Telangana stir worsens outlook for realty sector in Hyderabad

Where are all the morons who said that the Satyam/Maytas fiasco and now the Telangana agitation will have no impact on business and residential real estate ? 100 storey buildings in a city where land is abundant was the signal that Dubai and Hyderabad are no different when it comes to greed.

Hyderabad: Dotted with the sprawling campuses of information technology (IT) firms such as Microsoft Corp. and Wipro Ltd, Hyderabad’s fast-moving growth corridor—the Gachibowli area—looks skeletal with half-done buildings, yellow construction cranes and giant billboards that promise delivery of homes on time.

Skeletal buildings: One of the many incomplete realty projects in Hyderabad’s Gachibowli area. Bangalore is gaining from Hyderabad’s loss. Many real estate investors consider the Karnataka capital a safer bet. Madhurima Nandy / Mint


Hyderabad was hailed some years ago as one of India’s hottest property destinations, with firms such as US-based Tishman Speyer Properties and Malaysia’s Sunway City Bhd coming in to launch their maiden projects in the country.

In its present condition, Andhra Pradesh’s capital city remains the lone realty victim of the slowdown.

“Other cities are already on the recovery route. But Hyderabad has been in the news for all the wrong reasons,” said George Johnson, city head (firm management), Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj, a property advisory.

The downturn perhaps shook Hyderabad more than it did other large cities due to certain disturbing events.

The first was the unravelling of a multi-crore accounting fraud at Hyderabad-headquartered Satyam Computer Services Ltd last January, followed by the death of chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy in a helicopter crash in September.

And just as the sector was beginning to recover, the struggle for a separate Telangana state that includes Hyderabad, intensified.

“Whether the market bounces back depends on if they can control the Telangana agitation,” said N.R. Aluri, managing director, NCC Urban Infrastructure Ltd. “The residential segment particularly looks uncertain though we are expecting some demand in the budget category.”

City-based NCC Urban, a subsidiary of Nagarjuna Construction Co. Ltd, has moved its focus to Bangalore, where it is building four projects, compared with one in Hyderabad.

Read more at Livemint.com

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Hyderabad Sinks - Riding the elephant.

I've never read a more scathing article on the vile nature of Indian politics and its overt and covert nexus between Andhra politicians and their business cronies. Instead of granting contracts to reputed firms, these guys have floated their own business entities to swindle the wealth of the India and AP. No wonder Sonia and others were finding that they were getting too powerful to handle and could rock the politican landscape in the years to come.

The Hyderabad housing bubble is now officially popped. Buyers can now breathe in peace.

John Elliot reports

India’s southern city of Hyderabad is becoming one of India’s most potent symbols of the greed and corruption that link politicians and businessmen. For the third time in a year, the state has been rocked by a crisis that exposes those linkages – this time over whether Andhra Pradesh should be split in two with the creation of a new state of Telangana based around Hyderabad (white area in map below).
This is a far cry from the glory and international fame of the past 15 or so years when this prosperous capital of the state of Andhra Pradesh became an international symbol of India’s dramatic growth in software, second only to Bangalore as a thriving location for information technology investment. Companies located there include Google and Microsoft, and Bill Clinton visited as US president.

The first of the state’s crises came a year ago with the collapse of Satyam, a leading Hyderabad-based software company that was owned by the family of its then chairman, Ramalinga Raju. The Rajus were closely linked with various politicians, including the state’s Congress chief minister, Y S Rajasekhar Reddy (YSR), who died in a helicopter crash in September, as well as his predecessor, Chandrababu Naidu. ..

Here is Bharat Bhusan's article in the Mail Today.

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Money backs ‘ Son- rise’ in Andhra
by Bharat Bhushan
IT HAS been a month since the former Andhra Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy ( YSR) died in a helicopter crash.
The Congress high command has allowed his son, Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and his supporters to run riot in this period.
They paid people whose next of kin died of old age, chronic illness or other causes to say that they had died of shock after learning of YSR’s untimely and tragic death. This number was totted up to nearly 600 with talk of nearly half a dozen “ suicides”. Surprisingly, if the Jaganmohan Reddy run Sakshi TV and newspaper of the same name are to be believed, many of those who died of shock gave a dying declaration that after YSR only his son could continue his propoor policies as chief minister. India has not witnessed such a farce since Independence.
Today, in Andhra Pradesh, it would seem that there is no other Congress leader than Jaganmohan Reddy, no administration, no governance and a chief minister whose writ does not run over his own council of ministers.
Ironically, by allowing Jaganmohan Reddy to continue his unseemly blackmail, the Congress high command is transforming the political novice into the political leader that he never was.
But more of that later. One must first ask how such a political greenhorn enjoys, according to his claims, the support of three- fourths of Andhra MLAs. The answer lies in the changing pattern of political patronage in Andhra Pradesh.
Time was when Congressmen like others in public life accumulated political capital not only by their propeople initiatives but also through fostering intricate patron- client relationships.
This entailed appointing supporters to non- elected positions in the party and the government, helping them build their own patronage networks by giving them clear advantages such as access to the state machinery, and funding their election to local bodies, workplace unions, etc. In short, the attempt was to demonstrate to them that there were political advantages to be had by aligning with the party in power.
Patronage
Andhra Pradesh seems to be changing that structure of patronage.
Instead of giving partymen a share in one’s political capital — the more one shared it, the more it grew — the Congress supporters are given a stake in the state’s economic enterprises.
YSR ushered in this revolution.
He converted his key supporters into businessmen, industrialists, contractors and realtors. Their loyalty to the party or the leader was based on pure economic interest.
YSR rewarded them with contracts in state sponsored irrigation projects ( the much- publicised Rs. 130,000 crore “ Jalyagnam” projects), highway projects, real estate activities, development of Special Economic Zones ( SEZs), land grants and housing schemes in urban as well as rural areas. The loyalty of a majority of the 156 Congress MLAs who got tickets in the last assembly elections was secured through such largesse. Some others have benefitted with smooth and quick approvals of their business ventures.
Those Congressmen who got irrigation project contracts during the YSR regime include MPs T Subbirami Reddy, Kavuri Sambasiva Rao and Rayapati Sambasiva Rao; state ministers Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and P Ramachandra Reddy; and MLA Adala Prabhakar Reddy.
And these are only the big fish — many other party MLAs like Adinarayana Reddy, Srikanth Reddy, Gurunath Reddy, and A Indrakaran Reddy ( former MLA) are believed to have got smaller irrigation and associated road works contracts.
Andhra Congress MLAs whose real estate business thrived during YSR’s chief ministerial tenure include ministers Shilpa Mohan Reddy and Jupalli Krishna Rao, who defaulted on payment of crores of rupees to an urban co- operative bank and Lagadapati Rajagopal ( Congress MP from Vijayawada who is building Lanco Hills — the country’s biggest real estate project). Many other Congress leaders like D Sudheer Reddy ( MLA) and Malreddy Ranga Reddy
( former MLA) have benefitted from the Rs. 3,000 crore Outer Ring Road project of Hyderabad.
Nellore MP Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy and his brother Chandramohan Reddy, MLA, have won contracts for roads and building works. K Pratap Reddy, the Treasurer of the Congress, has stakes in the cement industry and is believed to have business links with the YSR family.
Vijayawada Congress MP Lagapati Rajagopal is believed by many to be the biggest beneficiary of the YSR regime and is involved in businesses ranging from power, iron castings, real estate and infrastructure.
In short, it is difficult to find a Congressman of any consequence in Andhra who has not benefitted from the largesse of the state government.
Several businessmen, industrialists, realtors and contractors who are not directly in politics — some cutting across political lines like the Karnataka BJP minister and mine lord G Janardhan Reddy of Bellary who was given 10,700 acres of land in Anantapur — are all worried about their projects in various stages of development. They have a right to be worried.
Family
Businesses which are underwritten and steered by someone at the helm of the state are less likely to fail. They were failsafe investments. Now their future is suddenly uncertain.
It has taken decades for Indian entrepreneurs like the Tatas, Birlas, Ambanis and Bajajs to convert family businesses into billion dollar corporations.
The Congress party under YSR in Andhra showed us that this could be done in barely five years.
The YSR family’s market capitalisation is estimated to be nearly three- fourths of the annual budget of Andhra Pradesh which is around Rs 1,00,000 crore. The family enterprises and business interests spread across real estate ( Silicon Builders, Classic Realty, Bhagvath Sannidhi Estates), infrastructure ( Silicon Infrastructure, Shalom Infrastructure, Marvel Infrastructure, Janani Infrastructure, Athena Infra, Viz Projects), cement ( Bharathi Cement), chemicals ( Pulivendula Polymers), plantations ( Forest Plantations India Ltd), power generation ( Athena Energy, Athena Kakinada Power, Sainz Hydro), newspapers ( Jagati Publications) and television ( Indira Television) besides owning Carmel Asia Holdings Pvt. Ltd.
The formidable business empire that YSR and his son set up has stakeholders among those who are in politics and business in Andhra today. The future of their investments depends on having a constant gardener from the YSR family to tend their interests. They cannot afford to let Jaganmohan Reddy lose out in the chief ministerial sweepstakes.
Indulgence
It is difficult to understand on the other hand why the Congress high command is so indulgent towards Jaganmohan’s shenanigans. Does the party have good reason to allow the mess that Jaganmohan Reddy’s supporters are creating in Andhra Pradesh? YSR was very close to Rajiv Gandhi who appointed him the state Congress chief at the relatively young age of 35 years. Sonia Gandhi has always valued loyalty to her late husband.
More importantly, YSR also delivered politically — not once but in two consecutive assembly and Lok Sabha elections. There would have been no UPA I or II without the electoral outcome of Andhra adding muscle to the Congress.
Another speculation doing the rounds is that the Congress high command is reluctant to act quickly against Jaganmohan Reddy because YSR was also believed to be one of the largest funders of the party.
Those sources of funds are now controlled by his son. So instead of cutting him to size, the party is being indulgent. Why else would the party allow speculation about Jaganmohan Reddy being offered Deputy Chief Ministership or a place in the central council of ministers? Could it be on the other hand that Jaganmohan Reddy is being allowed to demonstrate the support he enjoys in order to nurse his image as a mass leader? There could well be a strategy to allow the demonstration of support and soon people will forget that YSR’s son is a political novice. The blatant hooliganism of his supporters seems to have scuttled his chances to fill YSR’s shoes immediately. However, this will not prevent his well- wishers from claiming that YSR Junior has come into his own as a political leader with a mass base. This would pave the way for his accommodation in the party or the government.
bharat.bhushan@ mailtoday.in

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Hyderbad real estate set for steep fall

As speculators abandon their bets, end-users will finally get a chance to realize their dream of owing their own house. Investors with multiple properties better bail out now, else risk a steep erosion in prices. Times of India articles normally try to spin any story towards a bullish angle, however this time they are helpless.

Hyderabad's real estate sector was in a state of shock on Thursday, just hours after the Centre conceded to the demand for a separate

Telangana state. Speculating that the move would further dampen the already crippled industry, realtors were seen making their own calculations about the future of their business in the city. Apart from a few optimistic voices, most realtors opined that the T decision would spell doom for real estate in Hyderabad and result in a steep fall in the property value.

"We will go back at least by five years in terms of growth," said Khaja Asif Ahmed of Stellar Project Management Consultant, adding, "It will take at least two to three years for the political unrest to settle and till then no investor from outside would put his money here." According to his prediction, the industry, which is still battling the recession ghost, is set to hit a new low over the next few months.

City realtors say that Hyderabad, as part of Telangana, would also disrupt the flow of sentiment-driven investments. "So far people from all over the state invested in Hyderabad because of its status as the capital of Andhra Pradesh. But if it becomes part of Telangana, people would think twice before picking up property here," said a Kukatpally-based realtor Madhusudan admitting that it would indeed be a long haul before the sector gains momentum. "Until a clear separation takes place, there will be no new investments," Madhusudan said.

A common sentiment that seemed to be riding high among most players from the sector was that of ‘protecting Hyderabad' from the turmoil by declaring it as the joint capital of two states. "Our fear of stagnation in transactions (purchases) can be best addressed through this move. That way the value of properties in the city would remain unaffected and investors too would feel secure," said Ashwin Rao, director, Primus Developers. Though Rao is one among the few optimistic builders who feel that the industry would be back on track, only after an initial glitch of a few months, he says that the common capital stand would be ideal to arrest the slump in the realty business.

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Telangana effect on Hyderbad real estate

After the Satyam/Maytas fiasco, the crisis surrounding the bifurcation of AP and the creation of the state of Telanagana could be nail in the coffin for speculators in the Hyderabad real estate market. It is interesting that speculators will now swing towards Vizag, Vijayawada and Warangal as they exit the bubbling Hyderbad market. Land prices in Hyderbad have quadupled over the past 4 years but it appears that the T-factor has pricked the balloon faster then expected. Investment is never without risk and this has been proven yet again by the surprise events which can bankrupt even the savviest investor.

Here is a Times of India article which reports 20000 crores been invested in Hyderbad real estate by Rayalseema/Coastal Andhra politicians. I wonder where do they get these numbers from. Is there a survey carried out by Times which queries each politician and then adds up the figures ? So from the looks of this article it appears that politicians only care about real estate in Hyderbad, Telangana or AP doesn't matter.

Hyderabad Blues
A question of a Telangana without Hyderabad, those from Andhra and Rayalaseema declared the current state capital was common property and should be declared an Union Territory. The demands are based on a complex mix of political, emotional and material logic. Many politicians from the other two regions have invested heavily in property in and around Hyderabad including the ritzy Jubilee Hills, Hi-tec City and Shamshabad, areas where the outer Ring Road and new international airport
have come up and jacked up realty. Of the 23 AP districts, 10 are in Telangana, nine in Andhra and four in Rayalaseema. For the Telangana supporters, Hyderabad is the heart of the region and can never be given UT status. "By right, Hyderabad deserves to be the capital of the new Telangana state. Historically, all the Telangana districts have actually been part of the erstwhile Nizam-ruled state of Hyderabad of which the current city was the epicentre. If Hyderabad is shared with people of the other region, then the heart of Telangana is will be taken away," said one Congress leader from the region. Another reason for the Telanganites' opposition to Hyderabad being made a UT is lack of contiguity with other regions. "The state capital is surrounded completely by the Telangana districts. Therefore, for the people of Andhra and Rayalaseema regions, Hyderabad can never function as an administrative capital," said the leader. Those clamouring for UT status for Hyderabad base it on the cosmopolitan nature of the city. "To preserve its cosmopolitan character and accelerate its growth as an hub of IT, biotech, pharma and other emerging technologies, it has to be made union territory....The demographic profile of the city has changed tremendously over the years and today the native inhabitants constitute only a modest percentage with those from the other two regions, different states of India and abroad forming the majority," said BC welfare minister M Mukesh Goud in a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday, in which he urged her to declare Hyderabad as UT. But there are more material reasons for seeking UT status. Goud, who wrote the letter, is from Hyderabad. Health minister Danam Nagender, who also is an advocate of Hyderabad as Union Territory, is also from Hyderabad. According to sources, several ministers from the Andhra and Rayalaseema regions have invested in property worth crores of rupees over the last decade or so in and around Hyderabad. "They stand to lose heavily in case Hyderabad is retained with Telangana as property values are bound to fall," said an observer. Interestingly, when the Telangana issue was raging three years ago after TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao parted ways with the Congress and launched an agitation, there was not much of a demand for Hyderabad as Union Territory. "That was because the real estate business was booming in the state and efforts were on to build a new capital for the divided Andhra state in the Mangalagiri-Guntur-Vijayawada region. Therefore, leaders of these regions had no objection to Hyderabad remaining part of Telangana. But after the real estate bust, the Andhra and Rayalaseema leaders re-invested heavily in and around Hyderabad. Their total investments here would be more than Rs 20,000 crore," said one politician in the know. As a result, the fight for Hyderabad is set to be fiercely contested. But with the Andhra regions up in arms a day after the Congress gave the green signal for Telangana, the Rosaiah regime tottering and the possibility of the assembly passing the resolution on Telangana becoming difficult, the fight for Hyderabad may just recede into the background for the time being. But it is sure to be raked up when Telangana inches towards becoming a reality.

Hindu reports

IT professionals worried over Telangana developments

Hyderabad, Dec. 10
The Chidambaram statement on the formation of Telangana State on Wednesday night created ripples in the IT industry in Andhra Pradesh.
The subject turned into intense discussion in most IT companies, with the employees discussing the pros and cons of division of the State. The industry employs about 2.5 lakh people, mostly from outside of Telangana region.
“It (the Telangana factor) would have a very bad impact on the IT industry. We won't get new companies here and the existing companies might cut down their operations here,” Mr K. Kunal, a HR consultant for a leading IT company, told Business Line.
A Managing Director of another IT company echoes this view. “I am neither pro- nor anti-Telangana. But what I would like to have is serenity which is the hallmark of the city. Customers are postponing their visits on hearing the news of violence,” he pointed out.
"The issue is not whether Telangana happens or not. The real concern is the loss of productive time in the last few weeks. We need to restore normalcy," Mr J. A .Chowdhary, Chairman of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), said.
Mr C. Bhaskar, working for a telcom services company, has a different view. “This is just a temporary phase. Companies invest in places where they find the right eco system. The city could establish an eco system with good IT infrastructure and skilled manpower,” he argued.
“Now that there is clarity (on the issue), there will be no trouble for work and logistics. The worst is over,” he observed.
Mr T. Navin, working for a multi-national firm, said that some people were not bothered at all. “We have bought houses here and the status of the city is not going to change. Why should we bother?”
Exports
The IT exports from State were put at Rs 12,000 crore in the first half ended September, 2009, reflecting a flat growth rate as a result of the economic slowdown. It expected to reach Rs 35,000 crore in 2009-10 as against Rs 32,500 crore in the last fiscal.
There, however, is a silver lining for the IT industry. A real-estate developer admitted that the costs of properties would come down drastically. “For those, who wanted to expand their facilities, it is a good time as prices of realty have already crashed in the IT investment triangle being planned by the Government,” he said.

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Dharna by Maytas Hill County residents

Maytas hill county residents of Hyderbad staged a dharna in front of the house of their scamster promoter Mr Ramalinga Raju. The Satyam fiasco has caused Maytas to collapse under its own weight. The project work has stopped and investors and house owners are losing their hard earned money to bank loans. This is a very stark reminder to the state of financing in the real estate construction business. Maytas Hill county was supposed to have been completed by mid 2009. Now with the stopped construction, there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel. These residents have to push their battle to the media like the Jet employees. Just a weekend protest is not going to help.

A friend of mine helped me translate the 2nd video.
The NRI mom is lamenting the lack of security for investments for NRIs. Her son is in London and got lured by the promises of Maytas. He has been paying EMI for 3 years now with no sign of completion in sight. She believed the builders promises but now nothing is happening. The bank is not reducing the interest rate and the government is not doing anything and not taking action against Maytas.

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Impact of Satyam layoffs on real estate

We all know that Satyam cooked books. They had over 47,000  employees in various locations, primarily in Hyderabad. There is news that maybe 10,000 would be let go. The question is where will they find the "high" paying jobs. Everyone knows that service companies don't pay as much as MNC's and Satyam is one of the worst paymasters in this lot. I know several satyam folks who quit in US well before the scam since they were underpaid and overworked to the point of no return. Hyderabad has seen a boom which will rival no other city since AP folks are heavily  invested in lands, plots and apartments. The common acres to plots conversion technique is heavily ingrained in the local population and I was surprised to see many IT people buying acres on outskirts of Hyderabad just on speculation of the new airport in Shamsabad. Now with the airport hype dying down, and the disappearing  act of a regular paycheck, where does it leave Hyderabad. Maytas is another story and I know several people who have booked and now stuck with no exit. These folks are bleeding pre-EMI interest and will do so for years. It goes to show the due-diligence done by banks on properties in nil.

Here is a DNA article on Satyam layoffs.

Layoffs at Satyam set to begin with BPO unit

Hyderabad: Tech Mahindra, after gaining control over the troubled IT major Satyam Computer Services, seems to be getting straight to business.

The company intends to downsize operations beginning with the business process outsourcing arm Satyam BPO (formerly called Nipuna).

Sources in the company saidthe layoffs will begin with the support department. "The billable staff is not going to be disturbed now. It is the support staff that is likely to exit," the source said.

Satyam BPO has over 3,000 associates and the ratio of billable staff and the support staff is about 35:1. "The target is to make it 80:1. This means a major shake-up in the BPO arm," the source said.

About 60% of the support staff face the axe.

Tech Mahindra has decided to use Satyam's existing marketing, HR and other support functionaries for the BPO too instead of having a separate set-up.

Sources among employees said that there are about 80 people in the HR department alone and about 60 of them are likely to go.

"Particularly the support functions in both Satyam BPO and Satyam are obscenely overstaffed. Any effort to resurrect Satyam would happen only by rationalising these functions," the source said.

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CNN-IBN reporting on property declines

Reading the report it is still not clear why Pune prices are higher then prime areas of Bangalore. Sadashiv Nagar is Bangalore is one of the most sought out places to live in. How come this price is lower then Koregoan Park in Pune ? Most likely answer would be that the reporting of Pune prices is manipulated due to vested interests. Does anybody think otherwise ?

>>
If you have been unsure about the current state of property market, here are some definite pointers that suggest the rates are going down south. According to the latest reports released by Knight Frank India Pvt Ltd (March 2009), property rates across metro cities have dropped. The fall in rates are especially tangible in overheated pockets, which hitherto had witnessed phenomenal rise, such as Noida and Gurgaon in the National Capital Region; Goregaon, Borivili, Vashi and Mulund in Mumbai and Koramangala in Bangalore.
Here is a link to the pricing.

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20,000 defaulters to lose homes

Here is another video where Nassim Taleb and Daniel Kahneman discusses the crisis hitting the US and consequently the world. Officially Japan is in depression. Just as Lehman was leveraged 30:1, I expect the builders to have similar leverage. Financial wizadry aside, we now turn to psycology for answers.

Source Deccan Chronicle 17/Feb/2009
Around 20,000 houses in the twin cities are to be auctioned after borrowers defaulted on home loan payments. This is the first time that so many houses are being put up for auction. Many of the borrowers are IT employees who were unable to pay the equated monthly instalments because of the current slowdown in the software industry. Several techies who took loans have lost their jobs and others were forced to accept salary cuts making it difficult for them to meet their financial commitments.

Apart from techies, there are many employees in the aviation sector too who are unable to pay their EMIs. Banks are in a piquant situa tion since borrowers have not hurried to pay their EMIs despite the threat of the auction.

In fact, they are willing for the auction as they are not in a position to mobilise resources. The borrowers have no option but to forego the amount that they have invested may come to around 20 per cent of the property value. Banks which provided 80 per cent amount as loan fear that they may not get the amount even if they auction the properties. “There is no option for banks except to dispose the properties when the borrowers are reluctant to clear the dues,” said the IDBI director, Mr K. Narasimha Murthy. “More auctions will be held in the next few months since many borrowers are yet to receive final notices from banks.”

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Rajus' land bank could be much bigger

Farfetched but true. The greed for land is has sunk a solid cash cow business built on cheap labor, dollar arbitrage and government subsidies. Along with Raju, there will be hundreds and thousands of mini Raju's who will be crushed under the weight of this collapse. In one stroke Ramalinga Raju has setback the development of Hyderabad and AP by atleast half a decade. There is no need for Telangana for now as the crown itself has crumbled.

If 6800 acres is put on the market to liquidate what will be net asset value of this illiquid asset. I think the figure is much more then 6800 acres. Satyam has land in Nagpur close to Mihan and those bozos there propped up the prices by quoting Raheja, Satyam and Infosys.In all my dreams I could never think that the end game for the real estate bubble would be the largest corporate fraud in Indian history.

I always thought the US slowdown will affect jobs, liquidity concerns etc. just like it happened in the US. Raju has created a script which will beat the slumdog millionaire several times over. Maybe he should write his memoirs and make a film on it. I'm sure he will regain his riches if that happens. A Satyameve Raju should be a good title.

It is mind boggling thinking about the hobsons choices which are presented to the Satyam employees.All the moronic newschannels and papers have yet to digest the scope of this scandal and the effect it has on employees whether in India or abroad. There is a satyam blog which is trying to bravely counter all the negative news. Unfortunately the kids don't realize that business leaders of GE/Nestle and others are cut-throat competitors. If they don't think twice in axing their own employees what chance do they have to keep contractors when the company which employs is close to bankruptcy, and will soon have few thousand lawyers crawling all over them. A simple question to ask is "Knowing what you know about Satyam today would you do business with them ?". If you answer yes for whatever reason, you are destined to be a sucker for life.

The Indian political establishment is also making some weak attempts so appear that they are working towards fixing the problem. As with politics they are looking for the problem to vanish and let some other issue take over the media. Unfortunately in this case the US shareholders will get their pound of flesh. Corrupt Indian politicians let Union carbide get away by sacrificing the lives of thousands of Indians. In a country where lives are much valued and law followed, the US lawyers will make sure the misdeeds are punished and the company assets are distributed to their shareholders. If the Indian govt. cannot assure the FII's, safety of their Investments, expect the Sensex to go back to 2003 levels. No more free lunches for anyone. The destruction of money here is of gigantic proportions.

If someone doubt's my analysis, just google for Filipino BPO companies which are touting itself as an attractive outsourcing destination for BPOs due to their ethical business practices. If the government fails to act swiftly, book offenders and liquidate Satyam quickly, one can be rest assured that dark days are ahead.


Let the scavenging begin.

DNA reports
Hyderabad: B Ramalinga Raju has claimed that Maytas Properties had a land bank of 6,800 acres, sources said it could be more than that, considering the properties the family had acquired in other countries.

The uncertainty about the actual amount of land held comes from the fact that most of the property was either handled through a general power of attorney (GPA) or held in somebody else's name.

While Teja Raju was completely in charge of Maytas Infra, a listed entity, Rama Raju, Jr, was handling Maytas Properties, a family-owned, closely-held entity. It is in the family-owned business that the Rajus had built the land bank.

Sources said that the family was acquiring land along with the immediate relative of a top politician in the statehoping that the politician would get a project to the area, or at least a good buyer for the property. "There are many such properties lying with the family which do not have any immediate market unless something major happens at the location," a source said.

However, the real estate market crashed in the last eight months, locking up the assets of the Rajus. The market is unlikely to see any upswing in the near future. "Even if you take the land bank of 6,800 acres, it means at least Rs 4,000-5,000 crore is locked up. Though Ramalinga Raju is a stakeholder in both Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties, it is his sons who are handling the affairs of both the companies," the source explained.

Livemint reports

UK investment bank Noble sees more Satyams in the pipeline

Noble Group was “disappointed but not surprised” by the Satyam development

Mumbai: A day after the Satyam Computer Services Ltd scandal broke, UK-based independent investment bank Noble Group released a report that points to widespread accounting lapses across the broad index of 500 Indian companies listed on Asia’s oldest bourse, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), and warns of “more Satyams in the pipeline”.

Cheat code: Satyam Computer Services headquarters in Hyderabad. Mahesh Kumar A. / AP

The report suggests that as many as one-fifth of these companies have accounting issues. Noble Group was “disappointed but not surprised” by the Satyam development.

“Our experiences over the past few months...suggest that manipulative accounting and aggressive promoter practices are more common in India than is generally believed to be the case,” the report says.

The group’s analysis shows at least five types of accounting malpractices exist across BSE 500 firms—among them, recording revenue ahead of time, booking “fictitious” sales, expense manipulation and cash manipulation.

At least 30 companies, the report says, recognize revenue at the time of sales. This, it says, is disclosed by worsening cash flow from operating activities despite a rise in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, a widely used measure of profitability.

At least 60 firms on the index, the report says, seem to have booked sales that might actually have come from investment income or other income.

Also, reducing depreciation rates to push expenses to a later period is noticed in at least 10 companies. And at least 15 firms have handed out the bulk of their loans and advances to companies in which their directors have an interest.

“Pump and dump” and “blab and grab” are among the more popular ways that promoters use to push their stock up, according to the report. In the former, the promoter “pumps” up the stock to generate liquidity, follows it up with announcements that send the price up and then “dumps” the holdings.

In the latter, the promoter announces a new venture, even when it has nothing to do with the company’s main business. This infuses fresh funds, which the promoter “grabs”, but then sells his/her own holdings. The new venture is then conveniently postponed, sending the stock price down.

A third method promoters use is to simply siphon off funds during bear markets, when the pressure to show strong earnings is less. The most common method, the report says, is to inflate “other expenses” or “sales and distribution expenses”, or even “miscellaneous expenses”. In bear markets, the report says, such expenses rose by almost 25% (as a percentage of operating expenses).

The problem exists on three fronts: lax accounting rules, weak market regulation and corporate corruption.

In the first category, the report says, there is a lack of restrictions on auditors to do consulting work for the firms they audit.

Second, the Indian market does not seem to place restrictions on how quickly after the year-end a firm has to publish its annual report, which deprives investors of a timely look at the true state of affairs. The report also castigates market regulators that are driven more by political decisions.

And the third fault-line lies, the report says, with the promoters, whose powers are largely unchecked by directors, auditors or regulators.

Still, in the face of all the doom and gloom surrounding Satyam, the report says this is the best time to invest in India, as the markets are unprecedentedly cheap, noting that such scandals do not appear to have an overall bearing on market direction.

Investors must do three basic things before they open their wallets—primary data checks on management, forensic financial analysis and in-depth interviews with management.

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Satyam land scam

Leverage gone bad. As I had said, black money operators have been "sub-primed". Expect more of the same as the unwinding continues.

Economic Times reports.
Thanks to Observer for the link

Politics-property combo may have trapped Raju

MUMBAI/BANGALORE: An audacious real estate play is seen as the backdrop for the 54-year-old B Ramalinga Raju’s sudden exit from Satyam Computer
Services, India’s fourth-largest IT company.

The Raju family, said real estate industry sources, might figure among India’s top 10 landlords as it had embarked on a massive land-buying strategy to cash in on the real estate boom in recent years. While the family holds over 6,500 acres through Maytas Properties, the individual members in their personal capacity have significant holdings of agricultural land across south and western India, industry officials said.

Industry and banking sources said the Rajus leveraged their ownership of Satyam, both in terms of shareholding and management control, to fuel other businesses. In fact, one banking source surmised that a key reason for cooking the books could have been to leverage the bull run in the Satyam stock before the market meltdown in the second half of 2008.

The promoters may have needed cash for land acquisitions, particularly around their infrastructure projects that were won on the back of ‘goodwill’, according to these sources.

So how did the Rajus land up with a severe liquidity crunch? One of the theories doing the rounds suggests they were trapped by a murky cocktail of political developments and a real estate crash. In the recent past, Maytas Properties and Maytas Infrastructure had won a number of prestigious projects.

These include the Hyderabad Metro Rail project, Machilipatnam port project and airport projects in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. In return, prime land near some of these projects had to be ‘offered’ to the supportive establishment. Several real estate sources claimed there were some instances of Maytas being awarded road projects even without proper bidding. However, ET could not confirm all this independently at the time of going to press.

With the real estate story turning sour, political circles were said to have demanded funds from the family instead of land. “Upcoming elections may have also forced members of the establishment to change their preference from land to money which put them in a fix,” said a Hyderabad-based developer.

Observers said Raju’s sudden admission of fraud had compelling reasons, and was probably done under external pressure to thwart bigger revelations.

In this context, it must be mentioned that Delhi Metro managing director E Sreedharan had called Hyderabad Metro Rail project a “future political scam”. He had objected to the way the government allowed the private consortium to develop land commercially.
Some other rumours floating in Hyderabad claim Satyam’s promoters raised huge funds from tobacco traders in Rayalseema district by pledging Satyam shares. The promoters may have assumed that they would be able to raise funds to recover the pledged shares through an IPO of Maytas Properties. But the downturn in the real estate market derailed Maytas’ IPO plans leading to the promoters being unable to meet margin calls on Satyam shares.

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Slumdog Billionaire - Truth be told

"The aborted Maytas acquisition deal was the last attempt to fill the fictitious assets with real ones," Raju said in his letter. "I am now prepared to subject myself to the laws of the land and face consequences thereof."

If there is someone who knows to tell a dramatic story, it is B. Raju. Thanks to Anon for the post where the Satyam CEO announced in painless detail the Satya(m) of the balance sheet. Satyam as most employees will attest is a sweat shop. Employees in the US work ridiculous hours and get peanuts for all their efforts. I'm not sure how employees in India are treated. It goes without saying that Satyams's customers will switch to other outsourcing companies and I wont be surprised with US based companies get the right to choose customers as opposed to the India big three. It also looks like we can easily see a layoff of 50% of the workforce in Satyam. What happens to all the mortgages which have been sunk into Hyderabad real estate ? As we saw the stock market took a beating down 750 points, Satyam investors have been wiped out. This is just beginning to get ugly. Maytas and Satyam will be remembered as Worldcom and Enron. The last straw which broke the market's back. Wonder how many more books are cooked by Indian management. The auditors are a joke. God save outsourcing.

Here is good analysis on how the books were cooked.

Here is Raju's candid letter to the SEC. Without regret or remorse, the criminal has bankrupted the company he has founded and will bring Hyderabad to its knees.

Satyam Chairman Fraud Confession

View SlideShare document or Upload your own.

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Bldrs tread cautiously on realty street

Bldrs tread cautiously on realty street
Nauzer Bharucha | TNN

Mumbai: Some of the tastefully done-up stalls at the property exhibition at Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) are as large as one-bedroom apartments. Smart marketing girls move around with glazed brochures, pitching upcoming residential projects to prospective home buyers.
In the adjoining seminar hall, there is much bonhomie among the assembled builders, gorging on a lavish vegetarian spread. To many, it may seem to be business as usual for Mumbai’s property czars. But behind the broad smiles is a growing concern about the stormy days ahead.
The construction industry is suddenly down in the dumps and builders are still unwilling to say when they will relent and reduce prices. But across the city, massive cranes, which were once swinging at frenzied pace, have slowed down considerably.
“Developers have drastically cut down work on their under-construction projects. For instance, if a builder was laying one slab a month, the pace has slowed down to one slab in three months. When flats are no longer selling as briskly as they used to, there is little point in speeding up construction work,’’ a leading builder confessed privately to this newspaper recently.
Some of them are also believed to have postponed launching new projects. Banks and financial institutions have also turned on the screws. A couple of years ago, they stopped lending money to builders for land acquisition. Now, even loans for construction has virtually come to a halt since the past three months, industry sources said. “Banks have become extremely choosy about lending money to builders,’’ they said.
In the residential segment, prices in some of the upscale projects coming up in Malad and Goregaon are in the range of Rs 9,000 to Rs 10,500 a sq ft. In Juhu, the rate is anywhere between Rs 15,000 a sq ft to Rs 21,000 a sq ft in upcoming projects. In south Mumbai, there is an eyeball to eyeball confrontation between buyers and sellers of premium apartments. “The seller is still adamant and refuses to lower the price, while the buyer is still not falling for it. In the past six months, the same flats which were put up for sale are still circulating in the market,’’ said a CEO of a real estate company, not wishing to be identified.
At Pedder Road, a builder who has just finished an upscale apartment block, is finding no takers. “He has been demanding a whopping Rs 80 crore for each apartment, which is spread over 8,000 sq ft super built up area. Not a single unit has been sold at this price,’’ said market sources.
“Confronted by a bleak scenario, builders are twiddling their thumbs and waiting for the real estate market to revive,’’ said an insider. A handful of developers who are sitting on large chunks of land since many years, and who have little exposure to banks, are in a comfortable position at present. The rest are finding the going tough while some who had purchased land at unrealistically high rates, are finding the noose tightening.
According to the market grapevine, the brother of a prominent developer from the eastern suburbs, who has branched out on his own now, is stuck after a US-based bank allegedly stopped funding his projects in Hyderabad and Chennai. Another developer with residential projects in Goregaon, Virar and Thane finds himself pushed into a corner after taking a Rs 100 crore loan from a Kutchi industrialist at hefty interest rate of over 40%.
One builder, who shook the property market last year after he paid a phenomenallyhigh price for a plot in BKC, is also believed to be now on the edge. “His investors are breathing down his neck and even the nationalised bank which funded him, now wants its money back. His desperation is now evident because he has started offering brokers a 4% brokerage for getting clients,’’ said sources.
In the commercial segment, the lease rental prices in BKC has come down from an average of Rs 450 a sq ft to Rs 325-Rs 350 a sq ft over the past three months, it is learnt. “Developers setting up IT parks are also getting worried as they are not getting the price they were expecting,’’ said a broker.
According to housing experts, about $4 billion has been pumped into the Indian real estate market by FIIs and venture capital funds. Another $12 to $14 billion was to flow in within the next 18 months. This will not come any more.

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Prices correcting in Hyderabad - Maytas

Here is something I received in the mail.The slowdown is coming. The combined offer translates to over 15% drop in the cost of the house. Not bad for a start. Last year this property was quoted at 3200 which means there is no appreciation over the past year, Actually people who have bought have lost 10% of the down payment. Also such big projects get delayed by atleast 1 year.

For the long term resident, 2800 seems a good entry price. still 15% lower then what is quoted.

Fabulous offer for top tier corporates employeesMaytas Properties has developed 400 acres of land at Bachupally, which is located just 10 km from Hi-tech city. The name of the venture is Maytas Hill County. In this spectacular venture we have a world-class township spread over 85 acres which has a decent mix of Villas, Independent Bungalows & Semi-furnished Apartments. Government has approved to develop an IT Special Economic Zone in 75 acres adjacent to the Residential Township, this helps the residents can ‘Walk to Work’ in the IT SEZ. As the bookings are going berserk we have come up with a COMBO offer for top tier corporates.

Here is COMBO offer which comes in with:
PRE-EMI offer & Corporate offer

PRE-EMIis a fantastic mode of payment where the EMI need not be paid till the property possession is taken ovev, the Interest to the banker during this period will be borne by Maytas. Infact the interest component will be paid on behalf of the customer. (This is applicable for applicants who avail Bank Loan for purchasing the property with us).

Corporate offercomes with Rs.200/- less than the regular price (per square feet). This is offered to the Employees of Corporate companies which have been listed by us.

Regular Price : Rs. 3699 per sft

Corporate offer : Rs. 3499 per sft

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Land price correct all over the country

Now that the acreage cost seem to be dropping, the sq/ft price drop should follow.
Economic times reports...

Land prices in the national capital region (NCR), Mumbai suburbs, Bangalore and Hyderabad have corrected by up to 25% as property developers slow down their land purchases. Poor sales and lower availability of credit at higher cost have prompted property developers to end the mad rush to acquire land. Some of the developers have even backed out of land deals which were agreed upon as the slowdown hit the sector.

Prices have come down by up to 25% in Mumbai's distant suburbs, including Thane and Belapur, and pockets of Hyderabad and Bangalore, according to property consultancy firm Knight Frank India. Prices in the NCR, with an exception of Faridabad and Delhi, too have witnessed a correction of up to 25%, says a senior Unitech executive, adding that transaction volume has dried up. Land prices in Faridabad have risen 10-30% in the past 3-4 months.

However, Faridabad is just catching up with its neighbouring locations. The prices in Faridabad are still lower than in Gurgaon or Noida and the current price rise is more towards building a parity with them. Land prices in Delhi are said to be stable.

But a recent land deal struck in Delhi's prime commercial centre Connaught Place indicates that prices in the capital too are cooling off. Parsvnath Developers bought 1.18 acre, jointly owned by Mahajan Industries and Videocon Industries, for Rs 200 crore. The deal came at a discount of almost 17% at Rs 169 crore per acre, compared to what hotel major Leela Group paid for acquiring 3 acres in Chanakyapuri last year for Rs 611 crore.

"Real estate sector is facing a major cash crunch. That's why the companies are focusing on completing the project at hand, instead of adding to their landbanks," says Omaxe executive director Vipin Aggarwal.

Till recently, real estate players were in a land acquisition frenzy, with some players even pledging their equity shares to acquire land. A large landbank was showcased as the biggest asset for a company tapping the capital market. "Most real estate firms have formed big landbanks. So, there is hardly any need for them to go for further acquisition, especially in these times, when money is expensive," said Anshuman Magazine South Asia chairman CB Richard Ellis. Developers are also showing lower interest in agriculture land, once their prime target because of the substantial margins it offered.

At the same time, given the slowdown in the sector, some of the land deals which were earlier agreed upon have also fallen through. "The situation has completely changed since January. The developers are now exiting the deals because they do not think that the project can fetch them the profits they had originally expected," says Knight Frank India chairman Pranay Vakil. The correction is more pronounced in plots of less than 25 acre in size, since they are not FDI-compliant. "For a larger piece of land, there is FDI. But for smaller size projects, there are very few takers," he adds.

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'High interest rates, prices stunt real estate'

High interest rates and overheated asset prices have cooled the super-charged growth in real estate even as a demand-supply mismatch continues in the Indian property market.

DECLINE AND FALL

# Price movement over the last three to six months in the central business districts in key cities has been flat
# Prices are expected to be flat in the near future
# Speculators moving out, end-users buying cautiously
# Commercial real estate supply to increase in coming six to eight quarters
# Interest rate cut would have helped boost demand, but with inflation up, this is unlikely
# Input costs — steel, cement etc — have gone up, along with land price
A cross section of opinion in the real estate sector suggests that overall prices have stagnated or declined 10 to 15 per cent in the past six months in prime commercial areas and are expected to dip 10 per cent more in the coming months across key Indian cities. Stagnation and fall in NCR
“We have not seen any major movement in prices of office buildings over the last three months. In fact, prices in the central business district of Delhi have remained hard. Rentals in the suburbs have stagnated,” said Pradeep Jain, chairman, Parsvnath Developers.

Rentals of prime commercial buildings in the New Delhi central business district, which covers the area around Connaught Place, stand at their December prices of Rs 330 to Rs 375 per square foot (sq ft).

At Nehru Place, the capital’s secondary business district, commercial rentals have been constant at Rs 220 to 260 per sq ft during the same period, say property consultants.

In contrast, rentals grew 40 to 50 per cent in the National Capital Region in calendar 2007, according to a recent report by property consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj (JLLM)

In the emerging boomtowns Gurgaon and Noida, which command rentals between Rs 50 and 200 per sq ft, have seen a 5 to 10 per cent dip in commercial rentals in the last three months, according to consultants.

Slowdown in Mumbai
Last week, Mumbai’s city planning agency — the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) — failed to get bidders for two plots in the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC), the city’s new business district. Analysts say this is a clear indication of a slowdown.

“The days of super-high growth are over. Now developers are only going for those properties which are reasonable,” said Abhishek Kiran Gupta of JLLM.

A landmark office tower at Worli, which commanded rentals of Rs 550 per sq ft, has seen a decline to Rs 375 per sq ft, said a city-based property consultant. He added that rentals in BKC, which had gone up to around Rs 450 per sq ft, are likely to soften by Rs 75 to Rs 100 per sq ft.

The addition of new office space over the next six to eight quarters is expected to lead to a further decline in rentals. Nearly 15 million sq ft, the equivalent of the BKC, of office space will be added in Mumbai by end-2008, the NCR is expected to see an addition of 7 million sq ft of office space.

“Rentals will not grow by 30 to 40 per cent now as was the case till now. Rates in the prime city centre areas will not fluctuate much,” said Gupta, adding: “Rentals in the suburbs will not grow more than 8 to 15 per cent.”

Given that economic growth is expected to slow in 2008-09, experts say reduced demand could see more supplies coming into the market.

“Companies book and lease space keeping three- to five-year horizon. But given the slowdown in economy, they tend to scale down their demand projection of space. Reduction in demand means more supply hitting the market,” said Jai Mavani, executive director, KPMG.

Slump in housing
Residential demand, which is more sensitive to interest rate movement, has cooled in recent times, though developers are reluctant to admit this.

However, it is a fact that property transactions have dropped and the rate of new home loan disbursals has also fallen.

The State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, saw a home loan portfolio growth rate of 16 per cent in 2007, slower than the 20 per cent growth witnessed in 2006.

SBI has cut home loan rates twice since January 2008, a bank executive said, adding that there was no visible growth as yet in the home loan portfolio. “Property prices are still high and people still cannot afford flats in big cities,” he added.

“Apartment sales have gone down by 20 to 30 per cent in Mumbai. Developers are doling out goodies like stamp duty relief, free parking and interiors to boost sales,” said Rajiv Sabharwal, head, retail assets, ICICI Bank.

Crucially, developers are not cutting prices.

“Developers can not cut prices because once you do that, it signals the start of a downward spiral. They are holding on to the prices to maintain the momentum,” said Rajesh Mehta, a leading property consultant in Mumbai, adding: “April and May are the key months as far as property deals go. If transactions do not pick up, prices of apartments will fall at least 10 to 15 per cent”.

Traditionally a stock market boom has a direct impact on real estate prices. However, the near 5000-points fall in Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex from its peak in January 2008 has wiped out much investor wealth.

This reversal of fortunes is expected to have an immediate impact on residential real estate prices. The last two or three years have seen prices escalate across the country.

Despite anecdotal evidence of prices falling marginally in recent times, the fact remains that supply of apartments and built up plots in the developed areas of Mumbai and Delhi is scarce.

“New residential projects have slowed down. Only big developers are launching new projects. Buyers are also waiting whether prices will come down,” adds ICICI’s Sabharwal.

Speculators have exited many areas like Greater Noida, Kundli and even some parts of Gurgaon. JLLM Chairman Anuj Puri believes that investors, who comprise nearly 20 per cent of property buyers, are staying out after the stock market crash. “The absence of speculator interest has led to a 15 to 20 per cent correction in areas like Gurgaon and Noida,” he said.

The scenario in Cyberabad
The southern city has seen a change in the nature of buyers. Where investors dominated before, more and more end-users are buying properties, says I Syam Prasad Reddy, managing director and chief executive officer, Indu Projects Ltd.

“Hitherto, demand was driven both by investors and end users. Currently there is a substantial drop in investor interest, but there isn’t any slow down and demand is only flat”, he adds.

All quiet in Silicon city
“No upward movement of prices has been evident in Bangalore’s commercial business district for the last four to five months. Residential realty prices have stagnated due to an increase in supply, much more than the demand,” said Samira Chandra Gupta, regional director, Colliers International.

Others concur with this view. “Prices have been generally flat. In many localities prices have fallen sharply. The reduction is greater in peripheral areas and to some extent in premium or super-luxury residential properties,” said Shivaram Malakala, executive director, Habitat Ventures.

On the outlook for Bangalore, Collier’s Gupta said demand from the IT sector may be impacted by the US slowdown, but sectors like pharma, R&D services and some manufacturing companies would continue to drive demand. Hardening interest rate over the past year have seen second and third home buys, which drove the markets, dry up.

Like elsewhere, prices are expected to remain bearish, with Malakala saying they could fall further by up to 10 to 15 per cent.

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Rents hit the roof in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: House rents have seen a steep hike in the surrounding areas of Hi-Tec City. This is most visible in Madhapur, which has seen an almost 100 per cent rise in just one year.

Till last year rents in this part of the city were comparable to other residential areas in the city. But the last quarter of the year saw the rent graph heading north at a furious pace.

This phenomenon is not limited only to Hi-Tec City but also in most residential colonies in the Serilingampally circle of GHMC where rents have doubled in the last two to three months. In areas like Maszid Banda, which is three kilometres away from the Kothaguda-Gachibowli road, house rents have doubled in the last one year.

"In January 2006, a two-room house was rented out for Rs 1,800 per month. By August 2007, the rent had gone up to Rs 2,500. Just four months later, in January, 2008, the rent of two-room houses have skyrocketed to Rs 3,500," said Anand Bhattacharya, associate analyst at Datamonitor Plc.

Most of the tenants in these areas are software company employees who see no other option but to accept the hike. "In all the surrounding areas of Hi-Tec City the situation is the same. We don't feel the pinch as the rent is usually shared by roommates and corporate salaries are also reasonably high," Anand said.

He does not want to move out of this area as it is only a 15-minute drive to his work place. "The roads are wider and there are no traffic jams here."

At Guttala Begumpet in Madhapur, one has to shell out Rs 12,500 for a two-bedroom flat. "In February, 2006, a similar flat was available for Rs 6,500," said Prasheel Bhanpur, who works as a corporate communications specialist in Maytas Infra Limited.

"It costs Rs 6,500 for even a single room with attached bathroom. The rent for such a room would not have been more than Rs 3,000 only a year back," Prasheel said.

Residents link the increase in rents to the opening of two new restaurants and supermarket in the locality. "Two new restaurants and a supermarket have come up at the Kothaguda junction. Two petrol pumps have been opened at Gulmohar Park and Lingampally railway station," says S Bhaskar Yadav, who owns two houses in Kondapur. Earlier, not many people were keen on living in areas like Maszid Banda, Sudarshan Colony and Alind Colony. But now there is no need to even put up a 'to let' board, as software employees are willing to pay as much as Rs 12,000 for a two-bedroom flat in a new building with three months rent in advance, Yadav said.

GHMC collects Rs 10 per square metre as property tax at Madhapur and Kondapur and surrounding colonies. "If the house owner himself occupies the house, 30 per cent of the total tax will be waived. If the house is rented out there will be no exemption," said deputy commissioner, Serilingampally-I GHMC, P Nagamani. There is no rent control mechanism under GHMC's purview, Nagamani added.

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Housing boom fades in Hyderabad

Real estate boom fizzles out fast
Deccan Chronicle Hyderabad,
Dec 25: The real estate boom which held sway in 2006 petered out in 2007. The poor response to auction of Kokapet lands in the third week of December was only the latest instance in the downswing. Except for a few projects catering to high end consumers in up-market areas such as Madhapur and Gachibowli, the construction scenario was dismal in the capital and surrounding areas.
The number of real estate transactions in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts declined by 40 per cent when compared to the previous year. Fall in NRI investments because of the increased rupee value and the real estate industry reaching saturation levels were cited as the main reasons. The slowdown in the IT industry also contributed to the downturn. However, the prices of apartments remained high in the city after construction came to a halt in the wake of stringent building norms introduced through GO 86.
"The growth rate from April to December this year is 13 per cent while it was 38 per cent in the previous year," said a senior official of the Stamps and Registration Department. Real estate transactions almost came to halt this year in areas such as Maheshwaram, Shamshabad, Nizampet and Ibrahimpatnam, which saw tremendous growth in 2006.
Interestingly, the revenue increased from Rs 752 crore (between April-December 2006) to Rs 762 crore for the corresponding period this year in Ranga Reddy because of revision of market values of lands. "But the number of transactions declined from 1.72 lakh to 1.03 lakh in Ranga Reddy and 33,000 to 28,000 in Hyderabad," said the official.
In Hyderabad, the revenue also dipped from Rs 312 crore to Rs 299 crore. Top builders admitted that the situation had drastically changed when compared to last year. "Though the price did not fall, there is no rush to buy property," said Indu managing director, Mr Shyamprasad Reddy. However, the year also saw the launching of the first ever public private partnership township at Srinagar where owners of plots became equity holders.
Other positive developments in the real estate front were the mega venture of Lanco Hills at Manikonda and payment of Rs 444 crore by American real estate giant Tishman Speyer for the 500-acre township at Tellapur. Township projects of Indu Aranya, Palm Meadows and Aparna also started off in 2007. The year also witnessed the implementation of GO 86 which stipulated mortgage of a portion of the constructed area to the civic authorities. Builders would have to forfeit the area if they violate building norms.
"We made it compulsory for builders to register themselves with civic authorities," said Greater Hyderabad Municipal Commissioner, Mr C.V.S.K. Sarma. "We also introduced tatkal scheme for independent buildings whose permissions will be sanctioned in 48 hours."

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