not financiers, but builders': DLF vice-chairman Rajiv Singh The real estate sector has been affected by the global slowdown and the high interest rates for home buyers as well as developers. In a conversation with ET , DLF vice-chairman Rajiv Singh outlines his view on the sector, company's progress in real estate and retail . Excerpts: How deep is the problem? You have earlier talked about a 25% drop in sales volume for DLF and 50% for the entire sector. There will be a substantial decline in volume. But 25% or 50% drop I referred to was before the RBI went in for fresh round of rate cuts. The RBI's move will have a positive impact on the sector. The entire industry is looking to government to mitigate the impact of global downturn on India . What are your expectations? The government needs to take three important steps. First, bring down interest rate for home buyers . Second, ease credit for developers and third, change definition of real estate. Once ho

Home Loan Firms Not To Cut Rates, Say Cost Of Funds Too High To Lower Lending Rates A slew of measures by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) during the last few weeks may have led to a reduction in home loan rates by public sector banks, but housing financial companies (HFCs) are in no mood to reduce lending rates. HFCs are complaining that the cost of funds is showing no signs of easing as banks are still charging around 12-13 per cent, which is higher than the average lending rate of HFCs. For instance, HDFC and LIC Housing Finance Company, which together account for over 70 per cent share of the HFC market, charge around 11.5 per cent, while home loans from Dewan Housing Finance Company costs between 12 and 14 per cent. "Our interest rates are a function of our cost of funds. We have always passed on the benefit of lower cost of funds to our customers and we will continue to do the same. As of now, we have not seen interest rates coming down even though RBI has taken steps to prov

Realty Faces Reality, Here Is What Three Key Real Estate Consultants Said: The real estate sector may be passing through a period of stress, but the long-term outlook continues to be positive, despite the terrorist attacks on Mumbai or the liquidity crunch. Here is what three key real estate consultants said: Further 15-20% decline in prices in select micro-markets possible: Arvind Nandan, Director - Consultancy, Cushman & Wakefield India The Indian realty sector has seen a progressive demand slowdown since early 2008. With fluctuating interest and inflation rates, the residential sector has been the hit hard. End-users, who are predominantly mortgage-dependent, have progressively withdrawn from the marketplace -- especially first-time home buyers from the middle and lower-middle income strata. The last 12 months have clearly confirmed the fact that the audience for high-value developments, large apartments and luxury products continue to be niche and that developers need to correc

Cheap Finance,Tax Incentives,Faster Approval Of Building Projects, Lower Govt Levies: Key To Housing Reduced home loan rates, more tax incentives for buyers, faster approval of building projects and lower government levies are some of the ways to prop up the sagging housing market. As the market clamours for a drop in home loan interest rates to rejuvenate the housing sector and attract new buyers, the existing borrowers appear to be worse off than those considering a home loan at the prevailing rates. At least the new buyers can plan what they can afford and go for a smaller house and a smaller loan. But now, potential buyers are not planning anything but simply staying away, say developers. Lack of interest Buyers are not coming forward to finalise their deals as the morale is low. Consumers are afraid of what might happen in these uncertain times in the backdrop of the financial crisis. According to one developer with a nationwide presence, who did not want to be named, the action n

EWDPL Eyes Cash Crunch-Hit Mall Projects, Who Are Unlikely To Finish Their Projects Entertainment World Development (EWDPL), a real estate developer, said it plans to acquire malls from cash-strapped builders who are unlikely to finish their projects and may be scouting for a partner. EWDPL's move comes at a time when most of the country's developers have either deferred or slowed down their projects. DLF and Unitech, two of the country's largest developers, have recently announced plans to defer or sell some of its projects for want of cash. As many as 60 per cent of the projects embarked upon by small developers are not likely to be completed as retailers cut back on their expansion plans, stock markets tumble and banks curb lending to real estate projects, experts said. ''This is a time for distress sale of assets by small developers,'' said Manish Kalani, managing director, EWDPL. ''This provides a great opportunity for us, as our company will be

India's Property Market Continues To Weaken With Discounts Of Up To 50% The outlook for the property market in India has weakened over the last few months and analysts are reluctant to give an estimate of recovery times. Confidence is low and a constant negative commentary has aggravated the problems of affordability and high mortgage rates in real estate, according to a new report from Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd. The report states that buyers are shying away from new projects and those under construction if delivery times are more than a year away. They feel that prices could drop further in the medium term and they are not sure if the developers would have the ability to stick to schedules. So pre-sales, an important source of funds for developers to meet construction costs, is under threat. Also list prices are no longer relevant as developers with projects in the pipeline and those that have been announced are offering discounts of 30-50 per cent on listed prices. The

Good News For Home Loan Seekers Pvt Banks To Cut Lending Rates By Up To 50 bps In December Home loan seekers can expect further cut in the lending rates with the public sector banks gearing up for the second round of cut in the benchmark lending rates by up to 50 basis points during December. Banks have already started reducing the deposit rates and with more liquidity infusion by the Reserve Bank of India, there would be more scope for cutting lending rates to spur demand, said a senior banker. Banks have started assessing asset liability situation in the light of the cuts in deposit rate coming into effect from next week, the senior bank official said. Another senior banker said, further cut in benchmark prime lending rate (PLR) in between 25-50 basis points by various banks is likely to be announced in December. In the first round, several public sector banks have reduced their PLR by 75 basis points following an appeal by the finance minister P Chidambaram earlier in the month. Chi

Banks blank out builders?, Infrastructure projects in jeopardy as wary banks refuse to lend Increasing Hesitation on the part of banks to lend to infrastructure projects has rung alarm bells in the government, as this could delay several critical current and planned projects by several months for want of funds. "Banks have also been reneging on the sanctioned terms, especially relating to interest rates agreed in the loan documentation. These include even loan documents executed in the current fiscal. Even if a couple of banks block disbursement, the entire disbursement schedule gets seriously disturbed," a finance ministry official said. Data collated by the finance ministry have shown that banks are charging above 15 per cent interest rate. This year alone, interest rates for infrastructure projects have gone up by a whopping 3 percentage points. "At this interest rate, infrastructure projects may not be viable," the official said. Banks are now stipulating variab

Noida To Take Over UP Land In Delhi Which Are Presently Governed By DDA Land Use Policy Noida Authority Board in its 156th meeting today decided to dispose of the UP properties in Delhi after taking them over from the Delhi Development Authority as the properties are presently governed by DDA land use policy. The UP irrigation department has some 311 acres of land at about eight different locations in Delhi, viz Okhla, Jamia, Mathura Road, etc. After taking it back, Noida Authority will take a decision about its future use, said Noida chief executive officer Mahinder Singh. Noida Authority Board also approved three schemes of group housing in Sectors--50, 51, 56, 99, 100, 108, 110 and 121 on 13 available plots of 40,000 to 80,000 sq mtr sizes. In group housing, FAR ratio has also been changed and more floors allowed so that the Noida skyline will be changed with taller building blocks, the CEO said. The Board also approved the setting up of Kanshi Ram Shehri Garib Avas Yojna in Sector-

LIC Housing Finance Shifts Focus To Loaning Builders/Developers While the frozen liquidity lines have checked the real estate boom, LIC Housing Finance is disbursing more loans to builders/developers who constitute 6 per cent of their business as against individuals which make up 94 per cent of their business. "We are supporting the builders and developers by funding their upcoming projects to support individuals to afford real estate properties. This will, in due course, result in escalating business in our home loan segment," said R.R. Nair, director and chief executive, LIC Housing Finance. Ground reports suggest builders are now negotiating prices with buyers, although they still refuse to reduce property prices officially. LIC Housing aims to convince builders to bring down prices to a reasonable level by offering easy and hassle-free loans to builders (for new projects). The idea behind the shift in focus is to encourage individual buyers to book properties. The intenti

Here's good news for those looking to buy a house in a city bursting at its seams. The Noida Board on Monday approved a proposal to develop an integrated residential cum institutional project on 311 acres of land -- three times the size of Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium -- in south-east Delhi. The land belongs to the Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department. Pieces of land earmarked for the project are located along Mathura Road close to Madanpur Khadar, Okhla, the Jamia Millia Islamia University and Kalindi Kunj. Experts said the project would help augment the enormous demand-supply gap for affordable housing options in the city . Plus, the project is in a central location. "The area falls on the Delhi Metro route close to Jasola. These 311 acres can go a long way in tiding over the shortage in housing stock in Delhi," said Anshuman Magazine, managing director, CB Richard Ellis, a real estate consultancy firm. According to Census 2001 figures, there were 24.5 lakh housing units in

The wheels of fortune for the real estate, especially the residential property market, have turned since the stockmarket crash in January this year. The sector, which was already battling with high interest rates and high cost of property that were, to an extent, keeping homebuyers away from the market, received a death blow in terms of the negative sentiment. The global economic turmoil in the later months only increased the intensity. While homebuyers are deferring purchases to catch the bottom, real estate speculators, who invested in property purely for gain, are finding it hard to pull out at their desired price points. Whether you're a home-buyer or an investor, the present scenario is the perfect setting for inducing wrong calls. We list the commonest ones - and ways to avoid them. Money Mistake 1 With prices likely to cool off in the short-term, there is no point in holding on. I should pull out of the investment. This is the first thing most of us do when we get bad news a

Crunch Time For Players, Opportunity For Buyers None in the real estate sector can be completely immune to the effects of the current situation; developers may have to therefore think hard before deciding on the phasing and pricing of their projects. While we have been living with the credit squeeze for several quarters now, September was a bizarre month in the global financial markets, with every day bringing one financial catastrophe after another. A number of global financial institutions went bankrupt or were forced into mergers or were rescued by governments. Real estate and financial markets are closely linked the world over, and so, these financial developments will definitely impact the Indian realty market. None in the real estate sector can be completely immune to the effects of the current situation; developers may have to therefore think hard before deciding on the phasing and pricing of their projects. This financial meltdown is expected to further lead to a pullback of de

Prices Have Fallen Considerably: Realty experts say this is the right time to buy flats and houses Suddenly, owning a house has become a lot easier. After reigning high for a couple of years, property prices have fallen considerably in the last six months bringing cheers to those planning to buy a house or plot. Realty experts say this is the right time to buy flats and houses since the prices are `lucrative'. To attract middle-income customers, real estate companies are offering discount schemes. Firms that developed layouts in city outskirts have reduced prices of property to give tough competition to rivals. Fall of steel prices has also helped realty firms to rationalise prices of property. Steel prices which touched a high of Rs 50,000 per tonne have now come down to Rs 32,000 per tonne. This has brought down the cost of construction by around Rs 70 per sq ft, bringing cheers to both realtors and buyers. There is hope construction cost would get reduced again with inflation an

Tight credit, small bonuses hurt real estate; distress sales expected The giant cranes that once worked long into the Mumbai night are still, the roar of concrete mixers has dulled, and hundreds of migrant workers have gone home. A slowing economy, high interest rates, tighter credit and a falling stock market have left developers in India's financial hub scrambling for cash and delaying or cancelling ambitious commercial and residential projects. High Risks: A view of Niriman Point, Mumbai. According to one estimate, rentals in even such prime locations have fallen by 10-25%. The Mumbai skyline has been transformed in recent years as developers rushed to build gleaming office blocks, swanky apartment towers and sprawling malls. Land prices quadrupled in some areas in the last three years, and commercial and residential spaces in Mumbai come under the world's most expensive. Rising incomes, low interest rates, a soaring stock market and foreign investment fuelled the boom. Now,