Monday, January 18, 2010

Buy a house, get mesothelmia free

This land deal proves the absolute callous disregard of the BMC to heath and the environment of its citizens. Asbestos is well documented to cause lung cancer and there are thousands of lawsuits filed in the US against companies which flouted asbestos health regulations. Mesothelioma is one of the deadliest types of cancer caused by asbestos here we have BMC approving the building plan of 1100 apartments on contaminated land. I'm assuming that these 18 acres housed a factory which made chemical products including asbestos. It is indeed a shameful day in Mumbai today.

Here is the wikipedia entry for Asbestos.

Mesothelioma is a form of cancer that is almost always caused by exposure to asbestos. In this disease, malignant cells develop in the mesothelium, a protective lining that covers most of the body's internal organs. Its most common site is the pleura (outer lining of the lungs and internal chest wall), but it may also occur in the peritoneum (the lining of the abdominal cavity), the heart,[1] the pericardium (a sac that surrounds the heart) or tunica vaginalis.

Most people who develop mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos particles, or they have been exposed to asbestos dust and fiber in other ways. It has also been suggested that washing the clothes of a family member who worked with asbestos can put a person at risk for developing mesothelioma.[2] Unlike lung cancer, there is no association between mesothelioma and smoking, but smoking greatly increases the risk of other asbestos-induced cancers.[3] Compensation via asbestos funds or lawsuits is an important issue in mesothelioma (see asbestos and the law).


and here is the entire DNA article.

Ghatkopar land sold to Wadhwa for Rs571 crore

In a major land deal in the city, asbestos products maker Hindustan Composites announced, on Monday, that it would sell its 18-acre property on LBS Marg, Ghatkopar to the Mumbai-based Wadhwa Group for Rs571 crore. Including the stamp duty, the value of the land is expected to go up to Rs600 crore with the land rate roughly working out to be Rs4,000 per square feet.

Vijay Wadhwa, chairman, Wadhwa Group said that they have taken a loan of approximately Rs300 crore from IndiaBulls Financial Services Ltd and raised the balance Rs271 crore by way of sales and discounting a few of properties they had leased.

Realty experts said the deal would provide Wadhwa with the much needed confidence. Coupled with global slowdown, the group had over-stretched itself after it had successfully bid Rs831 crore for a plot at Bandra Kurla Complex in 2007.

Many funds like Morgan Stanley had refused to back Wadhwa in the Composites land deal as they did not agree to the costing and profits projected by the developer.

“I always knew that the project cost will go over Rs7,000 per square feet as the plot is strategically located and also with the kind of development we have planned,” Wadhwa said. “In fact I have already sold 2.5 lakh square feet at Rs8,500 per square feet.”

The developer has plans to set up at least 15 residential buildings with over 1,100 apartments on land, which has a development potential of about 15 lakh square feet. Also, this development potential could go up substantially if Wadhwa takes advantage of the government’s parking FSI of 4.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

THE WHOLE COUNTRY IS ON DOPE.

Everyone is giving reasoning for India's growth. But when all the lies will come to truth, it will lead to massive problems. Few things that could happen are:
--High unemployment.
--RE prices going down by more than 50%.
--Commercial RE to crash.
--High rise in crime.

Anonymous said...

One thing I can predict is that people may revolt. There are around 800-900million people living in poverty. If they revolt, all comes down like a pack of cards.

Anonymous said...

Sooner or later they have to raise interest rates. In UP, Mulayam Yadav was arrested yesterday for leading a rally to protest high prices...Sooner or later the whole country is going to start shouting.

Then the govt. has to raise interest rates. Then the equity/realty markets will crash and that will be the beginning of the great correction. If the govt. does not correct the interest rates, we will have rampant inflation and this govt. will be voted out soon and then the next govt. will have to do something about the inflation...So its just a matter of time.

Anonymous said...

Anon above:
You are right that the Govt. has to raise rates. But they should have done that 6 months back. They can do it if they are not sleeping with the builders and bankers. They will prolong it till they can probably another 3-4 more months.
And then also it will an increase of only 25 basis points.

I think this greed of the power players will lead to something catastrophic in a year or two in the form of RE crash accompanied by major issues for Indians as pointed by first anon.

Anonymous said...

India's projected GDP growth of 8% will go back to under 5% if interest rates rise.

All the growth India saw since 2009 recession, has been due to the 98 billion USD tax incentive to industries etc. in India plus historically low interest rates. Now when stimulus expires and rates rise, the stock market could very well correct by 30%. And RE has no future. We already have a supply of houses for the next 20 years. Who are builders building for? Speculators???

Anonymous said...

NRIs confidence level in buying a
propertyy in India and holding it
on is plummeting by the day:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/real-estate/news-/Overseas-Indians-face-big-problems-when-investing-in-Indian-real-estate/articleshow/5428924.cms

Anonymous said...

Most NRIs are the most idiot greedy creed today. Even after seeing the housing bust in US for the last 2 years, they were still buying properties worth crores in India.

A lot of NRIs in US are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars. These NRIs took money against their houses in 2003-2006 and invested in India. Now they are screwed in US and waiting to get screwed in India.

They bought the story that India will never go down in prices.

Home Loans said...

Its true that India is getting to much costly in real estates in these days. Not even in India every where the situation is same.

rajni said...
This comment has been removed by the author.