India-Post-Real-Estate_05-06-2016

May 6, 2016

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India Post 55

Realty Tidbits

Construction permits via online mode NEW DELHI: All construction permits in Delhi and Mumbai will be granted only through online mechanism from October 2, this year, a move aimed at bringing transparency and improving ease of doing business.

However, the present system of both online and manual procedure will continue till then, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu has said.

"From October 2, 2016, all construction permits in Delhi and Mumbai would be only through online mechanism. There will be no man to man contact," Naidu said on the sidelines of an event.

The Urban Development Minister said the government will notify the Real Estate Development and Regulation Bill on May one.

The bill, seeking to regulate the real estate sector, bring transparency and help protect consumer interests, was passed last month in Parliament in the first leg of the Budget session.

After the notification of the bill, Naidu said various stakeholders, including builders, will fall in line and anybody violating the rules would be taken to task.

He said the bill will give more credibility to the functioning of the real estate sector. -PTI

Rhode Island sees record home sales

PROVIDENCE, R.I.: A nonprofit group that tracks the housing market says more single-family homes were sold in Rhode Island during the first quarter of 2016 than during any other first quarter in three decades.

The Rhode Island Association of Realtors announced that more than 1,900 home were sold in that period, topping the record of 1,825 sales set in 2005.

The number is a 15 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

Arthur Yatsko, president of the group, says high rental prices, low interest rates and price appreciation are factors in the increase.

The median price of houses sold in Rhode Island in January, February and March was $225,000.

That number is 12.5 percent higher than during the same period last year. -AP

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May 6, 2016

High-rise plan at Hudson's site in Detroit PITTSBURGH: A federal grand jury in western Pennsylvania has indicted a Louisiana man on charges of defrauding hundreds of real estate agents across the nation out more than $2 million.

The U.S. attorney's office said the Pittsburgh grand jury returned an 11-count mail fraud indictment April 19 against 40-year-old Rex Alan Harris of Covington, Louisiana. The indictment was unsealed after the arrest in Louisiana of Harris, who has several aliases. -AP

Crown Point at Stonebrae Country Club in Hayward is now open India Post News Service

HAYWARD, CA: It's time to discover where resort-inspired living happens every day. With beautiful new models now open, you're welcome to experience Crown Point at Stonebrae Country Club, Brookfield Residential's newest neighborhood in Hayward.

A rare place of beauty and opulence, Crown Point puts you at the center of it all, presenting exceptional living with stunning new residences in a picturesque, country club atmosphere. With breathtaking golf course, Oakland and San Francisco views and an exclusive selection of new singlefamily homes, this is where country club living reaches a new level of luxury. Visit to tour the models and see why there's no better place to call home than Crown Point.

Located on the fourth hole and surrounded by beautiful open space and green hillsides, new homes at Crown Point present a delicate balance of refined elegance and tranquil ambience.

Three two-story floor plans range in size from approximately 3,961 to 4,657 square feet and offer up to six bedrooms and four-andone-half baths, presenting all the room needed to indulge in personal luxury.

Plus, spacious plans feature great rooms for connecting with

family and friends, while equally impressive lofts and downstairs bedrooms make the perfect space for guests to relax in comfort. Pricing at Crown Point starts from the $1.5 million.

Residents will enjoy gourmet kitchens boasting stainless steel Bosch® appliances, elegant quartz countertops and convenient islands. In addition, each

Surrounded by beautiful rolling hillsides and home to prestigious TPC Stonebrae, this exclusive community offers a gated entry, picturesque country club setting, wide open preserved spaces and scenic trails.

And, at TPC Stonebrae, a par72, 7,200-yard championship golf course layout features a new clubhouse, health and wellness cen-

home will include a luxurious master suite, gracious living areas, toptier finishes, premium features and personalization opportunities like optional California rooms and ensuites.

Stonebrae Country Club unveils a lifestyle brimming with the everyday luxuries you desire in an ideal location near the East Bay, the Peninsula and San Francisco.

ter, fine dining at the Dormy House, tennis and bocce courts, full-service golf shop and 25-meter lap pool. Residents can also enjoy concierge services that range from housecleaning services to mobile car detailing.

Crown Point is located at 3 Country Club Drive, Hayward, California 94542. For more information, visit

BrookfieldNorCal.com or call (510) 886-2107.

About Brookfield Residential (Northern California) Brookfield Residential Northern California (San Francisco Bay Area market), a division of Brookfield Residential Properties Inc., is a premier lifestyle provider that strives to create the best places to call home. We are a team of dedicated and knowledgeable professionals who have the passion and experience to craft exceptional new homes, neighborhoods and communities. In the San Francisco Bay Area market, we are respected as an award-winning innovator and are recognized for delivering consistent quality, design details and an outstanding customer experience.

Please visit www.BrookfieldNorCal.com for more information.

Brookfield Residential Properties Inc. is a leading land developer and homebuilder in North America. We entitle and develop land to create master-planned communities, sell lots to thirdparty builders and operate our own home building division. We also participate in select strategic real estate opportunities, including infill projects, mixed-use developments and joint ventures. Further information is available at BrookfieldResidential.com.

SC asks Sahara to give details of properties NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has directed the Sahara group to furnish details of all its properties in a sealed cover to ascertain the fact as to whether they are sufficient for paying back the entire amount to the investors.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur, however, refused to grant parole to Sahara chief Subrata Roy, who is in jail since March 4, 2014, saying that so far its orders have not been complied with "substan-

tially".

"We should know about the

total assets of the Sahara group.

What exactly is the extent of

Sahara chief Subrata Roy

properties, we must know.

Currently, 66 properties of the group are scheduled to go on sale which will generate around Rs 6,000 crore.

"This might be enough for securing Roy's bail but not to refund the entire money to investors. We want the rest of the properties to be brought into focus so you give us a list of properties," the bench, also comprising Justices A R Dave and A K Sikri, said.

Cont’d on page 44

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'No scope for further cut in housing prices' NEW DELHI: Realtors' apex body CREDAI has said there is no scope for further reduction in housing prices as this would lead to rise in NPAs and non-delivery of real estate projects.

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had asked real estate developers

to reduce prices to encourage more people to buy properties.

"About 90 per cent of the real estate stock in the country has already seen a correction of about 20-30 per cent. There is no scope

for further rate cut. Any further cut will lead to NPAs and non-delivery of projects," CREDAI (National) President Getamber Anand told PTI. "His (RBI Governor) statement should not be taken out of context as he has recommended an

adjustment and not necessarily a price cut. The adjustment could be through other ways like easy payment scheme to attract home buyers," he said.

The real estate sector is facing

slowdown in demand leading to mounting unsold stocks and huge delays in project completions.

"I am hopeful that as interest rates come down, there will be more credit and buying. And I am also hopeful that prices adjust in a way that encourage people to buy," Rajan had said while delivering the Y B Chavan Memorial Lecture here.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lowered rates by 1.5 per cent cumulatively since January last year and earlier this month the policy rate was cut by 0.25 per cent to 6.5 per cent - its lowest level in more than five years.

More than half of the rate cuts have been passed on by the banks to consumers.

"My sense is that there is a little bit of everything that needs to happen" for the revival in the real estate sector, Rajan said.

"There is an issue of certainly how they see the housing market and how they see prices.

There has to be an adjustment so that more people want to go and buy," he had said. -PTI

Loopholes found in key housing scheme NEW DELHI: A parliamentary panel has found several loopholes in the implementation of a key housing scheme, Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY), in selection of beneficiaries, quality of work while also expressing its displeasure over "diversion" and "misappropriation" of funds.

In its report submitted to the Lok Sabha, the Public Accounts Committee, in its report on the Ministry of Rural Development, spelt out the need for focus on efficient and effective utilization of budgetary grants, moving away from the existing tilt towards timelyutilization of grants.

There have been "serious shortcomings" in areas such as identification and selection of beneficiaries of the scheme, construction and quality of work, financial management, and monitoring and evaluation among others.

"The committee note several cases of operation of multiple bank accounts, diversion of IAY funds towards other scheme/programs, expenditure on inadmissible items, misappropriation and suspected

cases of misappropriation, unauthorized deduction of funds on account of administrative charges," the reports states.

IAY, launched in 1985, is a flagship scheme of the Ministry of Rural Development designed to provide assistance to BPL families who are either houseless or have inadequate housing facilities.

The report noted as a "serious lapse" the fact that assessment

has not been made about the actual housing shortage in 14 states even after the scheme had been running for almost 30 years. It shows absence of planning and coordination with the states by the Ministry, the report said.

"What is even more disturbing for the Committee to note is that several ineligible beneficiaries were selected to reap the benefit," it said. -PTI

China's HNA to buy Carlson Hotels HONG KONG: A unit of Chinese conglomerate HNA Group has agreed to buy Carlson Hotels, which owns brands including Radisson and Country Inns and Suites, the latest in a flurry of overseas investments by Chinese companies.

HNA Tourism Group will acquire all of Carlson Hotels Inc., the companies said in a joint statement that did not disclose the purchase price.

They said that Carlson's headquarters would remain in Minnetonka, Minn., after the deal is completed.

HNA Tourism Chairman Bai Haibo said buying Carlson Hotels will help the Chinese company ``establish our presence in the U.S. market and expand our footprint in hospitality internationally.''

He added that HNA would ``accelerate growth by investing substantially in the business.''

The purchase is the latest in a string of global transactions by Chinese companies as they diversify abroad to counter slowing growth at home while also scooping up foreign expertise and technology.

Other deals this year include Haier Group's acquisition of General Electric's home appliance business, conglomerate Wanda Group's purchase of Hollywood studio Legendary Entertainment,

and state-owned ChemChina's mammoth $43 billion bid for Swiss pesticide maker Syngenta. It also comes weeks after China's Anbang Insurance Group was thwarted by Marriott International in its attempt to acquire Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.

As part of the deal, the Chinese company will also acquire a 51.3 percent stake in Brussels-based

Rezidor Hotel Group AB, which operates Carlson hotels in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Under Swedish takeover rules, HNA is required to either buy the remaining shares of Rezidor it doesn't own or sell its stake down to 30 percent.

Carlson has 1,400 hotels in 115 countries and territories and employs about 90,000 staff worldwide.

HNA Group, based in southern Hainan province, operates hotels, airlines, airports and financial services and real estate businesses.

The deal is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to be completed in the second half of 2016. -AP

Housing prices up in Oct-Dec quarter MUMBAI: Housing prices in the country rose during the October-December quarter of the 201516 fiscal, the Reserve Bank data shows.

The prices witnessed the highest increase in Lucknow while a decline was noticed in Jaipur during the December quarter of 201516 year-on-year.

Housing Price Index (HPI)-All India (base 2010-11=100) increased to 221.7 in third quarter of the last fiscal from 218.2 in the previous three-month period. "On an annual basis, in Q3:2015-16, Lucknow witnessed the highest increase of 16.1 per cent while HPI declined in Jaipur (Y-o-Y change of -5.2 per cent)," said the quarterly HPI of

the Reserve Bank. Sequentially (third quarter of 2015-16 over second quarter of 2015-16), HPI of Kochi increased by 8 per cent while HPI for Bengaluru declined by 1 per cent.

"The annual increase of HPIAll India moderated since Q1:2015-16. During Q3:2015-16, the rate of increase fell below 10 per cent," the RBI said. The previous low was in Q3:2013-14 when the rate of increase was 10.1 per cent.

The RBI has released the data for all India and 10 major cities Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Kanpur and Kochi for the October-December quarter of 2015-16. -PTI

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May 6, 2016

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Real estate heir's plea deal approved NEW ORLEANS: Robert Durst, the estranged member of a wealthy real estate family and subject of a documentary about the death of his first wife, was sentenced to 7 years and 1 month in prison on a weapons charge that cleared the deck for him to face murder charges in California.

U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt sentenced Durst, 72, in New Orleans, approving a sentence that Durst had accepted in February as part of a plea agreement. Engelhardt also fined Durst $5,000 and said that his sentence, once served, would be followed by three years of supervised release. Durst will serve more than 4 1/2 times the maximum under federal guidelines.

Durst is charged in Los Angeles in the 2000 killing of a female friend, Susan Berman, to keep her from talking to New York prosecutors about the disappearance of his first wife in 1982.

His attorneys have said repeatedly that he is innocent, does not know who killed Berman, and wants to prove it. ``I have been waiting to get to California about a year so I can state my not guilty plea,'' Durst,

looking pale in an orange jail jumpsuit, told Engelhardt. ``I truly, truly want to express my statement that I am not guilty in the death of Susan Berman.''

Ten years and a $250,000 fine

caliber revolver after being convicted of a felony. However, Engelhardt noted, a presentence report recommended 12 to 18 months under federal guidelines.

Engelhardt said the longerthan-standard sentence was reasonable because the plea deal included agreements with U.S. attorneys in Houston and Manhattan and the Orleans Parish district attorney not to prosecute Durst on a variety of offenses. Those could have carried senNew York City real estate heir Robert Durst leaves a tences longer Houston courtroom. New Orleans Federal Judge Kurt Engelhardt on April 27 approved a plea agreement for than 85 Durst to serve 7 years, 1 month in prison on a weapons months, charge. Durst still faces a separate murder charge in Engelhardt California. said. would have been the maximum He will get credit for time sentence that Durst could have served since his arrest in midfaced for illegally carrying a .38- March last year, Assistant U.S.

State reservoirs to remove floating houses JOHNSON CITY, Tenn.: Several local and state officials and houseboat owners are opposed to the Tennessee Valley Authority's move to remove floating houses from its reservoirs in Tennessee and other states after a study showed a large number of the homes have been built and docked over the past 10 years.

Washington County commissioners voted to support a state Senate resolution urging the TVA to reject a provision that would require all houseboats to be removed within the next 20 years, the Johnson City Press reported.

According to the TVA study, the recent growth of unpermitted floating houses has raised concerns about potential environmental and safety impacts.

TVA amended its regulations in 1977 to prohibit non-navigable houseboats except for those existing before 1978. ``The Senate wants all boat houses to be grandfathered in,'' Karen Jenkins, who owns a floating house docked on Boone Lake, told county commissioners.

Since 2000, it appears the agency's policy has been to temporarily allow floating houses in

its reservoirs, the Tennessee River and its tributaries that meet the minimum safety and environmental standards. ``Because our lake house is pre1978, I thought they would grandfather us in,'' Jenkins said. ``That's why I'm confused about what they're doing now.''

TVA's board of directors will hold a ``listening session'' for the public at a May 5 meeting in Buchanan.

There are an estimated 1,800 structures, used mainly for habitation, along TVA reservoirs and rivers. -AP

Louisiana man in $2 mn real estate fraud PITTSBURGH: A federal grand jury in western Pennsylvania has indicted a Louisiana man on charges of defrauding hundreds of real estate agents across the nation out more than $2 million.

The U.S. attorney's office said the Pittsburgh grand jury returned an 11-count mail fraud indictment

April 19 against 40-year-old Rex Alan Harris of Covington, Louisiana. The indictment was unsealed after the arrest in Louisiana of Harris, who has several aliases.

Harris is accused of having promised television and Internet advertising to generate home sales. Authorities allege that the

agents paid thousands of dollars but the advertising never occurred and Harris and others spent the money on such things as merchandise and New Orleans Saints season tickets.

Court documents don't list an attorney for Harris who could respond to the charges. -AP

Attorney Michael McMahon said. ``They always do that,'' he said.

Accepting the sentence ``cleared the decks - at a cost,'' defense attorney Richard DeGuerin said. ``It's a great cost, but he's not facing any other prosecutions except what's in California.'' ``This case is and always has been about the accusation that Bob killed his best friend, Susan Berman. He did not kill Susan Berman, he doesn't know who did, and he's eager to get to California and prove that,'' DeGuerin said.

McMahon and DeGuerin said Durst also will forfeit more than $44,000 found in his hotel room when he was arrested and $117,000 in a package sent to Everette Ward, the name under which Durst had registered, and intercepted by the FBI after his arrest.

Durst's attorneys and prosecutors in Los Angeles have agreed that he will be in Los Angeles by mid-August.

He's likely to leave Louisiana within a couple of weeks, McMahon said. ``He'll be out of here pretty quickly,'' McMahon said, noting

that timing and the specific prison that Durst goes to is up to the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Engelhardt recommended that Durst serve his time at FCI Terminal Island, California, about 30 miles from downtown Los Angeles. The location is near the trial venue and has medical facilities Durst needs because of his ``advanced age and serious health considerations, including mobility challenges,'' defense lawyers wrote in a request.

An estranged member of the wealthy New York real estate family that runs 1 World Trade Center, Durst was tracked to New Orleans in March 2015 by FBI agents worried that he was about to flee to Cuba.

He was detained at a hotel on the eve of the finale of a six-part documentary about him, and was arrested early on the morning of the show. ``The Jinx'' described the disappearance of Kathleen Durst, the death and dismemberment of a neighbor in Galveston, Texas, and Berman's death.

At the end of the show, Durst is heard muttering, ``What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.'' -AP

SC asks Sahara to give details of properties Cont’d from page 42

Senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan, appearing for Sahara, sought release of Roy on the ground of his "deteriorating" health and the fact that market regulator SEBI has already been authorized to sell 66 properties.

"The court should consider granting parole to him or put his client under house arrest. I am in substantial compliance of the orders of this court. SEBI has the property and the machinery. I am required for compliance of order of this court and I am not required for any offence. At this stage please consider all the factors and grant me parole. My client's health has been deteriorating and he may not be able to survive another summer in jail," Dhawan said.

To this, the bench said, "We don't see substantial compliance unless the money is refunded to the investors. It does not give us pleasure to keep somebody in jail.

See, there has to be change in circumstances and there has to be a substantial compliance of our order."

When the bench enquired

about the total assets of Sahara in India and abroad, Dhawan sought two weeks time to seek instructions and produce the list of properties in a sealed cover to the court.

The matter is listed for hearing on May 11.

At the outset, senior advocate Arvind P Datar, appearing for

The bench said, "We don't see substantial compliance unless the money is refunded to the investors.�

SEBI, informed the court that the market regulator, in consultation with Justice B N Agrawal, has engaged services of SBI Capital Markets and HDFC Realty to sell properties of the Sahara Group.

He said the selling process of 66 properties will be completed in four months time and the first phase of the sale process would commence next week. -PTI