Mumbai to get world’s tallest residential real estate tower

WEDNESDAY, 09 JUNE 2010

Mumbai gets tallest tower The world’s tallest residential tower is to be built in Mumbai, India, on the site of an old cotton mill, it has been announced. Mumbai based Lodha Group will build the 117 storey skyscraper on a 17 acre site in Lower Parel in the city centre. It will be 442 meters high, beating the current tallest residential building in Australia at 323 meters and will contain 276 luxury apartments.   The building will be an iconic tribute to Mumbai and a symbol of India’s arrival on the global economic and cultural stage, the company said.   It has appointed New York based architects Pei Cobb Freed and Partners, whose work includes the Louvre Pyramid in Paris, Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong and John Hancock Tower in Boston.   About two to three acres will be reserved for open spaces with construction expected to start in the next few months and scheduled to be completed by 2014.   ‘Through the partnership with global architects, designers and engineers, we aim to bring to Mumbai a landmark, which would exemplify the spirit of Mumbai to always soar higher through hard work and passion,’ said Abhisheck Lodha, director of Lodha.   As residential property prices continue to rise in India the upmarket apartments are expected to be popular. The company is negotiating with foreign as well as local financiers to fund the project.   ‘A project of such big magnitude would surely be priced at a premium. We anticipate that there would be some demand for the project from high net worth individuals,’ said Yashwant Dalal, president of the Estate Agents Association of India.   The project also includes luxury villas with private pools, a high end shopping mall and an office building. Some booking have already taken place in the pre-launch period but the main launch is expected at the end of the month.   Pawan Swamy, managing director western India, at Jones Lang Lasalle Meghraj, a global realty consultancy firm, said Lodha Developers have the necessary permission to build a similar project at their recently acquired plot at Wadala.   Anand Gupta, Honorary treasurer of the All India Builders Association of India, said the project is something that all should all be proud of. ‘The structure and the skyline of the city symbolise the development and the progress of Mumbai,’ he added.

Govt to Set up New norms for Realty Valuation

The urban development ministry, along with the Indian Bank Association (IBA), the National Housing Bank (NHB) and the corporate affairs ministry, has drafted a handbook on policy, standards and procedures for real estate valuation by banks and housing finance institutions. The exercise, the first ever, is to put some order in real estate valuation.

In parallel, the company affairs ministry has drafted a Valuation Professionals Bill. It seeks to create a Council of Valuation Professionals of India. It will have experts from professional institutions and regulate the business of valuation. The council will set standards for valuers, train them, set qualifying norms and monitor them.

The norms include educational qualifications, work experience, membership of professional bodies, registration with the government and references. An IBA official told Financial Chronicle that the draft bill was now in the consultation stage.

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) India managing director, Sachin Sandhir, who helped in drafting the bill, said, the valuation practice in this country was replete with instances of bad corporate governance, bad debts and fraud. “It is an accepted fact that property valuation methods in India are as varied as the property laws in different states. In the absence of any prescribed standards, guidelines or reporting formats, valuers could manipulate assumptions, calculations and approaches.

“In the past, the Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has said disclosures made by real estate developers prove there are no standards of valuation. In some cases, inflated valuations are based on assumptions about future property values. Internationally recognised and International Valuation Standards-compliant RICS standards could not have come at a better time,” he said. According to officials, the need for some regulation has arisen because of the fly-by-night operators in the real estate business who take customers as well as the tax authorities for a ride and whose valuation systems are, at best, opaque.

The new policy will also look at other features like term of the empanelment, compliance to standards and procedures, obligations and other aspects. Importantly, an annual performance review by senior officials of banks will be undertaken. According to the draft, if the performance of the valuer is unsatisfactory, he or she can be taken off the panel. Use of unfair practices, professional misconduct, violation of the code of ethics and professional practice, will also invite similar action.

A valuer will be expected to address all conflicts and help arrive at an amicable solution; supportive documents are to be provided before the valuation work begins. According to the draft, banks will raise objections, if any, within 15 days of the submission of rectification and resubmission. Two valuers will be appointed if the property value exceeds Rs 10 crore and the maximum acceptable difference between the two evaluations should not exceed 15 per cent.

RICS, headquartered in London, has also offered support to develop skills and capacity of valuers. Ashish Jindal, northern region director of Knight Frank, said property valuation in India was done by diverse groups of people with varying backgrounds and skills. “Property valuation is considered just a part of the disciplines of engineering and architecture, so a degree in these subjects is sufficient to become a property valuer. But valuation needs knowledge of other disciplines, such as law, economics, accountancy, town planning and environmental science. Moreover, a valuer must keep abreast of changing legislation, emerging economic trends and constantly shifting market forces. This breadth of knowledge and experience is extremely rare, given the lack of relevant educational courses available to meet these needs,’’ he said.

India Career Journal: Who’s Hiring?

JUNE 17, 2010, 1:29 PM IST

By Shefali Anand

Jobs are back, thanks to an uptick in the Indian economy over the last few months.

European Pressphoto Agency

After a tough 2008 and 2009, hotels, resorts and other tourism-related services are hiring again.

But who is hiring, and what are they looking for?

Here, we list five industries that are crying out for new employees. But be warned: hiring this time around is not like the boom times of 2006 and 2007. Back then, companies were hiring indiscriminately, taking on tons of fresh-out-of-school graduates and ready to invest time and money to train them. This time, companies increasingly want more experienced people, preferably ready to hit the ground running as soon as they start their jobs. Also, companies are spreading their recruitment throughout the year instead of concentrating the hiring process at the beginning of the financial year.

Nearly one million new jobs could be created in the organized sector this year, estimates human resource services firm Ma Foi Randstad. A lot of them will be in the following industries:

1. Healthcare

The expansion of hospitals, primary healthcare centers and diagnostic centers in India, has created a hunger for staff in these businesses.

According to Ma Foi Randstad Employment Trends Surve released on Thursday, the healthcare industry will create 160,000 jobs within the three months ended June.

Within this industry, among the most in-demand professionals are nurses, who are in short supply both in India as well as abroad. K. Pandia Rajan, chief executive of Ma Foi (India & Sri Lanka), says that some nurses who get hired outside India earn more than a software engineer from a second-tier engineering school in India.

There’s also a lot of demand for people in “allied health services” such as laboratory technicians, x-ray technicians and staff at physiotherapy units. Neighboring Southeast Asian countries and the Middle East are also seeking this talent as they build their medical tourism capabilities, says Kamal Karanth, managing director of Kelly Services India, a human resource services firm.

2. Banking and Financial Services

Banks and financial companies have always been major creators of jobs and the momentum has once again increased in recent months.

Both public sector and foreign banks are now expanding rapidly across India and are in need of more talent to sell their products and build their brands. They are primarily looking for relationship managers, and front-end managers, to build the services part of their businesses.

Similarly, insurance and money management companies are expanding rapidly, to tap India’s growing wealth. Top sales and marketing people at these companies find it easy to switch to other industries, and they have been, leaving many a job empty.

3. Information Technology and IT-Enabled Services

As the global economy came out of the worst of the recession, India’s information technology companies have seen an increase in demand for their products and services. As a direct result, in recent months they have stepped up their hiring.

At the same time, after the recent lull in the job market, there has been a lot of attrition in this industry lately, as people look for better-paying jobs in rival companies.

Kelly Services’ Mr. Karanth expects that Infosys, Wipro and their ilk could easily absorb 100,000 professionals before the end of this calendar year. He says the most demand is for entry-level programmers as well as for the next level of staff, such as team managers and so on.

The related IT-Enabled Services industry, which basically refers to outsourcing firms, is also hiring, typically freshers and mid-level managers.

4. Hospitality

This was one of the fastest-growing sectors before the recent economic downturn, but was hurt sharply in 2008 and 2009. Now, once again, there is growing momentum in the construction and operation of new hotels, resorts and other tourism-related services.

Market experts expect increased investment in this sector, which should, in turn, further result in new jobs.

While the industry is looking for a wide variety of talent – from chefs to service-keeping staff – the need of the hour is to hire people to run hotels or resorts successfully. In other words, they want people in services or operations management.

5. Real Estate and Construction

Over the last few months, there has been a sharp increase in the construction of homes and housing prices, and big real estate companies have listed major expansion plans.

While this intuitively would give rise to more jobs, human resource consultants are divided on how large this number could be. Also, a large number of people who work in this industry – particularly real estate brokers and salespeople – are not affiliated to companies, and are thus hard to account for.

There is demand for sales and marketing personnel for major real estate projects, but some niche related fields of work are also experiencing a boom. These include architects, designers and technical surveyors, says Mr. Rajan of Ma Foi.

Source: Wall Street Journal Blog

Affordable Housing is possible through law and policy

'Affordable Housing' examines the problems faced by housing sector across all its stratas - upper middle, middle, and lower middle in particular and comes up with practical solutions on how cost can be reduced and actual development carried out.

'AFFORDABLE HOUSING- How law and policy can make it possible', another research work of senior advocate Dr Arun Mohan was launched by Kumari Selja, Minister of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation and Tourism. Justice R. V Raveendran, Judge, Supreme Court of India presided over the function.

 

‘Affordable Housing’ examines the problems faced by housing sector across all its stratas – upper middle, middle, and lower middle in particular and comes up with practical solutions on how cost can be reduced and actual development carried out.

 

The work points out how 44 per cent of our population which can afford to repay a home loan is ignored by the finance sector. The cost of ownership can be reduced by over 30 per cent, the interest rates (or home loans) can be reduced and those who are treated as unqualified for finance can also be given the finance.

 

It also informs how a person who is earning a little more than the minimum wage can look forward to purchase his own flat one day.

Keeping in view the economic fundamentals and human behavioural patterns, this work covers the problem of housing in its true spirit and is targeted at the policy maker, those concerned with implementing the policy and written in a pattern that even a layman will find it worth it. The book also highlights information and facts a prospective flat buyer, or one taking a home loan, must know.

The ‘crisis of confidence’ between the builder, the flat buyer and the bank financier is sought to be overcome by the concept of a Certifying-cum-Performance Guaranteeing Company (CPG Co.).

The author took time off from his busy practice and conducted this research and creative writing for public service, as housing is a subject where subsequent light should be thrown.

Written from a multitude of perspectives, ‘Affordable Housing’ is a stimulating work written by the renowned Senior Advocate in his inimitable style and clearly demonstrates his ability to fuse the insight on housing from all its perspectives.

Grab the 'green' real-estate boom

Real-estate moguls know there's good money in environment-friendly buildings. Here's how the little guy can play, too.

By Fast Company

If the workplace is any indication, you could almost believe corporate America really cares about the environment.

Goldman Sachs (GS, news, msgs), Hearst, IBM Corp. (IBM, news, msgs), JPMorgan Chase (JPM,news, msgs) and Toyota Motor (TM, news, msgs) all have made the move into "green" buildings. Bank of America (BAC, news, msgs) plans to build a 52-story eco-skyscraper near New York's Times Square, and Accenture (ACN, news, msgs) has leased green office space throughout the country.

Sustainable construction is one of the fastest-growing segments of the already-red-hot commercial-building industry. An estimated 5% of all new U.S. commercial construction received the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification last year. And by 2010, 10% of all new commercial construction will be sustainable, according to McGraw-Hill's (MHP, news, msgs) 2006 Smart Market report. (The green trend in home construction is still in its infancy, although that's bound to change.)

Existing construction is getting an eco-lift too. Developers such as Hines and the Durst Organization, and some real-estate investment trusts (REITs), are snapping up half-empty office buildings and renovating them according to green standards. That can often bring 3% higher rents and a 7.5% increase in a building's value, according to the McGraw-Hill report.

On average, green buildings save 10% of utility costs each year -- and sometimes much more. Genzyme's(GENZ, news, msgs) corporate headquarters in Cambridge, Mass., spends 42% less on energy and uses 34% less water than a similar traditional building would. Even more important, as sustainable materials and technology improve, green construction will become more cost-effective, says Charles Lockwood, an environmental and real-estate consultant in Southern California and New York.

So how do individual investors get in on this latest real-estate boom? The easiest opportunities may lie in REITs that have made a substantial commitment to new or renovated green buildings. In a sign of just how hot this phenomenon is, however, two of the biggest, greenest REITs, Arden Realty and Equity Office Properties Trust, have been swallowed up by GE Real Estate and Blackstone Group, respectively.

But there are still promising names out there. Liberty Property Trust (LRY, news, msgs) has 21 green buildings in its portfolio of about 700 properties and says that number will rise quickly as the trust renovates more of its existing properties and takes on more new green projects. Liberty has enjoyed the nice run-up that all REITs had in the past year thanks to the strong commercial-building market. But Fauzia Rashid, a co-manager of Fred Alger Management's Spectra Green Fund (SPEGX), expects Liberty's green investment will help it continue to perform well even if commercial building starts to slow down.

For investors who get a bit woozy at the thought of betting solely on the vagaries of the commercial-real-estate market, a mutual fund with green-building holdings might be the safer way to go. The Spectra Green Fund, unlike many of its socially conscious counterparts, has consistently outperformed the Russell 3000 for the past three years.

The fund, which among other things invests in clean-energy stocks, is putting a small percentage of its assets in green REITs. Rashid also likes to invest in the building segment through the back door, focusing on the supply and equipment manufacturers that green builders rely on, such as Johnson Controls (JCI, news, msgs), the maker of devices that measure and monitor energy output. At about $96 a share, Johnson Controls has jumped in the neighborhood of 40% in the past year. And that's a nice neighborhood to be in.

This article was reported and written by Walecia Konrad for Fast Company.