Central Advisory Council

Recently, the central government of India has made a crucial amendment in the CAC (Central Advisory Council) and according to new amendment real estate agents will be the part of Central Advisory Council, which is involve in helping the government to understand the issues related to the Indian real estate sector.

This new amendment has made the property brokers or real estate agents, a key stakeholder with homebuyers and builders in the real estate industry. However; in a separate development government is pertaining the same bill in the Rajya Sabha Select Committee, with an aim to add the functions of the REAA (Real Estate Regulatory Authority), which will be formed under the new proposed Bill and it will also include the protection of interest of allottees, promoters and agents. It is proposed to form a council under the aegis of the amended in the Real Estate Bill, whereas; the Minister of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation will be act as the ex-official chairman of the same body. The new group will provide active advice to the central government on different facts such as; protection of consumer interest, implementation of the Act,, recommend policy and foster development as well as growth in the real estate sector.

However; officials are expecting that soon new council will come in existence and it will act as the main mover in for starting the debates on critical facts and figures of the Indian real estate industry. According to the statement of the Sanjay Bhargava, Founder of realty advisory company Bombay Homes, “After including the real estate agents, central government will get the better understanding on many of the issues which are related to the satisfaction and transactions in the real estate sector because agents are the persons who directly interact with customers in comparison of real estate builders or any other official authority”. Apart from that real estate agents are happy with new amendment because now onwards they can highlight the key issues on which government can work. However; many different broker bodies are suggesting to set-up the registration format and minimum criteria for property brokers where they need to have minimum educational qualification, if they want to raise their voice and concern for the real estate sector.

However; the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2013 is seeking to establish the RERAs (Real Estate Regulatory Authorities), at the state level so that every state can regulate the development of real estate sector in country. The main aim of RERAs is to make sure that there is consumer protection and standardization in the business practice of real estate sector of the country.

PropTiger.com acquires Makaan.com

PropTiger.com realty portal, which is backed by News Corp through its own Singapore based firm Elara Technologies has recently acquired India’s leading online property listings platform which is Makaan.com. It offers perfect platform to end users and real estate investors for property listing as well as transactions in India.  Now this acquisition will bring the PropTiger.com and Makaan.com on the same online real estate platform to provide end-to-end services to those who are interested in property buying no matter they are property brokers, property agents, end users or investors, real estate developers, banks and even private equity investors.

In less than one month time its second acquisition by PropTiger.com as earlier it has acquired OoBI (Out of Box Interaction), which was Bangalore-based digital interaction design company. According to the Co-founder & CEO of Proptiger.com, Dhruv Agarwala, “In present we are working on business expansion and integration with a sole purpose to bring out synergies immediately, but for next few months we will operate both companies PropTiger.com and Makaan.com separately”.  However, at PropTiger.com our main strength is the end to end services for primary segment whereas; with Makaan.com, now we are able to develop the personal relation with more than 40,000 brokers in more than 50 major cities of country and it also has control over the secondary market in real estate sector.

In November, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which is media baron had acquired about 25 per cent stake in Elara Technologies which is Singapore based company and it is the parent company of PropTiger.com, which is Noida based online real estate marketing platform with the valuation of $ 30 million or Rs 186 crore whereas; it has real valuation at $ 120 million, or Rs 744 crore. In this round of acquisition the existing investors such as; Horizen Ventures, SAIF Partners and Accel Partners had infused more than $ 7 million or Rs 43 crore into the company.

South Mumbai real estate

In last few months it is reported that apartment rentals in South Mumbai, South Delhi have fallen by 20 to 30 per cent. According to property brokers and consultants, the slowdown in the job market and leasing in the commercial office spaces have put the rentals in check.

In present owners are finding it difficult to rent out their apartments or homes to rental seekers unless they are willing to reduce the rent of apartment or home, said by Sunil Kapur, KK Real Estate, a Delhi based real estate developer. According to, Ramesh Nair, CEO and Director at Property Consultancy JLL India, “While analyzing the problem of rise in supply of apartments and homes in many locations, corporate have reduced their rental budget for employees, but most of the landlords still have unrealistic expectations”.

In South Delhi the rentals have dropped by up to 50 per cent in the areas like; Greater Kailash, Vasant Vihar and Shanti Niketan, when it comes to Vasant Vihar, it is down to Rs 2 lakh to 2.5 lakh a month from Rs 3-5 lakh a year ago, following the same pattern rentals in Shanti Niketan have dropped from 5 to 6 lakh to 3 to 3.5 lakh in a year. While in South Mumbai the situation is same, because expats have started to move towards Bandra. According to, Akhil Kapur, AJ Housing-a Mumbai based broker, “In few parts of South Mumbai you can even get two-year-old rentals today, the supply of rentals is very high but the demand still slack”. As per borkers and real estate experts, rentals in posh buildings in south Mumbai are down by 10 to 30 per cent and these areas are; Imperial Heights, Beau-Monde and NCPA, Raheja Atlantis, Samudra Mahal, etc.

In present most of the owners are offering to let existing tenants continue without asking for an increase even after the end of tenure period because they know the market conditions. In Gurgoan, where several companies are setting up shop, rentals have fallen significantly, where as the prime projects on Golf Course Road, Belaire, Palm Springs, Exotica, Pinnacle and many other rentals have fall be 30 per cent in the past one year.