Italy's votes Monday to oust sleazy politics and cronyistic society

The guardian has a interesting article on the surging sentiment for the Five Star Movement (M5S). The voters are sick and tired of the current parties and are rallying behind Beppe Grillo, the leader of the M5S. The sentiment here in the Italy is no different then the one in India with the AAP, the party of the Mango people lead by Arvind Kejriwal. When the BJP protests the origin's of the Sonia Gandhi, they were protesting against themselves. The Italian voters are no different then the voters in India and so are the Italian politcians who are no different then Indian sleazy politcians.  Berlosconi is a example high handed leadership which has cost the country dear which parallels the Gandhi family and Mr Vadra who appear to have suberverted the system to their advantage to no end.

Will this change in leadership in Italy go after the AgustaWestland bribery scandal and bring down all the middlemen in Italy, UK and India to justice ? If Italians want it, they could do it. After all Rome was never built in a day. For bloggers Beppe Grillo will be liked instantly as he is on of them. 

>>>>

All the evidence suggests that, when the result of Italy's general election is known later on Monday, it will be a deafening – and sensational –Basta! (That's enough!). The publication of polls in the last two weeks of the campaign is banned in Italy. But results circulating on the internet showed an abrupt surge in support for the Five Star Movement (M5S), which wants to force a reboot, not just of Italy's sleazy politics but of its cronyistic society too.

For the first time in 20 years, we have seen an election that has not been hijacked by the sayings and doings of Silvio Berlusconi. Instead, it has been seized by another, equally controversial figure – the M5S's barnstorming frontman, Beppe Grillo. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/24/italy-elections-end-to-sleaze-cronyism

Builders blink, first price cuts are here

Article Link

After stubbornly holding on to high prices for four years in the face of sluggish sales, a crippling liquidity crunch and rising cost of capital, Mumbai’s real estate industry has just blinked.

At least three of Mumbai top builders have either cut prices by as much as Rs 2250 to Rs 5,000 or introduced flexible pricing within a single project, or launched innovative schemes where buyers stump up large sums to book properties even before the project enters construction stage.

All this means only one thing - the longdue correction in real estate prices is here. And while many builders may not be announcing price cuts up front yet, it is no secret that they all are now willing to negotiate with buyers.


--
A survey conducted by Knight Frank, areal estate consultancy firm, in June last year had revealed that Mumbai real estate market had an unsold inventory of 80,000 units worth approximately Rs 1,050 billion.

The report had also stated that the global economic crisis of 2008 affected the market adversely as prices dipped in some micro-markets at the premium end of the market and rebounded, scaling to their 2007 highs in the subsequent two years.

But in 2012, the Mumbai market stagnated as buyers largely kept away expecting a drop in prices in the near future. The buyers’ patience has paid. The Mumbai market is now opening for good bargains.

Lalit Kumar Jain, president of Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India, said the liquidity crunch is forcing builders to reduce prices and clear inventory. He expects more builders to follow Naman, RNA and Lodha’s example.

Watch Out Asia, Inflation Is on Its Way

Article Link

Inflation in Asia may be under control now, but prices across the region could soon start to creep higher, with India and Southeast Asia the most vulnerable, warns independent economist Andy Xie.

"At the end of the day, you have all this money out there. It's rational to expect inflation," Xie, a former chief Asia-Pacific economist with Morgan Stanley, said. "India is the most vulnerable. It cannot solve supply bottlenecks. Southeast Asian economies like Indonesia and Thailand too."

Inflation in India could rise to 10 percent and above 5 percent in Southeast Asia, according to Xie. He expects inflation in China to rise to 4 percent - doubling from where it is now.

High inflation in India meanwhile dogged the country's central bank last year and prevented it from cutting interest rates aggressively to boost a flagging economy. India's wholesale price index, the main measure of inflation, rose 7.24 percent in November from a year earlier.

--
"In Hong Kong and Singapore, the issue is very much about interest rates. So it's going to be similar to 1998," he added, referring to the property bubble that burst at the peak of the Asian financial crisis.
House prices in the two cities could plunge by half if interest rates go up, he added.

--
What will this do to Home Prices in India ????

AL Jazeera's news segment on India's housing bubble

Investors lose thousands of rupees per day as construction workers cannot make ends meet for daily needs. A tale of two India's.

RBI says no to restructuring of real estate loans (to builders)

Copy paste from ET website


MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank has turned down banks' demand for restructuring stressed real estate loans without providing for potential losses, a move that could mount pressure on builders to lower prices as banks push to recover loans.

The central bankBSE 1.01 % believes that if banks are permitted to restructure the loans without providing for losses, they will lose the urge to insist on prompt payments from builders, who in turn would continue to hold onto prices even if sales are slack, two bankers familiar with the discussions said.

Builders will get the benefit of paying the same loan over a longer period without feeling the pinch to repay, RBI Deputy Governor KC Chakrabarty is supposed to have told bankers in a recent meeting, said the two bankers who did not want to be identified.

Banks will be at ease once the loan is prevented from becoming a sub-standard asset, Chakrabarty said.

Real estate prices have been rising steadily since the government prodded the central bank to give a one-time benefit for restructuring of real estate loans during the credit crisis in 2008.

But in most parts of the country, prices have soared through the roof, bringing down home sales. If banks pressure developers, it could lead to a fall in prices.

Home prices at an all-India level rose 6.7 per cent in the first quarter of this fiscal, data from the Reserve Bank of India shows. Transaction volumes rose 9.3 per cent.

While property prices have been rising across the board, transaction volumes have been falling in cities such as New Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai.

Bankers had sought a special dispensation due to rising bad loans that are eroding their profitability.

Total real estate bad loans, net of provisions of all commercial banks, rose 55 per cent to Rs 64,900 crore on March 31, 2012, from Rs 41,700 crore on March 31, 2011. State-run banks' share in this was Rs 59,100 crore, up 64 per cent from Rs 36,000 crore.

Currently, banks have to classify restructured loan of a real estate company as bad loan the moment it is reworked.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Attribution - 
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/real-estate/realty-trends/buying-a-home-to-get-cheaper-as-rbi-says-no-to-restructuring-of-real-estate-loans/articleshow/17406901.cms 

Reporter: Sangita Mehta,ET Bureau
Copyrights: Economic Times  (TOI - Bennett Coleman)


Disclaimer: copied for information purposes only

It will be fun to see how builders (and their politician masters)  will now force the Government owned banks to backdoor restructure the RE loans dished out to builders

Correct me if I am wrong but -
SBI, HDFC, LIC and ICICI are the top mortgage lenders in the country.

Ironically the same bankers (and their politician masters ) are making it worse to get home loans by charging ridiculous pay off fees, unnecessarily high interest rates, horrible customer service, unrealistic stamp duty and VAT.

Loan growth stonewalled by surge in house prices, crashes to 5-month low as buyers fail to turn up

Its Diwali and all as per the norm, this is the season for making big purchases like houses and cars. Unfortunately this year is turning out to be damp squb. Very high inflation has pushed daily budgets of most middle-class citizens to the brink. Nobody in the right mind is making any big purchases. Anybody with an account with a bank is hounded by retail bankers pushing loans and investment. Most are not buying the bait. Existing loan owners have seen their EMI tenure extended by 10 years to a maximum of 30. One friend of mine complained he has been servicing the interest for the past 2 years and has added almost nothing to the principal. The flat now has cost him more then what he has paid even after regularly paying the EMI. 

The black magic of compounding of loan interest is only experienced by the borrower. 

Brokers tell me that the market has a gone silent for loan properties over 1 Cr in Mumbai. The only buyers in the market are those who trade up/down their existing properties depending on their need. No Gujarathi NRI's are interested in the market. Hurricane Sandy has hit a  huge number of Gujarathi's business owners in NY and NJ. I just heard from one who wants to dispose of his Mumbai property.. Here are pictures from Hurricane Sandy. The devastation to property is just mind numbing.  With so much damage to houses it seems that housing rental market is going to give the newly displaced a new shock. 

Economic Times  article is here

MUMBAI: Growth in home loans has slumped to a five-month low despite banks showering potential buyers with attractive schemes and lower rates due to soaringreal estate prices. 

Buyers are holding back since an over-24% increase in prices in the past one year is putting homes beyond their reach despite banks lowering interest rates by 100-150 basis points in the past four months. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point. 

Home loans have grown by 11.2% year-on-year in September, compared with 15.6% in the same month a year ago. The latest growth rate for home loans is the lowest since April. 

"Interest rates have a limited role to play in house sales," said VK Sharma, CEO at LIC Housing FinanceBSE 0.54 %, India's second-biggest mortgage lender. "Home prices affect sales more than interest rates. If the house price range is within the capacity of the middle class, then sales pick up." 

Facing slowing demand for loans from corporates, banks have been pushing retail loans, especially mortgages, since it is one of the safest forms of lending. But steep prices are stalling sales. More than 80,000 flats remain unsold in Mumbai and the financial capital has lost its crown as the fastest-growing market. 

Vadra bubble in Bikaner too. land prices jump 40 times

No one can make up these stories. Truth is stranger then fiction. Here is another article on how land prices in Bikaner a medium sized town in Rajasthan jumped 40 times after Robert Vadra started his investments. It looks like Robert is responsible for the misery of Indian's when it comes to housing.

DNA report is below. Full article is here

In a flurry of deals between June 2009 and August 2011, Robert Vadra purchased at least 20 plots of land collectively measuring more than 770 hectares in Rajasthan’s Bikaner district, in a region that would see prices spiraling soon after.

A clutch of investors, including Vadra, apparently privy to information on upcoming industrial projects in the vicinity, reaped huge profits with land values appreciating by up to 40 times since 2009.

Click here to read the list of plots

Data from the office of the registrar in Bikaner shows 20 properties Vadra purchased through companies, including Real Earth Estates Pvt Ltd, North India IT Park Pvt Ltd, and Skylight Realty Pvt Ltd. All the deals were executed on his behalf by Mahesh Nagar, brother of Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee member Lalit Nagar. These companies together invested Rs2.85 crore in barren land here during this period.

“Vadra clearly misused his position as the son-in-law of Sonia Gandhi,” said Devi Singh Bhati, six-time MLA of the Kolayat tehsil where most of the Bikaner deals took place. “The land was purchased either in the knowledge that industrial projects would be announced, or circumstances were created to bring projects to the area.”

Vadra and cronies to blame for India's housing bubble.

Economic times writes here on Robert Vadra's role in inflating India's housing bubble. Looking at the data we can safely conclude that India's housing bubble is been inflated beyond limits by politicians and their black money dealings with builders with tacit support of public sector banks. The property flippers and NRI's are just pawns in this real game where the biggest transfer of wealth and land to politicians has been done in broad daylight with everyone from the law enforcement and the fourth estate turning a blind eye to this mega scam of massive proportions. NREGA and all schemes for the poor of the country are just eyewash to win votes so these greedy politicians can accumulate wealth which can be measured in astronomical units.



During 2009 and 2010, Vadra bought 25 apartments in DLF Capital Greens, a premium project constructed on a 38-acre land that DLF acquired from DCM Shriram and the Lohia Group in 2007 for Rs 1,675 crore. While the builder launched the first phase of the project at around Rs 4,500-5,500 per sq ft, the prices subsequently increased to Rs 10,000 per sq ft. Vadra brought these apartments in the first phase and sold them in 2010-11.

He also booked 15 apartments in DLF Magnolias, a premium project next to a company-owned golf course on the Gurgaon Golf Course road that is nearing completion. Of these, he has already sold 13 apartments and still retains two units.

>>>

Here is the summary of Shriram Subramanium on investing in real estate stocks. Full article here.

The ongoing DLF  - Vadra controversy has brought to light the blatant transgressions that real estate companies - listed and un-listed - adopt in India. Real estate companies have never been known to be high on transparency and corporate governance. This is just a reflection of the deeper morass in the real estate sector, which is by far the largest and most valuable asset class in India. It is not the marketplace that decides the fortunes of real estate companies, but the builder-politician nexus that picks out the winners in this sector.

Realty sector shouldn’t be listed as the companies don’t need shareholder funds, nor will they ever make any money for investors. 

This is because:

(a)   The sector depends a lot on black money.

(b)   There is little transparency in land values or construction costs.

(c)    Politicians and bureaucrats have lot of discretionary power in deciding winners and losers.

(d)   Companies need to pay speed money to get all approvals for all stages of project development.

Robert Vadra mass-booked and traded DLF flats, but all above board, say DLF sources

Amazing round-trip trades made by Vadra to make record profits.  It is an absolute travesty of all laws where public companies give loans to individuals who then use the loans to buy flats from the same company and then after some time sell the flats to same company at records profits. Now we can see how the housing bubble has been inflated on profits which have been generated out of thin air

Balance Sheet of Vadra

Paidup capital = Rs 0

DLF unsecured interest free loan to Vadra, call this X
Vadra buys flats from DLF with the loan X
Vadra sells the flats back to DLF for amount Y
Profit = Y-X
% profit = Y-X/Input cost = Y-X/0 = Infinity.

A record profit which can only be generated in a banana republic

NDTV has an explosive article here

Bloomberg has an article which lists him having acquired 31 flats in DLF. Now the modus operandi of politicians and builders is very clear. Builders use connections to high profile politicians to avoid income tax scrutiny for their dubious deals. Politicians or their family members rake astronomical profits by capital appreciation from acquiring undervalued properties from the builder and disposing them back to the same builder at market rates. In the meantime the mango people have to borrow at record high interest rates thinking they will be priced out if they don't buy their dream home. As influential columnists are calling this a tip of the iceberg, I wonder how many skeletons are stacked in  the closets of all the 31 flats of Mr Vadra and thousands of others who are in the process of being exposed.

Robert Vadra's alleged flat in DLF Aralias

I did some googling go locate DLF Aralias where Arvind Kejriwal has alleged that Robert Vadra owns several flats. CommonFloor.com has one 5500 sq ft apartment for sale for 19.5 crores. If he own's 7 flats here, Vadra just has a paltry investment of 140 crores. It is also alleged now that several Congress , BJP and JD(U) MP's own super sized penthouses in this building. It is also no surprise that DLF has given these flats to these individuals at huge discounts to the existing prices. Apart from the middle-class in Delhi who can afford these flats is anybody's guess. Here is the link to the advertisement, probably owned by some politically connected individual.

In a very charitable move DLF loans crores of rupees, interest free to Mr Vadra who then buys DLF's properties at throwaway discounted prices. I wish DLF is charitable to every Indian. Every Indian will be indebted to them for the rest of their lives. In fact the Income Tax and company affairs board should make it legal for builders to make unsecured interest free loans to the Indian citizens so they can buy their properties. This will boost their bottomline and they can recognize revenue for the flats which are sold and thereby boost their stock prices. In all seriousness SEBI would need to question the auditor of DLF to explain the fudging of the books. The "Too Big to Fail" individuals are now facing their moment of reckoning.

Those 80,000 unsold flats

The onset of rains, and the end of a hot summer, means no more alphonso mangoes. During peak season those mangoes fetch Rs 1,000 for a dozen. But at first sign of rain, their market value drops to less than Rs 200. The same is true of onions. When there is onion shortage, prices shoot up to maybe Rs 100 a kilo, and post harvest, typically in January when there’s a glut, prices crash to less than 5 rupees. In the wholesale market yard of Lasalgaon, Asia’s biggest onion market, there have been farmers’ riots due to onion glut. Onions and mangoes signify the extremes of price variations, but those price movements also illustrate the law of supply and demand. When there is excess supply prices have to drop. Sounds almost like a tautology. Why does this law not apply to housing? A simple answer is that fruits and vegetables are perishables, hence their value declines rapidly. Even a toothpaste or a mobile phone has finite shelf life. If there is a glut, prices will fall sooner or later. A glut in houses however seems to defy the law of demand. A report by real estate consultant Knight Frank revealed this week that Mumbai has more than 80,000 flats lying unsold. This is in addition to maybe another 50 to 100 thousand flats which are vacant, but not available for sale. The value of the unsold inventory is a staggering 1 trillion rupees. (This figure is also roughly equal to the entire annual income of all Mumbaikars). The average price of those 80,000 flats is Rs 1.2 crore. That’s hundred times the income of an average Mumbaikar. A flat is affordable to those, whose annual income is at least 20 to 25% of its price. How many Mumbaikars earn more than Rs 30 lakh annually? This is a tiny number, and most of them already own flats. So then who will buy those 80,000 unsold flats? Speculators from Hong Kong, Dubai or Singapore? If speculators bought, would they rent those flats? Not really, because there is already a glut of flats available for rents of about Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 a month. Rentals are falling. So speculators prefer to simply buy and wait, till prices zoom up again, so that they can sell and encash a profit.

Article Link

Chidambaram wants builders to lower prices

With the Finance minister officially calling the top in housing prices is there any investor willing to stick in their neck out and buy at the peak

Economic times reports 

 FM wants builders to lower prices of unsold houses 

MUMBAI: P Chidambaram, the newly-appointed finance minister, has asked chiefs of government-owned banks to put pressure on real estate developers to lower property prices in order to get the economy moving. In a meeting held last Saturday with bank chiefs, the finance minister told bankers to impress upon builders the need to complete projects according to schedule and lower the prices of apartments that are ready for possession but not getting sold. 

"Builders are sitting on huge inventories (unsold apartments) which they are neither able to sell at the prevailing prices nor are they allowing others to buy by lowering the prices," a banker present at the meeting quoted Chidambaram as saying.

Full article here

More evidence of a bubble - Navi Mumbai has 23% flats vacant

23% of flats in Navi Mumbai lying vacant The newest destination for property investors in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region is the Navi Mumbai-Panvel-Raigad zone. Experts have concluded this based on Census 2011 findings , according to which 23% of houses here are lying vacant. They say that while investors are buying most vacant homes expecting rate appreciations ; genuine buyers are deferring purchase in the hope of a correction in prices. But some experts feel that low occupancy of houses does not necessarily imply a flourishing investor presence. Now a days Times of India too has been reporting on the sorry state of Mumbai real estate. The ads by the builders are down significantly from the huge booklets to just a few pages.

Mumbai home sales growth stagnates in June

Article Link

A situation of plenty continues to plague the Mumbai real estate market with unsold inventory amounting to 80,000 units which forms 37 per cent of the total residential supply under construction.

The market stagnated in June due to high prices and most buyers having stayed away expecting an imminent drop in prices in the near future. 

The report indicates prices have been moving in a narrow range in the past four quarters as a virtual stoppage of new launches over the past year has constrained supply and cushioned prices from dropping in spite of absorption levels steadily trending downward.

Absorption numbers in FY2012 are estimated to have dropped more than 60 per cent from its 2007 heydays and 35 per cent from FY2011, to an estimated 45,000 units. This steep drop in absorption levels should have resulted in a similar correction in prices.

FSI for slum schemes hiked to 4 from 2.5

Times of India has the scoop on all this. More good news for builders as they get to build more floors. Bad news for prices as supply increases. Anybody care to comment on the fact that increasing FSI will cause prices to increase ?

MUMBAI: The state government has formally increased the floor space index (FSI) for slum rehabilitation projects from 2.5 to a maximum of 4.

The state urban development department issued a notification on Friday after it got an approval from chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, who also heads the department.

As per the notification, projects involving all high-density slums-those having over 650 tenements per hectare-are entitled to an FSI of 4, whereas those with lower tenement density are entitled to 3.

Senior officials from the urban development department said that the notification highlights that all procedural formalities concerning the higher FSI move are now complete.

After the move to increase size of each rehabilitation tenement for slum dwellers from 225 sq ft to 269 sq ft in 2009, slum redevelopment projects were allowed higher FSI.

A notification under section 154 of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act ( MRTP), 1966, was issued at that time to allow it to implement the provision pending completion of procedural formalities, including invitation of suggestions and objections from citizens.

These procedural formalities have now been completed and a formal notification issued, a senior state official said.

FSI is a development tool that determines the extent of construction permitted on a plot. It is a ratio of permissible built-up to the total area of the plot. A higher FSI would allow developers additional construction on slum land.

Lux is up: realtors confident that housing prices will not dip

Another feeble attempt by the paid news media to sucker buyers into their trap 

If the Indian economy is booming Mumbai property goes up. 

If the Indian economy is slowing Mumbai property goes up. 

These morons think that Mumbaikars are lemmings. What is constant in Mumbai is the generation of black money. This could be responsible for the rise in property till now during boom times. However when everything is slow, black money generation too has to be slow. 

If existing investors have their black money stuck with builders, how can they take profits and invest in the next venture. I spoke to a broker who said, "Investor ka paisa atka hain, he is ready to discount the price" however the project is delayed so which person in the right mind will buy from the investor when the builder is running out of money. This is in Vile Parle.

I forsee this situation all over Mumbai. Its best to buy I keep repeating ready to move in or resales. This market is stuck in the muck for many years to come. Demand for housing will remain, the smart investor will bring cash to the table and take a discount. Anyone going for too good to be true deals will be slaughtered mercilessly by the brokers 

 Hindustan Times report 

 As the Indian economy slows down, the real estate sector, with its back to the wall, remain gung-ho that prices will not dip any time soon. 

 In a recent realty event in Mumbai organised by CII, top property developers aired confidence that prices in residential realty would remain high. “There is pressure on developers, but that is because of the delays by the state government,” said Sandeep Runwal, director, Runwal Group, a Mumbai-based developer. “The delays are affecting the prices as it would only increase the cost for developers.” And the costs are likely to be passed on to customers. 

 According to data compiled by international real estate consultants, about 60% of projects launched in metros fall in the luxury category. However, private investors seem to be taking a cautious approach, and are only going in for smaller projects with smaller tenure of investment. “We are treading cautiously and want that the project we invest in is priced conservatively,” said Ramesh Jogani, managing director, Indiareit, a private equity arm of the Piramal Group. 

“We are giving preference to smaller projects over bigger ones.” Commercial realty, however, is a different story, with rentals under pressure. “The situation has improved (recently) as the demand and supply currently match, but if supply increases, there would be a pressure on rentals in commercial real estate,” said Cherag Ramakrishnan, CEO, Equinox Realty, the real estate arm of Essar Group.

Home sales slump by more than 50% in Delhi, Mumbai areas

Article Link

While MMR reported the sharpest drop of around 58%, NCR slumped 57% from the year earlier. Bangalore witnessed a drop of 18% in sales, the report added.

Sales in NCR dropped to 15,104 units from 35,420 units and it fell to 11,473 units from 27,676 units in MMR.

The two regions saw a residential supply of 107,731 and 89,461, respectively, in the first quarter.

Samir Jasuja, founder and chief executive officer, PropEquity Analytics, said, “In the coming quarters, there would be strong pressure on many micro markets and we expect inventory overhang to increase and absorption could continue to slow down. Mumbai in MMR and Gurgaon in NCR have seen the sharpest falls in absorption.”

“If this trend continues, there could be a price correction of 5-20%, especially in the micro markets of NCR, MMR and Hyderabad,” he added.

Bangalore hasn’t been as badly hit because of demand from genuine homebuyers and end-users, apart from the fewer unsold properties.

Sales in the southern city fell 18% to 7,704 units from 9,410 units.

The other two markets are largely investor driven.
“Generally, investor-driven markets would see downward risks than end-user driven markets,” added Jasuja.

Jokers are appalled at the S&P downgrade threat

The jokers at the planning commission install 35L toilets while projecting a 50 cents a day as survival metric for Indian. Scum of the earth can be better then these guys

Minister of State for Planning Ashwani Kumar defended India on Thursday, saying its expected growth rates and projects to boost internal trade and development do not warrant a junk status credit rating. On Monday, Standard & Poor's warned that India could become the first so-called BRIC economy to lose its investment-grade credit rating citing slowing economic growth and policy inaction for instituting economic reforms. 

 The rating agency cut India's BBB-minus rating outlook to negative in April, meaning it expects to make a decision within a 6-24 month time frame. 

The news knocked the rupee and stocks lower. "People are entitled to ask what are you going to do about delayed decisions, what are you going to do about second generation reforms," said Kumar. "But 

I am appalled by the suggestion of S&P that India is compared with junk status," Kumar told Reuters. India reported its worst economic growth rate in nine years for the first quarter of 2012, marking a dramatic slide in world's second fastest growing economy.

Gross domestic product growth slowed to 5.3 percent, from 9.2 percent in the same period a year ago. "I recognize that our last-quarter GDP growth figures at 5.3 percent have not given us any comfort," Kumar said during a visit to the United States. 

 He reiterated a government growth forecast of 7 percent in 2012, and said that despite the difficulties of the global economic situation, India expected an average annual growth rate of 8.5 percent between 2012 and 2017.

More here by Business Standard

Salman Khan 'overpays' for flat, lands in trouble

I've seen some flats which have a parking lot on each floors. Most brokers say the buyers will convert it to the living space in the future. Salman's case will cause immense grief to these buyers as BMC will slap big fines on these flats. 

 By Sudhir Suryavanshi | Agency: DNA 

Bollywood actor Salman Khan has once again landed in trouble for paying a higher amount than the actual market value of a house in ‘The Address’ building at Bandstand in Bandra (West). Khan has bought a 1,079-square metre carpet area on the 11th floor of the 28-storey building. The building is being developed by Samudra Developers Pvt Ltd of the Dheeraj Group. Besides paying Rs1. 64 crore towards stamp duty, Khan has paid almost Rs20 crore for the said area. “It comes to almost Rs1.80 lakh per square feet, against the market rate of Rs25,000 to Rs30,000. The amount is six times more when compared to the existing market rate. It is quite high. It must be a case of money laundering,” said YP Singh, an activist who played a major role in exposing the controversial Adarsh Housing scam. 

 More here

Cell phone towers increase cancer risk in residential buildings

Recently I thought of looking for a rental apartment in Mumbai and asked few brokers to show me some apartments. One of the apartments I liked was on the 6th floor of a 7 storey building which had a cell phone tower installed on the terrace. I had heard about the ill-effects of cell-phone radiation in the past but never thought much about it as it didn't  affect me. I did a quick google search and a very recent study done by an IIT professor Dr Girish Kumar came up in the results. 

The results of his study are alarming. In one case  he has listed the occurrence of cancer in residents living in consecutive floors of a building(5,6,7,8,9) which faces a cell phone tower. This particular instance was enough for me to abandon that particular apartment and finding the choice apartment has now become increasingly hard as there are cell phone towers everywhere. Given that one can easily step-up the power of these RF amplifiers I would not be surprised if a majority of cell-phone towers are  on steroids. I urge all home-seekers ownership or rentals to consider this very important factor  in their home search.

Staying 400 meters from a cell phone tower is possible only in the IIT Mumbai campus :). 

The study is below. Mobile Tower Radiation Danger and Solutions Proposed to Government - Prof. Girish Kumar - May 2012