168mn sq ft unsold in Mumbai Metropolitan Region

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 Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) has an unsold inventory of 168 million sq ft. These apartments will take 45 months to sell, a large time lag considering it should not take more than eight months to a year. The data comes from the latest Liases Foras report released on Thursday . "This huge unsold inventory is a clear indication that buyers cannot afford high property rates,'' said Pankaj Kapoor, head of this real estate research firm. MMR comprises Mumbai, Dahisar to Virar, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Dombivli, Kalyan and Diva as the main centres. The weighted average price in MMR is Rs 13,012 a sq ft, which was hovering around Rs 12,748 a sq ft in the last quarter. The report also revealed that sales dipped by a marginal 2% from the last quarter. Most new projects launched in the present quarter had a price tag of over Rs 2 crore for an apartment. "We predict prolonged inefficiency, prices have to reduce for demand to increase. Sales won't improve till prices reduce,'' said Kapoor. Earlier, prices increased 7-8% per quarter. "This is not happening now. It's a stagnant situation,'' he added. "The year 2014-15 began on a rather muted note with a 9% sequential decline in area sales across six major cities in India. With an exception of Bangalore, all tier I cities have shown a drop in sales. The city registered a 10% growth in sales for the quarter,'' said the report. NCR led with a 20% decline, followed by Chennai and Hyderabad with 18% and 13%. MMR, however, was almost stagnant with a meagre 2% drop in sales. For the first quarter of 2014-15, sales in Bangalore have been the highest, followed by NCR and Pune. "Most sales in the city can be attributable to new launches in peripheral regions. But the performance in the secondary market has been average in the city,'' it added. The cost range for new launches has been fragmented across the cities. In NCR and Pune it has been the affordable segment, while in Bangalore it has been the mid-segment. At the same time, MMR showed increased level of activity in the affordable and ultra-luxury segment.

63-yr record: Santa Cruz got 1,469mm rain in July





24-Hr Torrent Adds Month's Water Stock

July has brought record rainfall for Mumbai and considerably reduced concerns about the extent of water cuts the city may have to face in the next one year. The rainfall for the month in Santa Cruz--1,469mm--has been the highest for July since 1951 and has surpassed even the 1,454mm recorded in 2005, the year of the 26/7 deluge.

In June, Santa Cruz had received only 87.3mm rainfall, the lowest in 63 years, forcing the BMC to impose a 20% water cut. The heavy rain in the past 24 hours itself (July 30-31) has given the city more than 30 days of water stock as the catchment areas have accumulated 1.16 million litres.
With the showers on July 2930 having added 50 days of stock, Mumbai now has water stock for over six months.

Within a week, the catchment areas have seen a 100% rise in stock. While the stock in the seven lakes that supply water to Mumbai was 3.33 lakh million litres on July 25, it rose to 8.03 lakh million litres on July 31.

The BMC, which has now halved water cuts to 10%, may cancel the cuts altogether if the good rainfall persists.

However, heavy rain affected railway services and threw road traffic out of gear.

Fourteen CR services-four of them on the Harbour line--were cancelled due to water-logging and signal failure. Trains were running at least 25 minutes late on the main CR line till late night.
Trains on the Metro network, too, ran late by 15 minutes.

Heavy traffic jams were reported at Sion, Wadala, Mulund, Kanjurmarg and parts of central Mumbai, and the Bandra-Worli sea link saw a major snarl at 10.30 am. On the Mumbai-Nashik highway, a major crack on the new Kasara Ghat road resulted in traffic being affected for some time.

Two drowned, one killed in landslide

Two men drowned in separate incidents in the city on Thursday, while a six-year-old boy was killed in a landslide in Chembur. Rafiq Shah (17) drowned after he went for a swim in the Versova beach in the afternoon, and Khalid Ansari, a Bhiwandi resident, drowned in the local Nadi Naka river, where he had gone swimming. Six-year-old Ganesh Kurade was killed early Thursday morning when a landslide flattened six shanties near Ashok Nagar in Chembur. Two other residents of Ashok Nagar suffered minor injuries.

Weathermen expect 90-95% of rainfall in Aug, lakes and dams inch towards overflow mark





A heavy downpour in the 24 hours between Monday and Tuesday added 32 days of water stock to the seven lakes supplying the city. The lakes now have four months' supply. Also, not only has the season's rainfall deficit been covered but Santa Cruz has got excess rainfall of 78.1mm and Colaba 101.5mm. Weather men have issued a warning of very heavy rainfall-from 7cm to 14cm--in the next 24 hours. Some parts of Thane and Konkan districts may get as much as 24cm.

Between Monday and Tuesday , though, the island city got just 48.3mm and Santa Cruz 26.6mm.
On the other hand, the Vasai-Virar region, Palghar, Dahanu and tribal belts of Jawahar and Mokhada got 176mm, which saw villages get cut off from the city and flooded important roads and residential townships such as Vasant Nagri, Evershine Nagar Nirman Nagar.

The Vasai Virar municipal fire brigade rescued villagers stranded along the highway in Virar. A 10-year-old boy was reportedly carried away by strong water currents in Palghar.

Pelhar dam in Nala Sopara that supplies Vasai-Virar began to overflow. Usgaon dam in the Vasai-Virar region reached 86% of its capacity . Damni dam on Surya river in Palghar also began to overflow.

Water stock in the seven lakes that feed the Mumbai region swelled to 4.9 lakh million litres on Tuesday from 3.7 lakh million litres on Monday .
Tansa and Bhatsa gained the most, 276mm and 247mm, respectively , compared with 66mm and 45mm between Sunday and Monday . Modak Sagar is 3 metres below the overflow mark and Vihar is 4 metres short.

"Bhatsa and Modak Sagar, which have a huge capacity , received widespread rainfall of 247mm and 216mm, respectively . Tulsi is much smaller, which could be why it overflowed. Interior parts of Maharashtra received moderate rainfall while it was fairly widespread in north madhya Maharashtra. The south-west monsoon has been very vigorous on account of an offshore trough as well as strong winds. We expect 95-96% of rainfall in August, of the long-range forecast," said K S Hosalikar, deputy director general meteorology , Regional Meteorological Centre, Mumbai.

Navi Mumbai, between 7am to 7.30pm, got an average rainfall of 50.6mm. Airoli recorded the highest of 63mm followed by Vashi with 50mm, Nerul with 43mm and Belapur 44mm. Morbe dam capacity increased to 77.9 metres from Monday's 76.4 metres.

Thane got a total of 55mm rainfall. There was one inci dent of wall collapse at Wagle Estate and one person was reported missing while swimming inside a lake at Kalwa.

The downpour brought down minimum temperatures in Colaba to 24.8 degrees Celsius and Santa Cruz to 25.7.

On Tuesday , between 8.30am and 8.30pm, Colaba recorded 11.6mm rainfall and Santa Cruz 45.3mm. The is land city and the suburbs have received more than 50% of the season's required total.

Meanwhile, traffic was comparatively smooth on Tuesday , as it was a public holiday. There some stretches, though, like the Western Express Highway which continued to witness snarls.

The cratered flyover at Malad on WEH caused backlogs around noon. "The northbound stretch of Pedder Road was jammed around 3 pm. The stretch before Mahalaxmi signal was particularly bad," said another motorist.

Slow-moving traffic was reported from Babulnath to Haji Ali, on S V Road opposite Juhu Aerodrome, Vasai, near Huma Adlabs at Kanjur Marg, Aarey flyover on WEH, near Dahisar check naka and near Dindoshi on WEH.

A tree fall threw traffic out of gear at near Hiranandani Junction at Powai.

Heavy water logging was reported at JVLR, Andheri Link Road, Kanjur Marg, L B S Marg near Gandhi Nagar, Sujay Hospital at Andheri East, Andheri Subway and Marol Naka to WEH.





State govt makes conversion of agricultural land simpler





In a move that could boost development in Maharashtra, the state cabinet has simplified the process to convert agricultural land in cities and towns into nonagricultural land. The owners of these plots will no longer have to take prior permission of the collector for the conversion if the plots are earmarked in the region's devel opment plan for residential townships or industrial units.

The collector's nod, which was so far mandatory, had given rise to complaints of undue delays and corruption. The move will pare both, officials said. By rough estimates, tens of thousands of hectares will be unlocked because of the cabinet's Wednesday decision. The state cabinet decision to simplify conversion of agricultural land for non-agricultural use will benefit the municipal corporations and councils in Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan-Dombivli, Ulhasnagar, Vasai-Virar, Nalasopara, Ambernath, Kulgaon-Badlapur, Panvel, Alibaug, among other places.

"Land owners will have to seek the permission of the municipal body for their non-agricultural plans.
Once the municipal corporation or municipal council gives the go-ahead, the owner just needs to intimate the collector within 30 days. No permission from the collector is required. Revenue officials will then recover a onetime land conversion tax and a non-agriculture cess," said an official after the state cabinet approved the move.

This process will apply to those who are direct owners of the land. For those who have leased land from the government, the collector's permission is still required, though the conversion procedure has been made simpler for them as well. "The leaseholder will have to offer a certain share of the profitable deal on the land to the government," said an official.

According to sources, masses of application for In rural areas, a databank will be created to speedily dispose of the masses of land conversion applications land conversion to non-agricultural use are pending, particularly in Mumbai region and around, stalling development. In rural areas, where there are no municipal corporations or councils, revenue officials will now be asked to create a databank of conversion applications, so that decisions can be made quickly , another official said.

Affordable housing to become cheaper





Home loan seekers will soon find themselves being increasingly wooed by banks, and affordable housing projects could get cheaper with the RBI announcing a raft of measures that encourage bank lending to this segment.

The RBI has said that in addition to small-value loans, home loans to individuals up to Rs 50 lakh (for houses of value up to Rs 65 lakh) in metros and loans up to Rs 40 lakh (home value Rs 50 lakh) in other centres will be considered as affordable housing.
Extending these loans will entitle banks to float infrastructure bonds up to seven years. Money raised under these bonds will not be subject to RBI's mandatory reserve requirements. Bankers said that they were preparing for a pick-up in home loans in light of the increase in tax breaks from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh. "The infrastructure status to affordable housing projects would make it easier for developers to get finance. Banks in any case were going after home loans given the absence of pick-up in corporate credit," said K R Kamath, chairman, Punjab National Bank.

He added that banks also prefer home loans because these are less risky as the lending is diversified and also provides them an opportunity to cross-sell other services to borrowers.

"The measures make home loans more attractive but I do not know to what extent it will impact rates as most banks are already extending home loans close to their base rate," said Kamath. Base rate is the benchmark rate below which banks are not allowed to price their loans.

The finance minister in the Budget had said that banks would be allowed to float long-term bonds for lending to infrastructure.
Explaining the rationale to extend this facility for hous ing, the RBI said "Apart from what is technically defined as infrastructure, affordable housing is another segment of the economy which both requires long-term funding and is of critical importance. Accordingly , the Reserve Bank intends to ease the way for banks to raise long-term resources to finance their long-term loans to infrastructure as well as affordable housing. This will help promote both growth and stability , as well as improve the supply side."

The RBI said that granting the exemptions will mitigate the asset-liability management (ALM) problems faced by banks in extending project loans to infrastructure and core industries sectors. "A collateral benefit if bank bond issuances prove successful is the development of the domestic corporate bond market," the RBI said.

Prime 5.3-acre Prabhadevi plot freed from CRZ norms





Builder Gains As State Dubs Mahim A Bay

A developer of a prime Prabhadevi plot is the first major beneficiary of the state coastal authority's intriguing redefinition of the Mahim shore as a bay. The reclassification has virtually pulled builder Hubtown's 5.3-acre land out of the highly-restrictive coastal regulation zone (CRZ), unlocking its full development potential.

CRZ norms restrict construction activity up to 500m from the sea's high tide line. But the rules were qualified in an amendment three years ago. The amendment stipulated that seafronts would continue to get the same protection, but at bays the construction restriction would be reduced from 500m to just 100m. When the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) redefined the Mahim coast as a bay earlier this year, the builder quickly submitted a proposal to get its plot removed from CRZ and the 500m protection ring. Hubtown backed its application with a report from the Institute of Remote Sensing (IRS) in Chennai, showing the plot almost outside the 100m zone of the Mahim coast.

The builder's proposal "convinced" the authority , which approved it in a meeting in May end. "The IRS report shows a part of the plot in CRZ and a part outside it. The actual demarcation has been done by IRS.
The coastal authority accepted the IRS report and decided the CRZ status accordingly ," said a state environmental department official.

Officials said this is the first big instance of development enabled by the redefinition of Mahim as a "bay". In the wake of Mahim coast's reclassification as a bay—where environmental protections are weaker—government officials expect a rush of applications from builders across the city whose plots fall under coast regulation zone (CRZ).

Hubtown had purchased the defunct Hindoostan Mills in Prabhadevi for Rs 350 crore in 2007, but was unable to utilize the full development potential because of CRZ restrictions. Last year, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan cancelled an abnormally high floor space index (FSI) of 7.6 sanctioned by his predecessor for a hotel project on the property. The developer was eventually left

with a much-reduced FSI of 1.33 because of the CRZ restrictions.

Several of these impediments have got lifted because of the MCZMA's decision on Mahim coast. The plot was earlier reserved solely for industrial use and its status could not be changed to build residential buildings as it fell under CRZ. But now that it has been taken out of CRZ, its reservation can be changed for residential purposes.

Also, with the plot virtually removed from CRZ, the builder can now procure additional construction rights under the government's public parking policy. The state provides extra FSI to any builder who builds a public parking facility on a part of his land free of cost for the civ

ic administration.

Vimal Shah of Hubtown said the builder's immediate plan was to utilize the base FSI of 1.33 to build a residential complex instead of a hotel.

"It is shocking that environmental agencies are allowing builders to reduce the extent of the CRZ belt from 500 metres to 100 metres," said Debi Goenka, executive trustee of the Mumbai-based Conservation Action Trust.

"Unlike creeks and estuaries, the entire frontage of the bay is impacted by wave and tidal action twice a day.

Therefore the logic that was used to reduce the width of the CRZ along creeks from 500 metres to 100 metres obviously cannot be applied to bays," said Goenka.