Properties, Homes & more

Celebrate this festival of DIWALI by making a difference in the lives of some young girls who wish to pursue their dreams of being successful and confident like you and me. This is an effort by the team of “Mission Awareness” to help these girls in a way which will make them self independent…

Let me brief you about “Mission Awareness“. This is an organization run by enthusiastic youngsters who want to help the world by giving some time, talent and resources from their lives to make it a better place. They are involved in many activities to spread awareness about global warming, energy & water conservation, fuel conservation, etc. They now have come up with the bright idea of getting Diwali Diya’s made by these underprivileged girls.

The money that will be accumulated from the sale of these Diya’s will be used to conduct handicraft, acting & dancing and educational camps for the underprivileged children in primary schools across Mumbai & Greater Mumbai. With the help of very helpful teachers and friends, they have taught some underprivileged girls the art of painting Diya’s in a unique and different way. And see what they have made… A huge collection of beautiful & eco-friendly Diya’s that can make your Diwali even more colorful and bright. Find below the photographs of some of these awesome Diya’s alongwith their price.

LEAF Single: Rs 30 | Pair: Rs 55	PEACOCK Single: Rs 40 | Pair: Rs 70
FLOWER Single: Rs 20 | Pair: Rs 35	SWASTIC Single: Rs 20 | Pair: Rs 35
FLOWER-2 Single: Rs 20 | Pair: Rs 35	KAIREE Single: 20 | Pair: Rs 35
GANESHJI Single: 30 | Pair: Rs 55	SUN Single: Rs 70 | Pair: Rs 125
FLAT SHANKH Single: 20 | Pair: Rs 35	PLATE Single: Rs 40 | Pair: Rs 70
SHANKH Single: Rs 30 | Pair: Rs 55	TURTLE Single: Rs 40 | Pair: Rs 75
ROSE Single: Rs 20 | Pair: Rs 35	SUNFLOWER Single: Rs 20 | Pair: Rs 35

To order, please email to GUNCHA @ guncha.khare@gmail.com and mention your order & contact details. Guncha manages this Mission and will ensure that you get your Diya’s well in time in nicely wrapped package. I have bought 5 of them and believe me, they are simply superb. So go ahead and place your oder and help underprivileged a little bit in your own way…

<< Jerry Rao’s interview on creating low cost housing the professional way

Jerry Rao, founder of IT firm Mphasis, wants to deliver low-cost good-quality homes to buyers like drivers, housemaids, plumbers and electricians. Jerry Rao’s new venture, Value and Budget Housing Development Corporation, is targeting building a million homes in 10 years in 17 cities. Excerpts of an exclusive interview with ET, Jerry Rao (JR) defends his new mantra…

Interviewer (I): How will you address the backend challenges? Your buyers constitute the unbanked part of the population!!

JR: There are two big demand-side challenges. One, unlike in Manila and Sao Paolo, where poor and rich neighbourhoods are far away, in Indian cities, the poor live inside the city. Now, we are giving them housing far away. So, there is a commute cost and a commute time. That is a demand-side dampener.

The second is they may want to buy but how many of them will qualify for a loan. That certainly reduces the size of the market. But, believe me, these people have the ability to downpay Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 1.5 lakh. These people live frugally and save a lot. Over time, we believe the system will be in a position to offer 15-year mortgages in the Rs 2-8 lakh range.

I: What is your assessment of the buyer profile?

JR: They may be poor but they are upwardly mobile - these are NOT the absolute destitutes or the pavement dwellers. What they want is to get out of their present shanty / to a more secure place. They want compound walls, security, indoor toilet and privacy. Most want their children to go to English medium schools. The target buyer is someone, who has an income and also high labour mobility so that even if he moves to the city outskirts, he would get a replacement job pretty quickly. Like a driver or high-skilled construction worker.

--- As told to the Economic Times ---

Jerry Rao, founder of IT firm Mphasis, is completely immersed into his next business innings: Nano housing. Just like the Nano car, he wants to deliver homes to buyers looking for affordable homes: including drivers, housemaids, plumbers and electricians. Jerry Rao’s new venture, Value and Budget Housing Development Corporation, is targeting building a million homes in 10 years in 17 cities.

In an exclusive interview to Economic Times, Jerry Rao said, unlike conventional developers, his business model would treat land as an inventory and not a capital asset. If he is able to roll out his project and deliver in 12-18 months, the returns would be in the region of 30-40% almost similar to what the IT industry enjoyed in its dream run. Excerpts from the interview:

Interviewer (I): After IT, banking and angel investing, what made you think of housing?

Jerry Rao (JR): I could retire and do nothing. At 57, I have got at least another 5 to 10 years to do something else. I did want to stay away from IT and banking and wanted to do something of scale. I looked at agribusiness, education, health care and it seemed to me that I could leverage my IT and project management skills in housing. And, there was no paucity of demand. So, you could scale this business and create a big impact.

I: What is the difference between your business model and how conventional realty operates?

JR: Unlike conventional realty, we want to think of land as inventory and want to sell it as soon as we can. That is the basic difference that sets us apart. I thought it would be a high risk model. But, the downside here is very low. We are using equity to buy land. We will have access to construction finance and then we also get 25% down payments from buyers. So, even if the project goes bust, we can still repay all the loans and also repay equity. But, if we get it right and build and sell the project in 12-18 months, then the return on equity will be in the 30-40% range. It is actually quite an attractive place to be in.

I: Then, how come nobody else has entered the space?

JR: Why did nobody create a low-cost detergent before Nirma? The high-cost market was profitable enough. One, it is partly a supply side problem that people do not re-engineer. Two, the middle-class and upper-class segment, Rs 0.50-1 crore, has been very profitable. Three, if you are looking at land as a capital asset, you would not do it. This model requires a mindset shift.

Do not forget to read PART 2 of the interview…

The Times Property Showcase 2009 was conducted in Thane and had many properties on display from across Maharashtra at affordable prices. Visiting every project and builder is time-consuming and physically draining, so in order to make the process simpler builders are exhibiting their projects all under one roof to make property buying easier. With the same intention, the Times Property Showcase 2009 brought under one roof more than 50 top builders, over 300 projects, homes starting right from Rs. 6.66 lakhs, attractive financial options and special exhibition offers at the three-day property exhibition held at Nehru Centre between 17 and 19 April 2009.

Referred to as “Right Priced homes” the exhibition had on display properties from all over Maharashtra including, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik and even beyond Maharashtra at locations such as Bangalore, Goa. It gave various options to prospective home buyers to select before they make a final decision to invest. Exhibitions give the best option to the buyers to select from a wide range of projects while developers also get informed about their competitors and new trends in the market.

Not only first homes but also options for weekend homes and second homes were also on display. In addition, special benefits included the best rate for various properties, exclusive gift hampers, free drop for site visits and home pick-up. However, the visitors were more interested in property within Mumbai. Though the exhibition was focused on properties all over Maharashtra, the demand was more for properties in and around Mumbai.

The exhibition was an attempt to bring together various properties across Maharashtra to give a common platform for both buyers and sellers and take the maximum advantage of the offer. In the current scenario with all conditions in favour of the buyer, it surely seems the right time to buy right-priced homes.

<< Opinions of other builders

With just a week to go before the new government is formed, developers point out what needs to be done to boost the real estate industry.

Abhisheck Lodha, director, Lodha Group, says, ”The wish list will revolve around two sets of things. Firstly, the continuation of the overall development and liberalisation of the economy and secondly, streamlining the regulations and clearance process to reduce the time lapse in starting the project. It should also aim at making such policy measures that boost low-cost housing. Lowering of interest rates is a gradual process but the government should work on making the market more transparent, encouraging private sector participation and act on policy level to make a difference.”

Besides these, developers repeatedly emphasise on simplification of taxes on construction materials like cement, steel and other essential commodities. With cement prices escalating at Rs 260 to Rs. 300 a bag, mass housing could remain a dream feel developers. Land regulation is under the jurisdiction of the state government, but the central government issues policy directions from time to time which are not always followed by the states. The central government has to see them being followed through measures like conditional funding, as they have done under the JNNURM scheme. Similarly, cement cartelisation must also be controlled.

The government should clearly define whether the units should be sold on carpet area or any other parameter. Whatever the case may be there has to be a clear-cut definition of the saleable area with no scope for ambiguity. The formalities of acquiring a home should also be simplified. It is only in this way that the industry could be freed from its continuous cyclical boom and bust scenarios and the supply could be absorbed by a larger number of people. The rate of stamp duty also needs to be drastically reduced and made uniform across states.

Many builders unanimously recommend better regulation and widening the scope for foreign direct investments, and encouragement of REIT and REMF as it is only through these measures that real estate will be able to attract the large amount of money that is required for the kind of development we are envisaging for future development. It should allow foreign buyers to invest in commercial property as FDI is one of the greatest contributors in the real estate sector.