Editor’s Note

Greetings to all for a Happy New Year 2016! Right from the past few weeks of the last year and beginning of the New Year, the sole focus of Team R&M has been the R&M Property Awards ceremony scheduled for January 23.

All our energies and time have been channelled towards making our maiden attempt a grand success. Thankfully, the support of our associates, patrons and the developer community has been with us and we are now confident of making it an unmatched affair. As we keenly look forward to your participation in the mega event, we give you a peek into the upcoming show in the current issue.

Talking of events, the last year came to a glorious finish with the annual Credai Summit 2015 which was hosted by the premier industry body on a grand scale. Besides its mega stature, the summit was highly successful in terms of takeaways. While the industry was able to flag off its pressing concerns in a forceful manner, it also got assurances from the Chief Ministers of Haryana and Gujarat to keep the ongoing projects in the two states out of the purview of the proposed Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA).

The issues plaguing the real estate industry were deliberated at length and its achievements highlighted effectively. The very first Credai Awards were also presented at the two-day event and among those honoured was PNB Housing Finance Managing Director Sanjaya Gupta, who happens to be the subject of R&M Interview of the Month. Besides sharing his company’s operational details and future plans with us, Gupta has lot of encouraging things to say about the realty scenario in the country.

In his view, the real estate industry is more a victim of negative sentiment and it’s time we started talking positively. He also disagrees with the notion that the housing industry is overpriced and advises that this is the most opportune time to pick from a range of choices available and buy a house. Being the first issue of the New Year, the Cover Story is on predictable lines.

We dig into the R&M Archives and bring before you a flashback of the significant developments of 2015 impacting the real estate industry. We also contacted a large number of developers, channel partners and other prominent stakeholders on their opinion on the year gone by and their outlook for the year ahead. Read what they have to say, in their own words.

Carrying on with the New Year narrative is our first piece in the Developerspeak series by Aman Nagar, Director of Paras Buildtech. While expressing his disappointment with the past year, Nagar is hopeful of things picking up in 2016, provided the Government is able to push through some pending legislation and present a consumer friendly Budget.

Gaursons MD Manoj Gaur, in his write-up, talks about the huge growth potential for the entire corridor along NH24 with the Prime Minister laying the foundation stone for widening of the highway. Dhiraj Jain, Director, Mahagun, offers an interesting business mantra for successful real estate entrepreneurs.

In our first-ever Guest Slot article, Bhawna Sharma, Director, Artius Interior Products, talks about the ‘Engineered Wood’ which her company has introduced for making timber window and door systems. Besides all these are your regular reads-home loan rates, new residential launches, property rates of key localities, Vastu column on New Year and, of course, your monthly horoscope by bejan daruwalla.