Rate sensitive sectors extend gains after CRR cut

Interest rate sensitive sectors remained the frontrunners in Monday's trade even as the benchmark equity indices trimmed their gains after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept the key interest rate unchanged in its latest credit policy decision.
Stocks from realty, banks and infra spaces extended their Friday's gains after the central bank announced a cut in the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 25 basis points to 4.5%, but refrained from altering the repo rate from 8%.
The sectoral index on realty that closed at 1,737.58,was the biggest gainer, adding nearly 6.5%, followed by capital goods & infra and banking & financial services, which both rose 3-4% to end the session at 10,412.17 and 12,572.43, in that order. The 30-share benchmark Sensex closed at 18,542.3, up 78 points or 0.4%.
Realty stocks like DLF, HDIL, Phoenix Mill and Indiabull real estate surged as much as 6-to 14% on Monday while capital goods players clocked-in gains of more than 4%.The banking player rose 5-7%.
DLF Limited is india's largest real estate company and has a track record of over 62 -year of sustained growth,customer satisfaction,and innovation.Currently DLF has pan india presence across 28 cities.DLF has approximately 250 million sq.ft of completed development,350 million sq.ft. of planned projects and has 50 million sq.ft.of projects under construction.

RETAIL reforms to help real estate firms like DLF to kick-start projects

Friday's big-bang retail reforms have perked up some of India's biggest real estate firms such as DLF, the country's largest real estate company, is already planning to kick start the largest mall in India, with 4 million sq ft of space in Gurgaon and is hoping that by the time the mall opens in 2015-16, quite a few new retailers and brands would have entered the country by then with the easing of FDI in single and multi-brand retail."Retail real estate has been down and out for the last three years and this move will give a fillip to the segment," says Pranay Vakil, chairman, Knight Frank India.There are lots of empty spaces in malls across the top metros in the country right now. In the April-June 2012 quarter, there was about 26% vacancy in malls of Delhi-NCR, 23.5% in Mumbai and 18% in Pune and between 5% and 15% in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai, and rentals have been under pressure."Rentals are not likely to go up immediately, but space take-up will be far better than current levels," said Anuj Puri, chairman and country head, Jones Lang LaSalle India. The condition to put at least 50% of total FDI in back-end infrastructure within three years of the induction of FDI will also help improve the infrastructure and its efficiency, say experts. According to Jones Lang LaSalle, malls are a Rs 24,000-crore business opportunity, which is expected to double over the next 10 years, with the opening up of FDI in retail While there has been severe opposition to opening up foreign investment in multi-brand retail in India which has delayed the policy by many years, there's no doubt that retail plays a big role in improving the productivity of economies at large.many real estate majors like DLf have seen complained about this delay in policies in the past. Ramesh Sanka, who heads retail at DLF, is more confident of building malls now. "We should be able to construct malls more confidently now," he says. The group is currently building one of the largest malls in India, in Noida, which will be operational middle of next year, and another one in Gurgaon's Golf Course Road.Next year, it will start construction on the 4 million sq ft Mall of India in Gurgaon, which will be the largest in the country when completed in 2015-16. "The policy will help the growth of organised retail in the country, including in malls," says Sanka. The opening up of both single and multi-brand retail for foreign players would allow for a whole new tenant mix in malls. At present, there are only a handful of large retailers who are chosen by builders to come in as anchor tenants for their malls, which is one of the reasons why a number of smaller malls have not been able to get the footfalls in the past few years. The total number of malls in India has jumped from 20 in 2003 to about 240 in 2010 to about 280 now. According to Jones Lang LaSalle, malls are a Rs 24,000-crore business opportunity, which is expected to double over the next 10 years, with the opening up of FDI in retail. While there has been severe opposition to opening up foreign investment in multi-brand retail in India which has delayed the policy by many years, there's no doubt that retail plays a big role in improving the productivity of economies at large.

Realtors in hectic talk with retail giants

With decks cleared for multi-brand retail giants to enter India, the country’s real estate developers are busy drawing up plans to tap the fresh demand the development will generate in the commercial realty sector.
The government on Friday decided to open up the multi-brand retail sector to up to 51 per cent of foreign direct investment (FDI). Earlier this year, the government notified rules to increases FDI in single brand retail to 100 per cent from 51 per cent “International retail chains like Walmart, tesco, Metro, Spar and a few others are in talks with real estate firms to take up space in mixed use projects and malls. As the retail space market was in a slump with increasing vacancy rates and falling rentals, the FDI policy has come as a major boost.According to a Cushman & Wakefield report, NCR saw the highest mall supply deferment of over 80 per cent, ensuring the city maintained vacancy levels at 28 per cent. NCR saw only 120,000 sq ft of mall supply in January-March and no supply in the April-June quarter of 2012.Developers, who shifted their focus to residential in times of economic slowdown, are back to drawing up big retail plans.India’s largest real estate player DLF, which is coming up with a 1.8 million sq ft mall at Noida called ‘Mall of India’, is in touch with all leading foreign players planning to enter India. “Yes, we are in touch with all foreign retail players, they were waiting for clarity on the FDI policy,” said Rajeev Talwar, executive director, DLF. He told Business Standard the company would be more focussed on the retail segment from now on. DLF’s Mall of India is expected to be operational in the third quarter of 2013-14.At present, DLF has 1.38 million sq ft of leased retail space across the country, and earns annualised rental income of Rs 250 crore. Last year, DLF had chalked plans to invest Rs 3,000 crore over five years to develop shopping malls of 3.5- 4.3 mn sq ft. As per Cushman & Wakefield, about 1 million sq ft of expected mall supply was deferred to second half of the year or next year. The overall vacancy rate for the major cities as the April-June quarter stood at 19.6 per cent.

DLF COMPLAINT ABOUT POLICY PARALYSIS

NEW DELHI: Kushal Pal Singh, the chairman of India's largest real estate firm, DLF Speaking at the company's 47th annual general meeting,complained that the slow decision making process of goverment is resulting in delays in vitally needed policy formulations. The billionare industrialist complained and warned that the current policy paralysis has had an adverse impact on the country's growth momentum denting business confidence
Singh called for "crucial changes in policy approaches aimed at providing easier access to capital at substantially lower interest costs and creating an investor-friendly atmosphere in the urban development and housing sector."
Unlocking the potential of the housing and construction sector is one of the key revival tools, he added. He said that the country's policymakers, bureaucrats and the judiciary have been somewhat apprehensive about the role of the private sector developers in the sphere of housing and real estate development
The ground reality ,his complaint,is that there are serious shortfalls in providing adequate urban infrastructure."The cost of not paying attention to our cities is enormous.The policy vaccum is leading to worsening urban decay and gridlock,a declining quality of life for citizens and a growing reluctance among investors to commit resources to india;s urban centers"complained singh.

India's unique demographic dividend could turn into a demographic nightmare: DLF chairman, Kushal Pal Singh

NEW DELHI: Kushal Pal Singh, the chairman of India's largest real estate firm, DLF, today warned that the current policy paralysis has had an adverse impact on the country's growth momentum denting business confidence, and could lead to its unique demographic dividend turning into a demographic nightmare.
Speaking at the company's 47th annual general meeting, the billionaire industrialist said, "It is clear that these developments are leading to a challenging scenario in which the decision making process of the government has slowed down, resulting in delays in vitally needed policy formulations."
He said that the country can ill-afford a deceleration in growth rates and consequent shrinkage of employment opportunities for young job-seekers.
"Inevitably, all this has had an adverse impact on the growth momentum of the country's economy and affected the confidence of the business community as well as the citizens," he said.
Singh called for "crucial changes in policy approaches aimed at providing easier access to capital at substantially lower interest costs and creating an investor-friendly atmosphere in the urban development and housing sector... Unlocking the potential of the housing and construction sector is one of the key revival tools." He said that there was a need for easier access to capital at substantially lower interest costs and the creation of an investor-friendly atmosphere.
He said that the country's policymakers and bureaucrats, and the judiciary, have been somewhat apprehensive about the role of the private sector developers in the sphere of housing and real estate development.
The ground reality, he said, is that there are serious shortfalls in providing adequate urban infrastructure. "The cost of not paying attention to our cities is enormous. The policy vacuum is leading to worsening urban decay and gridlock, a declining quality of life for citizens and a growing reluctance among investors to commit resources to India's urban centres," said Singh

Realty players in hectic talks with retail chains

With decks cleared for multi-brand retail giants to enter India, the country’s real estate developers are busy drawing up plans to tap the fresh demand the development will generate in the commercial realty sector.The government on Friday decided to open up the multi-brand retail sector to up to 51 per cent of foreign direct investment (FDI). Earlier this year, the government notified rules to increases FDI in single brand retail to 100 per cent from 51 per cent.“International retail chains like Walmart, Carrefour, Metro, Spar and a few others are in realestate firms to take up space in mixed use projects and malls. As the retail space market was in a slump with increasing vacancy rates and falling rentals, the FDI policy has come as a major boost. According to a Cushman & Wakefield report, NCR saw the highest mall supply deferment of over 80 per cent, ensuring the city maintained vacancy levels at 28 per cent. NCR saw only 120,000 sq ft of mall supply in January-March and no supply in the April-June quarter of 2012. Developers, who shifted their focus to residential in times of economic slowdown, are back to drawing up big retail plans.ndia’s largest real estate player DLF, which is coming up with a 1.8 million sq ft mall at Noida called ‘Mall of India’, is in touch with all leading foreign players planning to enter India. “Yes, we are in touch with all foreign retail players, they were waiting for clarity on the FDI policy,” said Rajeev Talwar, executive director, DLF. He told Business Standard the company would be more focussed on the retail segment from now on. DLF’s Mall of India is expected to be operational in the third quarter of 2013-14.At present, DLF has 1.38 million sq ft of leased retail space across the country, and earns annualised rental income of Rs 250 crore. Last year, DLF had chalked plans to invest Rs 3,000 crore over five years to develop shopping malls of 3.5- 4.3 mn sq ft.As per Cushman & Wakefield, about 1 million sq ft of expected mall supply was deferred to second half of the year or next year. The overall vacancy rate for the major cities as the April-June quarter stood at 19.6 per cent.