Editor’s Note

While this issue was going for print, we got hit by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Tsunami in Delhi as the Arvind Kejriwal-led party bagged 67 out of the total 70 seats in the Delhi state Assembly polls. Our initial plan of carrying a small mention got washed away in the tide and we had to quickly go through the manifestoes of the three parties — AAR Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress. We examine in this issue what could be in the offing in Delhi for the realty sector after the AAP juggernaut.

On Delhi, the national Capital’s skyline is soon to witness a massive change along the Metro Rail corridor. Speaking to Realty & More Delhi Development Authority (DDA) Vice-Chairman Balvinder Kumar says Land Pooling Policy, the Transit Oriented Development Policy, and creating ‘Smart Pockets’ within the city arc foremost on his radar. Next year’s DDAs housing offerings will not only be the biggest so far, but also there will be prefab houses, multi-storey houses and apartment complexes — all firsts for the Authority.

The other big event is the Union Budget slated on the last day of this month. The wish-list of the developers includes infrastructure and industry status for realty and the passage of the Real Estate (Development and Regulation) Bill in the Budget session of Parliament. Reeling under a long spell of slowdown, the developers are pinning huge hopes on what Finance Minister Arun Jaitley conjures up from his leather briefcase. One hope dashed is the Reserve Bank of India keeping key policy rates unchanged in its February 3 policy announcement.

In a few years from now, people in the National Capital Region could see the return of the tram. Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) CEO PC Gupta plans to have trams as a feeder option to the proposed Metro rail along the Expressway to Agra. Unlike the Kolkata Tram service, this one is going to be the state-of-the-art tram service in line with what many European countries offer. We track down memory lane to take a sneak peak on the history of tram services in India.

In the recent past, it has been observed that real estate developers are diversifying themselves into the education business. While they are not so candid, looking at the growth of the education sector, it appears also to be a smart, calculated business strategy in these times of a slowdown in property rates. We take a look at some of the builders who are now erecting education verticals. One such developer, Gaursons details on its maiden school plan.

Another realtor—the Prateek Group—emphasises on the need of Indian realty to adopt a structured approach on a par with other organised sectors, which will lend mare focus and purpose in addressing the majorconcerns and issues facing the sector.

Then there are our regular reads home loan rates of various banks and housing finance institutions, the prevailing property rates in some of the localities of ten different cities, new and upcoming residential property launches in major cities… Vaastu this time is on the ways to keep you in good health besides bejan daruwala’s monthly horoscope.