Announcement on airports welcomed

The Tamil Nadu State Council of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) has welcomed the announcements made by Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi regarding airport expansion and greenfield airport near here. In a statement here on Tuesday, CII chairman Gopal Srinivasan, said: "CII welcomes and fully supports this bold twin track move by the Chief Minister that will secure a quick medium term win, while creating a bold option for the next decade in the new airport location. This is exactly in line with the CII recommendation.'' he said.

Pay urban land taxes : Chennai Collector

The Chennai Collector has urged owners of landed property measuring less than two grounds to pay their urban land taxes. Owners of private land and lands leased out by the Government should pay quit rent, ground rent or lease rent at the respective tahsildars' offices soon. `Will be seized' The land would be seized if the levies were not paid, a release from the Chennai Collectorate said.

How do the chennai residents spend their weekends?

Thanks to a skewed development of leisure and entertainment avenues — such as malls and multiplexes — the residents, particularly the youth, across the city seem to have different answers to the question. While those in south and central parts of Chennai seem to head almost automatically to the nearest multiplex, mall or the much-favoured ECR, those in other parts of the city are not as lucky. S.Raja, a software engineer from Kolathur, laments: "There is nothing spontaneous about weekends in North Chennai. There are no malls or multiplexes here and getting to the popular multiplexes involves too much planning. ECR is altogether ruled out." He points out that there are affluent people in North Chennai who would not mind spending that extra buck for leisure over the weekend. So what makes North Chennai or some of the other city suburbs unviable locations for multiplexes? A spokesperson of Pyramid Saimira Theatre Limited said in terms of potential customers (`foot falls'), theatres in North Chennai had as much potential as other parts of the city. The company is doing a market survey there and is keen on acquiring properties. Residents of some of the southern suburbs of Chennai too have limited options. The most common destinations are the Marina and Elliots Beach and to reach these places, residents have to spend a considerable amount of time and money. The Arignar Anna Zoological Park in Vandalur is a favoured location. Visitors have a lot of walking to do in the zoo, located on 1,300 acres of Reserve Forest. Other options for the residents are beaches in Neelankarai and other villages off East Coast Road, but they are not fully developed, in terms of facilities and transport. Further, they are not entirely safe for families, considering the number of crime cases reported from that stretch. There are some amusement parks, but families have to pay a lot. There are not many air-conditioned theatres and the few that exist, are known to fleece moviegoers.

J P Morgan to invest Rs. 400 Crores in Chennai

J P Morgan Property Fund, which has mobilised over $300 million to focus on the Indian real estate, is going to set up a residential project in Chennai at an estimated cost of Rs 400 crore. Chennai-based realty developer Arihant Foundations and Housing will develop the residential property, spread over 45 acres of land, in a joint venture with J P Morgan. The company's Board of Directors on Wednesday authorised its entry into the joint venture (JV). The JV would have 50:50 equity participation from both the partners, Arihant Foundations informed the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The India property fund targets key economic centres in the country including Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and New Delhi, among others, to develop projects along with local partners. Last year, J P Morgan Asset Management had announced the mobilisation of around $360 million from institutional and high net-worth investors (HNIs) from the US, Asia, Europe and the Middle East to invest in the booming Indian real estate space.

Office space rentals likely to go down

Commercial real estate market, which has been witnessing a bull run over last couple of years, will soon face a bearish phase. Oversupply of office space in most of the grade A cities in last six to 12 months, may result in a fall in rental and capital values. According to a report by global real estate consultancy firm DTZ, ctites like Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, and Hyderabad, except Mumbai will have oversupply of 20% to 200% of estimated demand in 2007. Mumbai will continue to have supply shortage. According to Ankur Srivastava, MD, DTZ India, “The city-level demand-supply analysis in conjunction with the economic fundamentals shows office space rentals are likely to hit a plateau in next six to 12 months.” He said barring a few exceptions, primarily the central business districts (CBDs), the oversupply situation will lead to a correction in office rental values. Lack of fresh supply in the CBD because of non-availability of land will not create oversupply scenario. He added that correction in rental values will not be driven by lack of demand but due to oversupply. The leasehold office space markets are currently at an all time high — both in terms of quantum of space leased and rents. Lease rentals in NCR has gone up by over 200% in the last two years. The study finds that rising capital and rental values and easy availability of capital have led to start of large number of projects at major locations. The increased pace of supply of quality commercial real estate is likely to outstrip demand in the short-to-medium term, the report said. However, it is expected that the oversupply position will reduce in long term as demand grows and supply tapers off. So, stakeholders like occupiers, investors, developers and intermediaries will formulate their strategies accordingly. There are various factors that will define the degree and timing of this rental value correction. Srivastava said the threshold for this correction has been brought closer by the two recent interest rate hikes in the first three months of 2007. Degree of Inflation and consequent measures taken by RBI in the money market will play an important role in the real estate sector. RBI tried to stem speculative interest and reduce inflationary pressures in the economy by curtailing availability of capital and increasing the interest rates. Srivastava said these steps will impact new projects.

List of areas for real estate frauds in chennai

The police have drawn up a list of areas in Chennai, from where real estate frauds are reported frequently. The immediate provocation is a steady increase in the number of complaints about land grabbing. Between January and March this year, Commissioner of Police Letika Saran received over 300 petitions from people complaining about real estate frauds, according to the Central Crime Branch police. Most of the complainants alleged that their land had been illegally grabbed and unauthorised persons had even begun construction. In some cases, the petitioners sought police intervention to retrieve their property, which had changed several hands, without their knowledge. A few others approached the court. "Apart from creating awareness among the rightful owners, we have been cautioning prospective buyers to check the title deeds before entering into an agreement. We are also asking banks advancing loans against immovable properties to cross-check," Additional Commissioner of Police S. R. Jangid said. The areas from where the police receive such complaints include Old Mahabalipuram Road, East Coast Road, Velachery, Pallikaranai, Tambaram, Chromepet, Porur, Mogappair and Ambattur, Deputy Commissioner of Police (CCB) G. Dharmaraj said. Some loose ends in the registration process needed to be addressed to avoid such frauds.

Chennai - Beware of Land frauds

Powerful brokers are cheating land owners in Chennai and the police are thought to back the rich and the mighty, reports say. Forty-six year old Devi ended up in a police station after she shouted at construction workers who were illegally taking over her family's lands. The family lands are owned by seven members but documents show it belongs to a private builder. Devi's brothers say they were tricked into a deal by a local real estate builder. The brothers Elumalai and Jayaraman say they have been made to sign on blank pieces of paper. ''IT people abroad are buying the property. Its there on the website of the Adityaram group. But all his dealings are completely fraudulent,'' says Elumalai. An advocate for Adityaram Properties denies, but the police decided to back the powerful builders. Villagers in the area fear the police the most. Jayaraman adds, ''they called us, locked us up and then released us. The DC Adyar said, 'its the rate I fix Rs 25 lakhs in 10 minutes you'll have the cash.'' The police department's 'land grabbing cell' has atleast 1000 cases and they admit there are atleast four or five forged documents for many properties. With a boom in real estate prices there is a huge spurt in the number of cases of land grabbing and land fraud in Chennai.