News tracker: May 12, 2024

DMart buys land in Mumbai’s Chandivali for ₹ 117 cr

• Avenue Supermarts that owns and operates the DMart supermarket has purchased a 1.2-acre plot in Chandivali suburb for over ₹ 117 crore
• The industrial building on the plot measuring 52,765 sq ft currently includes 4 units on the ground floor & 4 units located on the 1^st floor
• DMart launched its first store in 2002 in Powai, and now operates 365 supermarkets across multiple states in India.

Blackstone in talks to acquire Adani Realty’s BKC office tower for ₹ 2,000 cr

• Blackstone Group set to buy Adani Realty’s commercial real estate project Inspire BKC, situated on the edge of Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC)
• At a purchase price of ₹2,000 crore for the office tower with 800,000 sq ft space, the implied value comes to ₹25000/sq ft
• Current key tenants include Novartis, Reliance Nippon Life Insurance, Ascendas-Firstspace Development Management & MUFG Bank

Oberoi Realty to jointly develop 12,790 sq meters land in Mumbai

• The said land situated at Adarsh Nagar, Worli, Mumbai is leased to Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) and currently,
• There are 7 buildings with a total of 504 flats.
• To generate a free sale component of around 6.24 lakh sqft from the project
• Oberoi’s  sales booking declined 53 percent to ₹ 4,007 cr in 2023-24

Ghost shopping malls space up 58% in 2023 across eight cities

• Ghost malls are defined as malls having a vacancy of more than 40%
• Ghost shopping malls in top 8 metros now account for 13.3 million sqft of retail space remaining vacant
• The number of these ghost malls has increased to 64 in 2023 from 57 in 2022
• NCR accounted for the highest ghost shopping centre stock measuring at 5.3 mn sqft followed by Mumbai at 2.1 mn sqft

DLF sells all 795 flats for ₹ 5.6K cr in Gurugram within 3 days of launch

• The new project called “DLF Privana West” is spread over 12.6-acre comprising 795 apartments.
• The average selling price was around ₹ 7 cr per apartment.
• In Jan 24, DLF had sold 1,113 luxury apartments in Gurugram for ₹ 7,200 cr within 3 days of the launch of its project ‘DLF Privana South’
• Both ‘DLF Privana West’ and ‘DLF Privana South’ are part of its 116-acre township ‘DLF Privana’ located in Sector 76 and 77 at Gurugram in Haryana.

Global City project in Gurugram gets environment clearance from MoEF

• Spread over 1000 acres, Global City is coming up in Gurugram sectors 36B, 37A and 37B near the recently opened Dwarka Expressway.
• Project will have will have residential zones, industrial clusters, commercial zones.
• Project is being executed by the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation [HSIIDC]
• Project was conceived in 2019 & the tender for the first phase was awarded in Sep 2023

Jaiprakash Associates defaults on ₹ 4,616 crore loans

• Company defaulted on repayments of a principal amount of ₹ 1,751 crore & interest of ₹ 2,865 crore.
• The loans taken from various banks, were for in the nature of working capital, term loans and FCCBs
• Out of the total borrowing of ₹ 29,805 crore, the company said ₹ 18,955 crore will be transferred to a proposed Special Purpose Vehicle
• ICICI Bank & SBI had approached the NCLT against the company

Embassy REIT to invest ₹ 3,800 cr in four years

• Plan to construct 6.1 mn sq ft of premium office space in Bengaluru to cater to rising demand from global capability centres (GCCs) and also domestic players.
• It has signed an agreement to purchase Embassy Splendid TechZone (ESTZ), a Grade-A business park, from sponsor Embassy Group for ₹ 1,269 cr
• Embassy REIT, India’s first publicly listed REIT, owns 36.5 mn sq ft of office space in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, and Delhi-NCR.

Incuspaze leases 3.5 lakh sq ft office space in Gurugram

• Flexible space provider Incuspaze has leased the space in Udyog Vihar in one of the largest transactions of 2024
• Recently, also leased 150,000 sq ft space in Pune and 60,000 sq ft space in Jaipur
• Looking to add 1.5 mn sq ft this year owing to increasing demand
• The workspace provider is present in 44 locations across 18 cities with a total portfolio of 2.5 mn sq ft

Godrej Properties Q4FY24 results: Profit rises 14%

• Godrej Properties reported its highest-ever quarterly profit as earnings jumped 14% annually to ₹ 471.26 cs in the March quarter
• During the 2023-24, net profit increased to ₹ 726 crs from ₹ 571 crs in the preceding year.
• Expects sales bookings to rise to over ₹ 27,000 crore In 2024-25, through the launch of a large number of exciting new projects combined with strong sustenance sales.

Office rents surge up to 8% in March quarter, Delhi-NCR leads the pack

• India’s top office markets experienced up to an 8 % year-on-year rise in rentals in January-March period, with Delhi-NCR leading the pack
• Weighted average quoted rents in Delhi-NCR in rose to ₹ 101 per sq ft a month in Jan-Mar 2024, up from ₹ 93.3 in the year-ago period
• Delhi saw a 6.6% YoY rise, followed by Chennai. Pune surged 4.2%, while Mumbai and Bengaluru each saw a 4% increase. Hyderabad had the lowest growth at 2.2%.

Microsoft buys land in Hyderabad for ₹ 267 cr

• Microsoft has made a significant investment in India’s digital infrastructure by acquiring land in Hyderabad for the construction of a data centre.
• The acquisition for the land parcel, located in Elikatta Village, in Hyderabad at ₹ 267 crore brings the per acre price to around ₹5.56 crore
• In 2022, Microsoft had acquired three land parcels in Hyderabad for around ₹275 cr to establish a data center.

Bengaluru: Mantri Square mall sealed over ₹ 50 crore tax dues

• This popular Mantri Square mall in Malleswaram sealed by revenue officials
• The mall was earlier shut in March & December 2023 but the operations began again after Mantri Mall managed to get a stay order from the court
• More than 200 outlets are inside the Mantri mall, which has direct access to Namma Metro. The mall is one of the oldest shopping establishments in the city.

Commercial property prices in Germany drop by 9.6% in Q1 2024

• The decline in values of commercial real estate follows a 10.2% drop for all of 2023.
• The latest drop is less severe than the 12.1% drop for Oct-Dec 23, which was the biggest ever.
• Rising interest rates and building costs in Europe, especially Germany, led to developer insolvencies as financing dried up and deals stalled.
• Germany is so far Europe’s hardest hit in a rout that has also struck China and the United States

Dubai’s real estate continues to thrive with 24.7 % growth in residential segment

• In the residential segment, values witnessed a 6.4% increase on a quarterly basis & 24.7 % annually
• This growth was primarily driven by a 5.7 % quarterly and 20.1 % annual surge in apartment valuations
• Villas remained resilient marking a 29.6 % annual increase and achieving the highest values in ten years for prime villas.
• The office sector witnessed remarkable growth, with office unit valuations surging by 29.9 percent annually