News tracker: May 05, 2024

Mumbai real estate market records 11% rise in property registrations this month

• Property registrations in Mumbai rise 11% 11,648 in April 2024, up from 10,514 a year earlier.
• Stamp duty collections went up by 16% to ₹ 1,043 cr in April 2024 from ₹ 900 cr last year
• Mumbai real estate market experienced the second-highest number of property registrations for the month of April in over 12 years
• Out of the total properties registered, central and western suburbs together constituted over 73%of the property registrations

Prestige Group sells ₹1300 crore worth of uber luxury residences in South Mumbai

• Situated at Marine lines, Prestige Ocean Towers has just 169 residences spread over 2-acres
• The project has a developable potential of 4.62 lakh sq ft carpet area with an estimated revenue potential of ₹4,100 cr
• Prestige Group pre-launched 75 residences with a potential of Rs 1,700 cr & has sold more than 70 % of the pre-launched residences
• Prestige Group entered Mumbai just 2 years back & has already sold close to ₹6,000 cr worth of inventory

Six Adani group companies receive show-cause notices from Sebi

• The SEBI notices are part of an investigation that followed allegations by short seller Hindenburg Research in January 2023
• The research had alleged corporate fraud and stock price manipulation against Adani Group
• Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone, Adani Power, Adani Energy Solutions, Adani Wilmar and Adani Total Gas have received show-cause notices
• Allegations include failure to obtain approvals, disclose financial information, recall security deposits, and misuse funds.

Kalpataru to redevelop four acre housing society in Mumbai

• Acquired rights to redevelop a large society spread over 4 acres in Lokhandwala, Andheri
• Project has a total estimated development of 8,00,000 sq. ft. of which 5,00,000 sq. ft. is saleable area, with a revenue potential of over ₹ 2,100 cr.
• The layout currently has a total of 12 residential buildings which has 290 apartments spread over 1.90 lakh sq. ft. 
• Project expected to be completed in four years.

Birla Estates announces sales of ₹ 2,500 cr for Silas at Birla Niyaara

• Silas at Birla Niyaara features 148 palatial residences with configuration of 4BHK-5BHK
• Birla Niyaara’s cumulative sales now exceed ₹ 5,400 cr
• The company had in second half of FY24 announced that it has a project pipeline worth ₹ 45,000 cr in gross development value (GDV).
• Company is looking to add another ₹ 10,000 cr this year & another ₹ 20,000 cr next year

Indiabulls Real Estate’s subsidiary acquires Sky Forest Projects for ₹ 647 cr

• Indiabulls Real Estate acquired 100% stake in Sky Forest Projects from Blackstone at an enterprise value of ₹647 crs.
• The company’s subsidiary owns Sky Forest, a residential project located in Lower Parel, Mumbai
• The company reported consolidated net loss at ₹1,039 crs for FY24 as as against net loss of ₹608 crs in FY23

MMT founder Kalra, Den Network’s Manchanda, entrepreneur Gurnani buy apartments in The Camellias in Gurugram

• These apartments ranging in area from 7,430 sqft to 10,813 sq. ft were booked and purchased between 2017 and 2023 but their conveyance deeds were executed in March 2024.
• Kalra and his wife Amrita Kalra booked a 7,430 sq. ft luxury apartment in The Camellias ₹46 crs in June  2023
• The flat with four car parking slots was bought for
• Manchanda and his wife Kavita purchased a 10,813 sq. ft apartment at The Camellias from DLF for ₹38 crs in December 2019

American Express opens its largest office worldwide in India

• American Express has announced the inauguration of its expansive, 1 mn sq ft campus in Gurugram, Haryana
• Located in sector 74A Gurugram, the employees will begin moving to the new facility starting from the end of this month
• The company has additional facilities in Gurugram as well as in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Pune

MAX ESTATES ANNOUNCED STRATEGIC JOINT DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT IN GURUGRAM

• Max Estates, the real estate arm of the Max Group, has signed agreements for a potential residential development spanning 18.23 acres in Gurugram,
• Expected Gross development value of ₹ 9,000 crs, covering ~4 mn sqft of development area.
• This land parcel is contiguous to its existing 11.80 acres of land on Dwarka Expressway in sector 36 A, Gurugram on which Max Estates had done a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) last year. 
• Company is on track to launch Delhi NCRs first Intergenerational residential community in Q3 of CY 2024 with GDV Potential now re-rated to INR 4,000 Cr.

Noida struggles to recover ₹8,300 cr dues from commercial real estate project developers

• These 10 big financial defaulter realtors got the land to build commercial buildings or mixed-land use buildings having residential and commercial space on an instalment basis and later defaulted on payments
• The biggest defaulter is a mega commercial project located in Sector 94 with dues of over ₹2,100 cr.
• The second biggest defaulter is another commercial project in Sector 124 with dues of ₹2,000 cr.

Bengaluru tops list of cities with highest rental yield of 4.5% in Q1 2024

• Bengaluru led in Q1 2024 with a rental yield of 4.45%, followed by Mumbai at 4.15% and Gurugram at 4.1%, driven by corporate employees returning to work.
• Mumbai’s rental yield increased from 3.5% in 2019 to 4.15% in Q1 2024, marking a 19% growth. Gurugram followed closely, with rental yield rising from 3.5% in 2019 to 4.1% in the last quarter.
• Bengaluru’s rental yield in pre-Covid 2019 stood at 3.6%, which amounts to a growth of 24% in this period
• Top localities in Bengaluru witnessed a significant rental increase of 40% or more between the end of 2022 and Q1 2024.

MahaRERA tells developers to declare parking space details to homebuyers

• MahaRERA has asked developers to include details of parking spaces allotted or sold to homebuyers in the sale agreement and allotment letter to prevent any ambiguity & future disputes.
• The regulator responded to multiple complaints from homebuyers, addressing issues like obstructed parking due to building beams, inability to park in allotted slots, difficulty in opening vehicle doors, and insufficient maneuvering space.
• model draft clause to be included in the legal documents by the developer which will contain all details such as parking lot number, length, height and width of the parking space, and the location of parking slot offered to the homebuyer.

SM REIT Rules may create around ₹ 70,000 cr opportunity for small offices

• Rating agency ICRA has estimated that around 53 Mn sqft of office spaces are eligible for small and medium REITs (SM-REIT) listing, creating a monetisation opportunity of ₹ 67,000-71,000 cr.
• The minimum price of each unit of the scheme of SM-REIT shall be ₹ 10 lakh at the moment.
• The size of the asset proposed to be acquired in a scheme of the SM-REIT is at least ₹ 50 cr and less than ₹ 500 cr.
• As of December 2023, ICRA said the total Grade A office supply stood at 980 Mn sqft and Grade B office at 115 Mn sqft across the top seven cities.

Embassy Group’s FY24 sales bookings increase by 85.5% to record ₹2,250 cr

• Best ever performance in FY2023–24 for its Bengaluru residential business
• Embassy sold 21.18 lakh sq. ft., achieving a year-on-year growth of 103%
• Pipeline of ₹. 8000 cr GDV or 7 mn sq. ft. of residential launches in FY25
• Group has delivered over 70 mn sq ft of commercial, residential, industrial and warehousing, hospitality, services, retail, and education spaces

New York Life Insurance Company invests ₹388 cr into Max Estates

• New York Life will acquire 49% stakes in two SPVs of Max Estates that hold Max Towers and Max House (Phase I and II)
• Both are rent yielding operational commercial real estate projects located in Noida and Delhi, respectively
• Max Estates will use a bulk of these funds to finance its expansion into the high-growth residential market and to capitalize on market opportunities.

WeWork reaches settlement with creditors, rebuffs Neumann bid

• WeWork has struck an agreement with senior lenders, who have agreed to provide $450 mn in Chapter 11
• Rejected a competing financing proposal from co-founder Adam Neumann who had offered to buyback the company for $500 mn
• WeWork used its bankruptcy to negotiate a significant reduction in future rent costs from its landlords, ultimately reaching deals to save $8 bn
• The company estimates that its post-bankruptcy equity is worth about $750 mn.