Ghodbunder a realty zone

Ghodbunder road is the most lucrative and well-established zone in Thane. It has maximum office supply absorption and maximum potential for capital appreciation and growth for investors with a 5-7 years investment horizon.

Today, this prime residential and commercial area is offering the likes of Mulund, Ghatkopar and even Andheri stiff competition for attracting office space investments. The stabilized residential and commercial environment in the area has instilled the confidence that is needed to revive Thane’s real estate fortunes. With the real estate picking up pace in Thane, Ghodbunder road are has emerged as destinations for IT and ITES players. Ghodbunder’s superior infrastructure, affordability and cosmopolitan ethos could have helped it score over many other areas which lack these attributes. However, the builders feel that the city is still caught in a slump caused by the slow official machinery. The bureaucratic machinery is still trying to sort out various issues, and proactive decision-making is visibly lacking.

Given the prolonged uncertainty over the last few years, it is hoped that with the installation of a new state government the official machinery would move faster and would usher a stable policy regime. It is evident that the kind of clarity that is needed to fully revive sentiments is still to come. However, it is not practical to expect overnight results -the revision of administrative machinery takes time. It makes no sense to harbour unrealistic expectations and come to any premature conclusions at this point.

On the plus side, the there are some serious officials who are very conversant and involved with the ground realities. Even the MMRDA and TMC are determined to make Ghodbunder road a crown jewel for Thane in terms of new initiatives and developments. This involves building confidence, providing stability – and, obviously, attracting investments. If this determination is followed through upon, it is not unlikely that Ghodbunder will once again offer direct competition to other key IT destinations in early 2015. The Thane Municipal Corporation’s budget is expected to provide more clarity on new initiatives and the status of many infrastructure related developments. Corporates currently invested in the real estate in the area are looking forward to this clarity, which will help them take decisions on their expansion plans and investments into the city over the coming months.

Property prices to be stable in Mumbai

Stable price scenario can be expected for property prices in Mumbai in the foreseeable future due to the high price points. However, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, and Kolkata may see marginal appreciation due to increased demand.

In second quarter the union government had announced friendly measures in the 2014-15 budget for real estate sector. With the general improvement in overall sentiment and optimistic announcements for real estate BSE Sensex and the realty index showed upward trends.

What is termed as a positive move, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed banks to issue long-term bonds with a minimum maturity of seven years to raise funds for lending to long term infrastructure and affordable housing projects. Home loans up to INR50 lakhs (INR5 million) for houses costing up to INR65 lakhs (INR6.5 million) located in the six metropolitan centres and INR40 lakhs (INR4 million) for houses costing INR50 lakhs (INR5 million) in other cities are eligible for home loan under this scheme.

A rise in transaction volumes was witnessed in cities such as Bangalore, Chennai and Pune and a number of projects were launched. In cities such NCR, Mumbai and Kolkata, there was an increase in enquiries for residential properties but transaction volumes remained stable and developers continued to promote their unsold stock by offering innovative payment plans. “We anticipate a stable price scenario in cities such as Mumbai and NCR due to the high price points. However, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, and Kolkata may see marginal appreciation due to increased demand. Most of these cities may witness the launch of affordable projects in the coming quarter as a number of developers are planning to launch affordable housing projects in line with the government agenda focusing on this type of housing.

When buying a home in a developed complex, look for garbage disposal systems. If the complex scores high on this count, chances are you are buying into a good property. If not, your investment may well stink!

Flashy façade and state of the art amenities are all okay. However, the true utility of the residential complexes lies in how efficient it is in helping dispose off the garbage. Residential complexes in Mumbai and Thane will now be rated on availability of garbage disposal system integrated into the residential building.

How is garbage collected? How is it disposed? These two questions can reveal a lot about a housing block’s cleanliness record. There are many developers who build modern apartments and showcase garbage disposal systems that are designed for healthier living and a greener planet. However, not all follow through on the promise. Mumbai and Thane have seen several modern developments in plush locations, with chutes for wet garbage and dry garbage to facilitate segregation and easier disposal, where the waste is not segregated despite the provision. Worse, in some societies, while residents segregate, the maintenance staff mixes all the waste.

Provisions by builders don’t alone make for waste conscious living. Even the residents should learn some civic sense. They should learn to segregate the wet garbage from dry one. Segregation ensures that a most of the waste is recycled and doesn’t end up in landfills. Besides, unhealthy chemical reactions due to mixing wastes can be avoided. However, in most residential complexes, nobody takes the effort to educate the maintenance staff about this. What’s also often lacking is the initiative by residents to undertake waste segregation and by the resident welfare bodies to ensure this is done.

If the residents exhibit some civic senses and resolve to segregate waste into dry, organic and sanitary waste, much can be attained. Just issue different coloured bins to each household to do this. Any non-compliance should be dealt with through the imposition of a stiff daily penalty. And this will work, say experts.

What’s more interesting is that the disposal of waste is earning the society a hefty sum, much of which is used as to incentivize the garbage collection team, which now realises that there is a direct benefit for ensuring compliance. The conscious effort to implement and efficiently manage the garbage disposal system has improved cleanliness within the residential complex. The staff responsible for garbage disposal ensures that no scraps fall out or get left behind. The efficiency gets reflected in most other areas of maintenance as well. And that’s a big pointer for any home buyer. And this is a tip for building associations.

On its 75th Independence Day every Indian should have a house for their family by 2022 – A dream of Modi government for its countrymen. But how feasible it is for this new government  to meets its ambitious housing target? That time will only tell. To accomplish this dream government had already set initiatives of 20 millions and 45 millions houses for  urban and rural India respectively  in place even before it took charge.

As per the housing experts,  it is indeed  possible to make “Mission Housing” a reality but the Government needs to do proper planning such as setting the housing policy framework in a correct manner for active participation from private, public, community and individual sectors, removing all the road hurdles in between, providing fiscal incentives and support mechanisms. State government should also equally take interest and be on the same page as central government.

Not only that, we also need good access to all the resources required for turning this mission into reality such as – building materials, land and technologies at reasonable costs, user friendly finance and supportive infrastructure. That will ensures hassle free resources, well planned time framework and brings everybody From consumers, to builder, to urban development agencies and the Central and State policy makers and infrastructure supporting agencies to work together as partners for achieving a common goal.

You must be thinking why is housing a right place to start the economic reconstruction? Well, the answer lies here –

• It is being estimated that with this Housing and Infrastructure planning at all-India level (urban and rural), GDP contribution  will jump up straight from 7 to 12 per cent.

• Several manufacturing and production units including more than 250 industries will start functioning and hence, will start contributing to employment generation for millions of people.

Let take a look at highlights of the action plan by the government in order to fulfil the dream of “Housing for All”:

• Resource inputs: Land as a resource, especially in urban areas for social, efficient and optimum use of land. To cope with the doubling of the urban population the urban land footprint also needs to grow from the current 4 per cent to 7-8 per cent and use land in an efficient and optimum manner by creating land assembly with infrastructure.

• Fast track approvals: Building rules and regulation for governing housing and bring it to the level of  the NBC with incremental housing.

• To create affordable housing,  building construction cost should be brought down which is otherwise growing at the rate of 50 percent more than  the inflation.

• Affordable housing finance.

• Improvement in Basic Infrastructure e.g. water supply, 100 per cent sanitation with proper disposal system, potable water for all, energy and connectivity of roads.

• Improvement in social infrastructure such as health, education, recreation and culture.

• Building materials and technologies.

One of the most important financial decisions you will take in your life is purchasing a house and paying stamp duty is very common practice in purchase dealings. A buyer is responsible for the stamp duty. Always make sure that, in any case, stamp duty should not be bought in the name of a party/person not involved in the document.

What is stamp duty?

Similar to income tax, stamp duty is also a type of tax or duty collected by government for all the transactions made within the state by way of documents. Such documents include all Agreements, Bonds, Powers of Attorney and others. Stamp duty is payable under Section 3 of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899. It has to be paid in complete amount and timely manner. In case of a delay a penalty is charged. Stamp duty is considered as one of the key sources of revenue for every state. After sales tax, stamp duty is the second largest source of revenue For the Maharashtra.

When is the stamp duty payable?

Stamp duty is payable in three situations:

• Before execution of the document

• On the day of execution of document

• On the next working day of executing such a document

Document execution means putting signature on the instrument by the person’s party to the document. Here instrument implies any document by which any right is created, transferred, limited, extended, extinguished or recorded.

Stamp of legality

A proper stamp duty payment done on a document makes it legal. Such document achieves evidentiary value and can be presented as evidence in a court of law if needed. Unstamped or not properly stamped documents cannot be considered as evidence. Generally, it is necessary to stamp all document executed in the state before signing of the document. To pay a stamp duty, one needs to buy a stamp paper, adhesive stamps and finish with rubber-stamping.

Who is liable to pay stamp duty?

Generally, a buyer is responsible for paying the stamp duty in purchase transactions. In the absence of any agreement to the contrary, the purchaser is responsible to pay stamp duty or in case of property exchange, both parties are required to abide stamp duty equally.

Validity of stamp duty

In the state of Maharashtra, from the date of purchase, stamp duty purchase is legal for the period of six month. So it is necessary to execute the document within a period of six month of any stamp duty purchase. This validity period may differ from state to state.