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My name is Rohit i have booked 2BHK Flat in Crossings Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd.

I had gone to Crossings's office yesterday near Shipra mall for my Allotement Letter but the office was shut down due to some problem.

Reputated Builder can't shut their office like this. Somebody was saying that reason was Sales Tax Department. But i don't think so.

"The conference will focus on strategic planning for making Lucknow the next IT destination in the state after Noida," Jayant Krishna, chairman of the organising committee, told IANS.

Krishna, who is also the principal consultant with Tata Consultancy Services in Lucknow, said software hotspots in the country such as Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata are witnessing saturation.

"As a result, companies are looking at second-tier cities that can be developed as the next IT destinations," he added.

The government recently shot down an informal proposal from the GMR-led consortium Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) that would have enabled GMR to win the contract for the real estate and hospitality district at the airport in this manner. DIAL plans to lease out 45 acres of the airport land area to real estate and hospitality companies through a competitive bidding process.

Called the Swiss challenge system, which is prevalent in several countries, the process would entail the inclusion of a clause in the request for proposals (RFP) sent to real estate companies to the effect that GMR had a right to match the lowest bid and take the contract without participating in the bidding process.

"Such an idea had come up in one of the DIAL board meetings recently. But it was discouraged by the government representatives there only since it undermined the purpose of a bidding process," a senior civil aviation ministry official said. "So the proposal never came to the civil aviation ministry," he added.

DIAL spokespersons, however, denied that GMR had any intention of developing the hospitality project.

DLF has become expensive after climbing from a July 1 low, analysts Vishnu Gopal and Shruti Gandhi said in a note to clients today, as they cut the price target for the stock by 21 percent to 406 rupees. The shares, previously rated ``neutral,'' rose 30 percent from the one-year low to close at 478.85 rupees yesterday.

``We delivered beyond what many had expected in the past,'' Ramesh Sanka, chief financial officer of New Delhi-based DLF, said by phone today. ``Time will show who is correct.''

Smaller rival Parsvnath Developers Ltd. was also cut to ``sell'' from ``neutral'' on concern that the company is struggling to sell properties and has high debt ratios.

``Parsvnath could face a cash crunch if sales volumes remain weak and we believe it may not be able to liquidate its large undeveloped land bank with ease in the current market environment,'' the Goldman analysts said in the note.

Parsvnath has fallen 75 percent this year, making it the third-worst performer on the Bombay Stock Exchange's real estate index.

``We have not faced any slowdown in demand from users and don't have any unsold property that's ready,'' Pradeep Jain, chairman of Parsvnath Developers, said in a phone interview from New Delhi. ``We are not selling land.''

Whether you`re investing in real estate, stocks, bonds, or gold coins, you are rewarded primarily for your exposure to one thing - risk. After all, markets are only risk transferring mechanism.

In the summer of 2007, I warned friends that if they were ``speculating`` in the current housing market, the time had come to cash in their chips and get out of the game. I listed a number of reasons, but the biggest one was that ordinarily sensible people were talking and acting as if highly-leveraged home purchases were ``risk-free`` transactions. After all, they kept telling me, ``real estate always goes up.`` I think this is pure BS. Real estate is as much a commodity as cement or steel (oops, it is that?) so the supply and demand will determine price. So real estate does not keep going up.

It doesn`t, of course. And now everybody knows it. Now !

Unfortunately there is no ``real estate index`` in India. There is no scientific measurement of real estate price movement - and the press is not credible enough in its reporting.

I would love to tell you that the worst is over. (After all, I own a home myself.) But the reality is we may be only in the beginning! Real estate has much further to fall and you should govern yourself accordingly. Here`s why?

Residential Housing Market

Last year was the most painful in decades for the residential housing market in the US of A. Home prices fell, home ownership dropped, foreclosures soared, and the housing market emerged as perhaps the weakest part of the entire U.S. economy.

Most commercial properties depend on rental revenue as a primary factor in their income projections. The value of the property includes the discounted value of the rental revenue in the calculation, as well as the value of the building itself and land.

Residential property, especially single family homes, usually sell on a square footage basis and don't consider any leasing income in the determination of value.

Even big villages may be ready for an expansion paralleling Wal-Mart's US success, and farmers are among a new tribe of smart shoppers, say industry insiders.

The Future Group's value store Big Bazaar has been wooing customers in towns such as Sangli and Alwar, and now covers 56 towns and cities across country. These include places like Siliguri, Darjeeling, Meerut, Ambala, Ahmednagar, Bharuch, Anand, Hubli, Udupi and Palakkad - hardly the kind of places you would associate with self-service or credit card shopping.

"Smaller towns and cities in tier II and III category shows tremendous growth prospect for the organised retail industry. These are the towns where aspirations of the youth are high," said Rajan Malhotra, Big Bazaar's chief executive officer.

"The competition will get hotter in the smaller towns and cities in about five years," he said.

As much as 70 per cent of Big Bazaar stores are in the so-called Tier II and III cities. The retailer plans to add 45 to 60 stores in the current July-June financial year, most of them in specks on the map.

Delhi-headquartered Vishal Retail who already has a presence in 80 cities plans to raise this count to 120 cities by the end of this financial year.

Under the IFRS, only when an apartment is constructed and ownership rights are transferred, the transaction is recorded as revenue.    

"Real estate is another sector to watch as it will be impacted significantly because of convergence with IFRS," said Jamil Khatri, head of IFRS Conversion Services division at the KPMG.    

"It will impact the revenue recognition as only when the property is fully constructed and ownership handed over to a buyer that the revenue can be recorded as per IFRS."    

He said the current practice of recording revenue even while the work is in progress will have to be done away with, which will certainly have some effect on their profits.

For the purpose, cameras would be installed at site offices which would be further connected through internet, facilitating online monitoring of the works at the headquarters here, the PWD Minister Nasimuddin Siddiqui said, launching the scheme here on Tuesday. In the first phase, cameras would be installed at Rajkiya Nirman Nigam sites in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangaluru and Delhi, M. Siddiqui said. He said that the corporation had many quality projects to its credit.

"India must aim to become a global manufacturing hub. Government policies must support this and tax policy must incentivise this. More so since the myriad hassles to set up and do business in India are a big disincentive," the PwC report on special economic zones (SEZ) said.

It said SEZs clearly provided an answer for India to attract global manufacturing, since the private sector has been incentivised to expend large amounts to develop world-class industrial and social infrastructure in the zones.

"If we want to make India a global manufacturing hub, we need to improve the environment for manufacturing. Given the current political and economic set-up, improving conditions nationwide for manufacturing will be difficult," it said.

It would be a better strategy for India to create the enabling environment in pockets through SEZs with high quality infrastructure, a liberal and supportive business policy environment, providing necessary push which the manufacturing sector urgently requires.

The report named poor infrastructure, interfering administration and unfriendly tax law environment as some of the factors affecting manufacturing competitiveness in India.

Referring to SEZ policies across the globe, the report said these have been fine-tuned over a period of time to meet foreign investors' requirement and have been an important catalyst to FDI success.

To know the prices the minute they are announced please sms "DLF" to 9871219911 or 9871670006, or send email to Qubrex@gmail.com

Meanwhile, here are the other details about the project.

• DLF Express Greens Location Map
• DLF Express Greens Site Layout
• Floor Plan 1760 sq.ft
• Floor Plan 2125 sq.ft

Stating that implementation work of the project was being monitored regularly, Mr. Ramesh said the 2x490 MW coal-based power generating units would provide massive power boost to Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. "This project is part of the special initiative to put in place proper infrastructure in order to ensure hosting of hassle-free Commonwealth Games," he added.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in real estate would not be exempted from the mandatory three-year lockin period in the case of `mixed' projects that include hotel and tourism activities. After inter-ministerial consultations, in which various proposals were considered, the department of industrial policy & promotion (Dipp) has circulated a note for consideration of the Cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) which says that the lock-in should stay.

There were efforts within the government to exempt real estate projects from Press Note 2 of 2005 if they include hotel and tourism components. The Press Note makes minimum capitalisation, minimum area of development and three-year lock-in mandatory for flow of FDI in real estate.

TOURIST-FRIENDLY
Dipp note for the CCEA says three-year lock-in should stay
Minimum area of development & lock-in is must for FDI in realty
It is felt exemptions can be given for projects with tourism activities
This will be subject to 50% of the total built-up area in projects being reserved for tourism & 20% area for hotel rooms

The view emerging within the government is that exemption from minimum capitalisation and minimum area of development can be provided for FDI in projects including hotel and tourism activities. This will be subject to 50% of the total built-up area in such projects being reserved for tourism activities and 20% of the total built-up area being reserved for hotel rooms. The Dipp has submitted a note to this effect to the Prime Minister's Office and ministries dealing with the subject. The note would be put up for the CCEA with the comments of other departments, highlyplaced government sources said.

"There are properties waiting to be sold, but hardly any buyer. In the past three months, the number of deals we did is less than half of what we normally do. Finding a buyer is so difficult that almost three agents are involved in one deal, sharing commission three-way," says a property agent based in Ghaziabad Bharat Narang. Mr Narang's office is located at a local shopping complex in Ghaziabad, which also houses at least a dozen more property dealers' offices. Weekends are usually hectic for the likes of Mr Narang, as most working people aspiring for their own home go looking for properties. But last Sunday was unlike most Sundays Narang had spent until sometime back. There were hardly two-three visitors through the day. Narang says some potential buyers he was earlier dealing with quit midway as mortgage lenders increased home loan rates following RBI's series of interest rate hikes.

The property market downturn has forced agents out of their jobs across US, UK, Spain, Australia and New Zealand. India, too, may soon catch up with its global peers if the realty situation continues to worsen. In India, property agents are largely unorganised. So, large scale job cuts in a conventional sense may not happen but many agents may have to look for other sources of income.

Amit Arora, a property dealer in Dwarka (Delhi), says prices have not declined in the market despite fewer transactions. "Sellers still insist on a price, buyers find impossible to pay. And it is not possible for us to persuade anyone to sell at a lower price as it would drive him into the arms of some other agent." The need to keep a seller with itself has prompted agents' to inflate prices unrealistically in most markets across India. Agents, too, have gained on the way
as higher price meant a higher commission (usually 1% of the deal from both buyer and seller) for them.

In good times, property agents also created a kind of false market by prodding its clients to frequently buy and sell properties, promising them a good return. But with new buyers now staying away, and property prices hardly appreciating, the set of amenable clients too have evaporated. New project launches by developers also used to be a good source of income for property agents. But now there are fewer launches and far few buyers. Also, with developers themselves offering discounts, property agents have hardly any role to play.

The only hitch: you will have to wait for well over two-and-a-half to three years for the next scheme. The development authority says that it will be ready to launch its next housing scheme only after three years.

According to DDA officials, 15,000 flats are currently under various stages of construction in the city "They will be ready in another three years. The flats are located all over including areas like Dwarka, Narela, Rohini and Jasola. Once they are ready, we will announce the next housing scheme," said an official.

The official said that at the begin- ning of the financial year 2006-07, around 11,124 houses were under various stages of construction.

"Unlike private developers, we launch a scheme once the flats are complete and ready to move. So it takes some time," said an official.

The present housing scheme, which was launched on August 6, came after a gap of two years. The last time, 3,500 flats were sold.

The flats are located in Dwarka, Narela, Paschim Vihar, Rohini, Pitampura, Vasant Kunj, Motia Khan and Dilshad Garden.

Gated Community is a form of a residential complex, sometimes characterised by high walls and fences. It boasts of controlled entrances for pedestrians and automobiles, surveillance of those entering the premises, clean streets and amenities on a par with a dream luxury resort.

The concept, already popular abroad, is making a foray into the country as NRIs returning to their roots are looking for the security and amenities of gated communities found abroad, says Manoj Namburu, CMD of Alliance Group.

These communities offer the perfect getaway from everyday civic problems, ranging from water cuts, pebble-strewn streets to living with the stench of unpicked garbage cans.

"It is a world in itself with all the latest amenities. It has its own power, water and maintenance departments," says a builder.

The amended Land Acquisition Act, 1894, pending before a parliamentary committee, will in all likelihood see the light of day whenever the monsoon session of Parliament is called.

At a meeting of the standing committee on rural development today, it was decided that the last hurdle, the report on the Bill, would be finalised by September 3-5.

The committee, according to its member, CPI(M) MP Hannan Mollah, may decide to make the provisions for compensation to the displaced more liberal.

For example, the definition of affected persons eligible for compensation will extend to all those who derive sustenance from the land, directly or indirectly. Ownership will not be the only criteria.

Also, the time ceiling for eligibility may be liberalised from the current five years to three years' association with the land in question.

Sources said the bar for project size for mandatory social impact analysis might also be lowered. At present, the proposed lower limit in the plains is 400 affected people while it is up to 200 people in hills and tribal areas.

THE NEW LAW'S HIGHLIGHTS...

• The Land Acquisition Act, 1894, is being amended to more strictly define the term "public interest" to exclude any land acquisition for private parties.

• In instances where land has to be acquired by the government for contiguity purposes, the private parties will have to acquire 70 per cent of the land themselves.

• Land rights will be extended to tenant farmers, artisans and those indirectly drawing sustenance from the land in question.

• Compensation could take the shape of jobs and shares in the company setting up the plant.

• Part of the land acquired has to be handed over after development to the displaced to build homes.

The property developer may build houses in Singapore and Malaysia, which have a large Indian population, the television channel reported, citing sources it did not identify.

Meanwhile, DLF will use cost-effective resources and work at higher levels of efficiency to beat the slump, Singh said in the company's annual general report of 2007-08.

"The financial year 2008-09 will be a challenging year for the company. The global liquidity and credit crises and inflationary pressures within the domestic economy would impact the business scenario,'' said Singh on the country's current property market situation.

The company's comments on the sector come at a time when most of the property developers are reeling under a cash crunch because of a drastic fall in property sales, a hike in lending rates, a crash in property stocks, curbs on lending to developers, among others.

At least three large realty firms have placed bids to build and operate stretches of national highways that have come up for auction this year as part of expanding their portfolio to offset a slump in their core business. Unitech Ltd, DLF Ltd and Omaxe Ltd are among several infrastructure companies bidding for the right to build and operate national highway stretches that are currently being offered by the National Highways Authority of India, or NHAI, the regulator for inter-state highways.

The projects they are bidding for are part of the national highway development programme, or NHDP, which aims to upgrade more than 33,000km of highways, according to an NHAI official, who didn't wish to be named.

The real estate sector in India has seen a slowdown in recent times as it has become expensive for developers to borrow money, with Reserve Bank of India raising the repurchase rate--overnight lending rates to banks--to a seven-year high of 9% last month.

In the past three years, property prices in some markets such as Gurgaon in Haryana and Noida in Uttar Pradesh--adjoining the national capital--have jumped by 100-200%, deterring home-buyers from investing in properties. As a result, realty firms are finding it tough to sell residential properties that typically contribute 50-70% to their revenues. DLF, Unitech and Omaxe have a large chunk of their residential and commercial projects in these places.

The Union government estimates that India needs at least Rs20 trillion in infrastructure investments in five years, at least a third of which it expects to come from private firms.

While DLF, the country's biggest realty firm by market capitalization, announced an infrastructure development partnership with Gayatri Projects Ltd earlier this year, Omaxe partners with Hyderabad-based GVK Industries Ltd and Nagarjuna Construction Co. Ltd on a project-to-project basis.

In a tough environment, when execution pressures are immense, the successful completion and uptake of this project is a testimony to the quality of development of this project. The project has achieved completion and leasing ahead of its schedule. Kotak Realty Funds, in the past have added value beyond its role as a capital provider to investments by leveraging its operating and capital structuring expertise to Portfolio Investments. They also provide active support on multiple fronts such as improve planning and operations capabilities, develop marketing and CRM skills and judiciously arrange the capital structure of investments through employment of external debt.

Vidur Bharadwaj, Director of the 3C Group, said "By way of this product, we have been able to provide environment friendly as well as low operating cost facility to global occupiers which not only gives them a feel good factor commercially but also in their heart." The 3C Group is a reputed developer in National Capital Region (NCR), and is one of the prominent names in NOIDA-Greater NOIDA micro markets.