Pakistan Property & Real Estate News

TOTAL launches its 3rd store in Bangalore at Sarjapur Road

Bangalore: TOTAL hypermarket & mall, a retail venture of the Jubilant Group, today announced the launch of its 3rd TOTAL store in Bangalore at Sarjapur Road, next to the Springfields apartment. TOTAL has been expanding at a rapid pace and this is the third store to be launched in Bangalore within a time span of 15 months. The earlier two TOTAL stores are operational at Mysore Road and Madiwala.

TOTAL Sarjapur Road sprawls across 2, 40,000 sq ft of space. An investment of Rs. 2500 per square feet has gone into the property. It provides for a 500-car parking facility. Each floor is connected with travelators that make access easy for both young and old.

The first and second floors offer a hypermarket that carries more than 80,000 different products from more than 1,500 different brands, under different categories of products such as apparel, consumer durables & IT products, furniture & home furnishings, fresh fruits & vegetables, fish & meat & poultry, Garma Garam – serving fresh Indian food and Baker's Factory – TOTAL’s popular in-house bakery.For quick and easy shopping the hypermarket has 30 billing counters.

The ground floor is occupied by a plethora of brands under food, fashion, technology & healthcare segments, such as Cafe Coffee Day, Planet Fashion, Wills Lifestyle, John Players, Woodlands, Reebok, Adidas, Proline, Home & Apparels, Books & Beyond, Hotspot, Reid & Taylor, PDA Cafe, Wizz, Lilliput, & Spykar. Also slated to open in few days are Manipal Cure & Care, Manipal Pharmacy, Leena Mogre's Fitness Centre and many more brand outlets.

Announcing the opening of the new hypermarket and mall, Mr. Dinesh Malpani, CEO – Jubilant Retail, stated, “We are glad to announce the launch of our third store in the city, in line with our long term plan of being a leading retailer in the region. TOTAL has become a store of choice of discerning customers in Bangalore. He added that, “TOTAL offers the best variety and value across product segments & services. You name it, we have it and we are looking forward to customers coming in and garnering a feeling of a day’s outing along with shopping“.

About TOTAL

TOTAL hypermarket & mall is the retail venture of the Jubilant Group. Launched in November 2006, TOTAL has three stores in Bangalore, at Madiwala, Mysore Road and now at Sarjapur Road. The hypermarket offers the best variety and value on products such as Apparel & footwear, Consumer electronics & IT products, Fresh Fruits & Vegetables, Fresh Fish, Meat & Poultry, Staples & Groceries, Baker’s Factory - Fresh Bakery, Garma Garam - Fresh Home Made Food , FMCG - Processed Foods & Non Foods, Furniture, Home furnishings etc. Each TOTAL store has a brand mall which offers shoppers a wide variety of brands to choose from.

CDA beautifying its home forgetting problems of Islamabadites

ISLAMABAD: Keeping aloof from problems confronting the Islamabadites, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) continues to spend hefty amounts for renovation of its offices.

With residents coming across variety of problems like poor air quality, industrial emissions, proper waste disposal, traffic snarls, parking problems and encroachments, the Authority would be spending Rs. 165 million on renovation of its offices.

Residents of the federal capital have expressed concern on this approach of the Authority, saying, though the Authority tried to do its bit, but the problems still persist in certain areas.

The residents cited double standard being observed by the Authority in maintenance of the sectors with low-cost areas and industrial areas of I-9 and I-10 given least preference as compared to posh sectors.

According to official statistics, there is shortage of about 45,000 housing units in the federal capital, but any concrete steps to overcome the problem, is still a far cry.

Hammad Akhtar, a retired government officer said there are thousands of low grade employees who are still yearning to have their residences in the federal capital since years and the Authority failed to fulfill its words of providing shelter to the low salaried class.

Zameer Abbasi, a real estate agent in sector G-9 said the Authority could not develop any residential sector for last several years and the people are forced to bear sky rocketing housing rentals in the twin cities.

He said the development of residential sectors including I-15, I-14, I-16, D-12 and E-12 is on hold for last several years with still no signs of starting development activities in the near future.

A CDA official, who did not want to be named, said what to talk of new residential units, the civic body even does not pay due attention to the maintenance of the existing housing units in sectors G-7 and G-9, abode to thousands of government officials.

Recently a CDA-hired contractor M/s Pelican Engineering completed the renovation of first block of the secretariat that incurred Rs 37.7 million.

The features of the renovation project are; arrangements for proper record keeping, record security, renovation of floors, ceilings, walls, elevation of parking and creation of reception area.

When contacted, the CDA Spokesperson said, modernization and reorganization of CDA is aimed at delivering services effectively and efficiently to the citizens of the Capital.

“It would also improve the physical environment of all CDA employees, irrespective of their grades,” the Spokesperson said.

With the rising population and traffic mess in the Capital, the Authority have to tighten its belts for a bumpy ride ahead as multiple issues are going to confront the Capital residents. Meanwhile the commuters demanded of the Authority carrying out patch-work on Islamabad Highway from Karal Chowk upto Faizabad Interchange which is breaking up rapidly due to ever increasing load and non maintenance.

Strong 2008 tipped for most markets

The institute’s 2008 Real Estate Market Outlook says 2007 was a vintage year for homeowners, with prices climbing in most parts of Australia. Investors also benefited from improving yields thanks to tight rental markets, the report notes.

On the other hand, would-be homebuyers and those who have overcapitalised found 2007 a difficult year given access and affordability issues and rising interest rates.

The report from the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) suggests a mixed outlook for 2008.

"In 2008, the main challenges facing the residential real estate market will be low home loan affordability, the possibility of more interest rate rises, the ongoing fallout from the US subprime problems and an extremely tight rental market driving rents up," the report says.

"Balancing this are positive signals for the market, including the resources boom continuing to drive prosperity in some states and solid consumer and business confidence.

"These factors will also contribute to ongoing strong demand and increasing returns for investors in the office and retail property markets."

The weighted average median ‘other dwelling’ price was $350,059, up 8.9 per cent on a year before.

"The REIA expects price rises to continue in 2008 in all states except New South Wales, where the market is more subdued, and WA, where prices are settling after a period of large increases,” the report says.

"Well-located property close to employment opportunities and infrastructure will continue to perform well."

The report says the factors driving prices higher include:

* population growth; * demand for newer and more environmentally sustainable housing in areas close to employment and essential services * a shortfall in the supply of new dwellings; and * the transfer of infrastructure costs into the prices of new homes, therefore also pushing up prices of established homes.

Investors confident of price climbs

Seventy per cent of property investors believe prices will increase in their market during 2008, a survey has found.

The result represents a big leap in confidence compared to the past three results from mortgage broker Smartline’s annual survey of homeowners and investors.

The latest survey found 70 per cent of investors were largely confident residential prices would increase in their state over the next 12 months, while 26 per cent expected prices to remain steady and 5 per cent anticipated a decline.

In the previous three surveys, the proportion of investors expecting an increase in prices was 46 per cent, 18 per cent and 17 per cent.

Smartline managing director Chris Acret says that although investors are confident of price rises, only 34 per cent planned to buy a residential investment property in the next 12 months.

"While investors are upbeat about the residential property market, there is still an undercurrent of caution brought about by the series of interest rate increases in 2007, as well as the change in federal leadership," Acret says.

"It will be interesting to see if investors’ faith in property prices overrides their sense of caution and translates to increased market activity in 2008."

Although 90 per cent of respondents said they expected another interest rates rise in 2008, just 4 per cent said increases during 2007 had heavily affected them.

Real estate investment trust rules notified

ISLAMABAD, Feb 1: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) on Friday notified the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) Regulations 2008.

The REIT rules will provide an opportunity to the general public to pool funds for investment in the real estate sector.

The REIT regulations in Pakistan are introduced in a trust structure where the property itself will be vested in the name of the trustee and the REIT Management Company (RMC) will manage the real estate on behalf of the unit holders.

The RMC will have a minimum of 20 per cent stake in the scheme and will receive a management fee for managing the real estate.

People will be allowed to invest through units of the REIT scheme, which will be listed on stock exchanges.

According to the REIT regulations, two types of REIT schemes are envisaged in Pakistan — developmental and rental. One scheme is allowed to carryout only one project at a time.

In a developmental scheme, RMC will construct a project and sell the property afterwards and the sales proceeds will be distributed among the unit holders.

In the rental REIT, RMC will buy a portfolio of properties and rent it out. The unit holders will receive returns through annual dividends out of the rental income.

REITs have been provided with a tax exemption, if 90 per cent of the income is being distributed among the unit holders.

The REIT will initially be allowed in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta.

According to the regulations, REIT funds should have a minimum size of Rs5 billion.

Started in 1960’s in the United States, REIT schemes are now available in 15 countries worldwide. Pakistan is the first country in the emerging markets to introduce REIT, said a SECP spokesman.