This is commonsense for everyone to see. If a calm area is invaded by 5000 cars an hour, think about the impact. Tough luck for the residents and lovers on Worli seaface. Maybe it is time to commercialize this area too.
DNA Reports
According to real-estate experts, increasing traffic and the consequent noise and air pollution are bound to have a negative impact on property prices along the promenade.
"Individuals who may have wanted to shift to Worli Sea Face will be put off," said Anuj Puri, managing director, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj, a real-estate consultancy firm. "There are many issues like pollution, easy access to buildings, and security of children due to the increase in vehicular traffic."
Residents are already complaining that noise levels and air pollution have gone up. Moreover, the exit of the sea link has created a bottleneck, ruining the peace of the locality. The press of the National School for the Blind is on this road which, interestingly, is designated a silence zone.
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Agenda for India: Real Estate
“It isn’t surprising that slums now account for one-fourth of all urban housing. The situation is worse in Mumbai, where more than half of the population lives in slums, many of which are situated near employment centers in the heart of town, in stark contrast to cities of similar proportions in other developing countries.”
“Vertical development is the need of the hour. Instead of the lateral growth of a city, which mandates encroachments into forest areas and the reclamation of coastal, river and lake areas, the government should boost vertical growth by offering a high FSI in the core of the city and a lower FSI in its suburbs. If development is planned well, every economic class would be able to afford real estate in the heart of the city. This would also give our cities a beautiful skyline as well as reduce commuting and its associated pollution.”
Developers stall price cuts, discounts
Property experts said they do not expect this to be reflective of demand returning strongly to the housing market and think it is just that some developers are testing the waters with higher prices.
Unfazed, developers say further price cuts are unlikely.
“Prices are likely to inch upwards in the coming months in some markets,” said Kumar Gera, chairman of Confederation of Real Estate Developer’s Association of India (Credai), an industry lobby. “Even if there is an increase in prices, it will still be far less than the high prices had touched during the peak.”
So Guys Budget is out..
Speculations which have been busted are as follows.
1)Increase in House Interest Tax exemption to 3 lacs from 1.5 lacs
2) Reduction in Corporate Tax rates.
3) Lowering Personal income tax rates.
4) Bringing back standard reduction in income tax.
5) Sops for real estate.
Overhpe Ends
is it a good time to buy stocks?
The former finance minister who in the aftermath of Wal-Street turmoil ( Sept 2008) was touting the "Decoupling Theory" with his agents in Pink Media must be sheepishly hiding from the media glare. This is the same person who was promoting the "Real Estate" sector as Growth-Engine.
The beggers ( Real Estate Companies) who are virtually insolvent are begging for more i.e. Unlimited External Commercial Borrowings. After being kicked in the face by Indian lenders (SBI,BoB etc), they are pleading to cash ($) reserve rich neighbor countries. This is just the beginning of the end.
UPDATE: Govt to borrow more to fund higher outlay in FY10
UPDATE: Govt to borrow more to fund higher outlay in FY10
Press Trust of India / New Delhi July 6, 2009, 17:25 IST
The Finance Minister said, "To counter the negative fall-out of the global slowdown on the Indian economy, the government responded by providing three focused fiscal stimulus packages in the form of tax relief to boost demand and increased expenditure on public projects to create employment and public assets."
This fiscal accommodation led to an increase in fiscal deficit from 2.7 per cent in 2007-08 to 6.2 per cent of GDP in 2008-09. The deficit is further projected to widen to 6.8 per cent this fiscal.
Gross market borrowing as per the Budget estimate of 2009-10 is Rs 4,51,093.25 crore taking into account scheduled repayment of Rs 53,135.79 crore.
Anon at 3:28AM:
Stocks are going back to 6000 level. No matter how much the GOI tries to keep the housing propped up, it will all eventually fall like a pack of cards as nothing is based on fundamentals and reality.
India is still a 3rd world country with more than 90% population poor as per world standards and house prices are topping prices in NY city.
One can imagine a steep slide which is arrested in momentum and results in a small bump upwards, but then starts sliding downwards again..increasing in velocity and becoming more steeper in trajectory.
Thats the shape of the index slide and the price slide for RE. From this point on, cash is king! Stay safe and wait for the apocalypse..
Open your eyes after 6-10 months and voila, you will find attractive prices. Share market, its going to slide pretty viciously from here. Wait, you might get 7000 levels or below soon. RE will slide another 40% from here..
I think RE might be a little different. Here things are not transparent, unlike Stock market. So you wont see panic selling like in stock market. And the other thing is that the sellers think they should not sell at a value less than the price they bought at. (This is the mentality considering that everyne made profit over the past 4 years). Most of them consider holding it.
But again you never know. Who knows there might be a distress sell in RE too. I think once the sellers come out of the denial mode this might happen.
Anon above:
RE would go down and you are right not like stocks. RE would see declines for another 4-5 years will falling around 15% each year. Thanks to GOI policies to prevent the fall in prices. They are going to prevent a steep decline but cannot stop the long term decline.
If you are buyer, you are screwed becuase you can't buy for another 4-5 years. If you are a seller, you are totally fucked as you can never sell at your asking price and you'll lose money whenever you sell it. if you sell now, you may lose less but if you wait 3-4 years, you'll lose 50% of your equity today.
Shubh Chintak
While the US and UK governments have responded to the economic downturn by raising taxes, India has chosen to tread a different path. The budget announced by the Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, this morning, has proposed a reduction in the personal tax rates from around 34% to 31%. Further, the basic corporate tax rate has been maintained at 34%.
The 5.8% drop in the stock market indices seems to be a knee-jerk reaction to the budget speech and it appears that the finer nuances of the proposals may not have been appreciated. On a closer reading of the Finance Bill, 2009 we find that some of the more interesting proposals remained unspoken in the budget speech.
The latest Economic Survey had highlighted the distortionary effects of surcharges and cesses and the need to phase them out. As a first step, the budget seeks to eliminate the surcharge on personal taxes thereby increasing disposable income in the hands of individuals and boosting consumer-spend. In addition, the much criticized fringe benefit tax (especially on ESOPs) and commodities transaction tax have been eliminated leading to reduced compliance costs. With this reform, the trend of companies granting ESOPs is expected to bounce back.
India recently introduced the Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) legislation. Most jurisdictions around the world treat LLPs as tax transparent entities with the profits taxed directly in the hands of the partners. The budget however, proposes to tax LLPs as separate taxable entities (at the rate of 31%) with profits not being taxable in the hands of individual partners. As a result, losses may not be passed on to the partners for the purpose of set off or carry forward. Further, a number of tax credit issues may arise in a cross-border context.
Due to the absence of a legal framework for Limited Partnerships (LPs) or Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) in India, venture capital and private equity fund managers were looking forward to using LLPs as suitable fund / fund management vehicles. However, due to the above limitations, LLPs may not be a viable option.
In line with the recent G20 proposals, the budget authorizes the government to enter into tax information exchange agreements with non-sovereign jurisdictions. Such agreements are intended to curb money laundering and other illegal activities.
Lately, foreign companies have been subjected to coercive tax collection methods adopted by the Indian tax authorities. Recognizing this fact, the budget proposes to constitute an alternate dispute resolution panel to review the orders of the assessing officer prejudicial to taxpayer, before they are finalized. This is a unique attempt towards providing an efficient dispute redressal mechanism at an early stage.
Although the demand for an advance pricing arrangement has not been considered, the budget has authorized the government to formulate safe harbour rules for determination of arm’s length price for transfer pricing purposes. Additionally, the budget has removed certain practical difficulties in computation of arm’s length price where more than one method may be adopted.
At a micro level, the proposals have also sought to remove anomalies adversely affecting units in special economic zones by securing them the benefit of full tax exemption in respect of export profits. The tax holiday for software technology park units has been extended for another year. These proposals should bring relief to the technology sector. Further, most companies undertaking manufacturing activities would be entitled to a weighted deduction of 150% in respect of in-house R&D expenditure.
On the flipside, the budget proposes to increase the minimum alternate tax (MAT) rate from 11% to 17%. MAT is an anti-thesis of any concession / exemption given. Often, it is very important for a company to have immediate cash flows especially in a downturn. Arguably, even if there was some justification for introducing MAT, increasing the rate at this time is inappropriate.
The budget also proposes to bring certain specified non-cash gifts within the purview of income tax. Consequently, any gift of immovable property, shares, works of art, jewellery etc., made by a person (except close relatives) would be taxed in the hands of the recipient as income. Although India does not levy gift tax, such backdoor introduction of taxes not only distorts the taxing framework but also goes against the stated policy objective of simplification of tax laws.
After much debate and deliberation, the budget has formally announced the introduction of a goods and services tax at both, federal and state levels from April 1, 2010 to replace the existing excise, service and sales / value added taxes.
To conclude, the budget on the whole seems to meet reasonable expectations, especially considering that the new government had assumed office only a month ago. The budget is a step in the right direction and sets the tone for major economic reforms to come. Though, much needed provisions dealing with taxation of Indian depository receipts, pass-through status for venture capital funds, taxation of cross-border M&As etc., have not been incorporated, it is hoped that they will be addressed in the new Direct Taxes Code. The draft of the Code would be released for public comments within a period of 45 days. The Direct Taxes Code Bill, which seeks to simplify and rationalize the existing direct tax structure, is expected to be tabled in the winter session of the Parliament.
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19740856&postID=7055051526190070519
I think it is worth reading the above.
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