A popular trend these days is incorporating furniture with unusual design patterns

Furniture trends this year reflect a certain shift. While individuality reigns supreme, it acquires a bold expression in decor and design. With people achieving a level of wealth and exposure that allows them to purchase and live with the finest of luxurious furniture, artwork, or furnishing, established brands and manufacturers with custom capabilities are working to enhance their collections. They’re not only functional, but also decorative. (more…)

For that cozy, creative and unique look to your dream bathroom, Anjali Tiwari offers a few tips

Bathroom flooring should be chosen keepingsafety in mind. There are lots of options for bathroom flooring in the market. But it will be wiser to set the budget before going to the market. The most popular options are bathroom carpets, bathroom carpet tiles, ceramic floor tiles, bamboo flooring, laminate flooring, vinyl linoleum flooring, hardwood flooring. (more…)

Credit demand from consumers seemed to be back on track, especially in sectors such as auto and home loans though banks had cut down unsecured loan exposures, said KV Kamath, chairman of ICICI Bank.

“So far as mortgages are concerned, I think they are back from where they were a year ago. The tension between buyer, builder, and the lender is now more or less off. Auto sector financing is also back,” Kamath said at the sidelines of a banking seminar. The chairman of the country’s largest private sector bank felt 80 per cent of the consumer loans were back, the remaining 20 per cent mostly unsecured loans had taken a back seat. (more…)

The real estate revival story is being driven by the residential segment, but contrary to the claims made by a number of developers that end-users are their main buyers, the current trend is being driven by investors.

“These are investors who are taking an opportunistic view of the situation where prices have corrected considerably in many locations,” says Sanjay Dutt, CEO business at Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj (JLLM). He estimates that a good 40% of the stock sold in the last few months would have gone to investors. In Delhi-NCR, this figure might be higher at 50%. (more…)

UK Retailer Forms 51:49 JV With Indian Realty Co, Present Franchise Deal With Shoppers Stop To Coexist

Mother care, a UK retailer for kids and expectant mothers, is forming a 51:49 joint venture with India’s largest real estate company DLF, two people close to the development said.

While the company would continue its existing franchise agreement with department store chain Shoppers Stop, it hopes that the new JV will give it greater control over its Indian operations and ability to expand quickly in one of the fastest growing economies, they said requesting anonymity. (more…)

Maytas Properties, the unlisted real estate company belonging to the family of Satyam Computer Services’ disgraced founder, Ramalinga Raju, is likely to shortly finalise a deal with a developer to support its troubled Hill County project, say sources.

The residential project, coming up at Bachupally on the city outskirts, it behind schedule by nine months. The Rs 1,000-crore project is to have 840 apartments and 326 in dependent bungalows, priced between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 2.5 crore. The apartments are not ready, through a few bungalows are. (more…)

Big realty players and PE funds are now farming with smaller developers sitting on big land banks in Tier II and Tier III cities to reap a rich harvest, says Vandana Ramnani

Nirupam Dutt, an engineer; has been living in Meerut for the last three years. Looking for a home for three months he recently zeroed on a local builder who satisfied his selection criteria – the price of the house did not exceed Rs 20 lakh, it had a clean title and the funding was in place, thanks to the developer’s recent tie-up with a PE fund which brought in not only the money but also international know how and expertise. The slowdown surely has made a buyer like Dutt wisher and more discerning. (more…)

Value added tax (VAT) has always been a cause of perplexity to the real estate buyers. While some builders are recovering VAT from the customers, there are others who are not charging their customers at all. This has led to much confusion for the property buyers as to whether VAT needs to be paid and if it does need to be paid, what should be the amount.

Value added tax

The VAT system replaced the sales tax system with the objective of simplifying the tax regime and to avoid the problem of double taxation. VAT is a multi-stage tax levied at each stage of the value chain with the provision that tax credit will be allowed for the tax paid at an earlier stage. (more…)