Archive for February, 2009
Choosing the right abode – Time tested tips from www. 100floors.com
Hyderabad|India|February’2009: Buy land, they’ve stopped making it,’ Mark Twain once said. And it’s indeed true; almost everything else worth investing can be produced. By this logic land supply will be severely squeezed in the coming future as population keeps multiplying and demand for housing keeps increasing. How? Visit www.100floors.com
Real estate, hence, can be considered as the safest investment today despite a gloom surrounding the sector globally. Despite financial turmoil, realty stands against all odds by showing lesser ups and downs (compared to stock prices, oil prices, etc) as it is tangible.
With a large number of young Indians migrating to all corners of India in search of livelihoods and jobs demand for homes — either on ownership or rental basis — will always exist. But then most of these young job seekers feel lost when it comes to making a decision: Buy a home or stay as a tenant.
Should I buy a home or stay in rental homes?
According to Shreyans Chopra, CEO, Suksh Technologies, the parent company of pan-India portal www.100floors.com, “ We first need to think if rentals can build an asset. For the youth, renting may look as the most obvious option because of the nature of their jobs which takes them from one place to another in a couple of years. In this situation if you want to buy a house then one of the key factors should be the choice of location.
Identify pockets which have a potential to appreciate quickly, and a profitable situation will be to even out your rentals with Equated Monthly Installments, EMIs. Just as a thumb rule, when paying rentals which account for 10 to 12 per cent annually on actual value of home, it is better to consider buying a home. Even if property rates do not appreciate it is a profitable deal; you have an asset to bank on even as you pay EMIs that equal the money you pay as rent.
Considering a long investment horizon (10 years) this is always a good option.”
What should I do when I need to buy a house and I have a shorter investment horizon?
If you are buying a home then considering the worst (a shorter investment horizon with property rates going down as they are doing currently), the following points must be kept in mind:
· Consider buying a home in localities which have planned infrastructure development around it like metros, shopping malls, offices, airport, etc.
· Consider buying a home on or near the main connecting roads than in the interiors. Even a well-decorated, well-furnished house in the interiors can fetch lower valuations when you want to resell the property.
· Buying a home from a reputed builder will always be a plus as you are assured of the quality and on-time delivery if the project is under construction. It also helps if the property that you are buying has an approved file number (or APF as it is called in banking parlance) from a reputed lending institution as lenders quickly disburse home loan money in such a situation.
· Do a prior valuation, legal check before buying. This will help you understand if you are paying the right price and the risks involved. No doubt the bank does this for you, but since this is a lifetime investment, it is advisable to conduct an independent check as well.
· Consider flexible loan repayment structures. Most banks now offer a varying number of home loan products, the most popular being the fixed rate home loan, floating rate home loan and a combination of the two wherein a borrower can have a part of her/his loan on a fixed rate basis and the rest on a floating rate basis. Depending on your views on the interest rates five years from today take a call.
· You should also consider factors like economic growth in your region, your personal long terms plans of settling down, good schools, hospitals and entertainment amenities planned in that area. After all, we human beings are social animals and having these facilities in the vicinity not only help you and your family socialise and entertain yourselves but can also give you a good return on your investment if ever you plan to sell your property.
· Finally, we are into a buyers’ market. Remember that everything in this market is negotiable. Hunt for the best deal, best price, best discounts as even a small discount can save you a lot of money. A 5 percent discount (which is very common if you bargain hard) on a Rs 25 lakh property can save you Rs 125,000, which you can then use to redo your new dream home.
· When planning to buy your home, do keep in mind that home concepts are changing rapidly; there is a huge shift in the way people live today as compared to a decade ago. Today, homes fall more under the lifestyle category than a necessity (this, of course, is a moot point), people are fast adopting new concepts called intelligent or smart homes.
Wi-fi connectivity, automated access controls, security gadgets, HVAC (an acronym that stands for heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems and remote home management systems are some of the new features which are being seen. If you wish to go with the times, ensure your selection has such future options or have options to install these in future.
Happy home hunting!
visit : www.100floors.com
Pluggd In to 100floors.com
100Floors is a real estate portal from Suksh Technologies (has raised $1.5mn seed round), Bangalore based startup.
The portal is a marketplace for all things real estate and is trying to create a marketplace by involving agents (unlike other portals who try to shortcircuit the broker channel), property experts and of course, users who are at the core of the marketplace.
Bangalore Map - 100Floors
Sellers/Landlords can post property info (first 10 listings are free) and Buyers/Renters can post property requirements (free)- using various channels (SMS/phone/web) and 100Floors connect the buyer and seller.
The portal, being a marketplace is dependent a lot on UGC - and in order to grow the user contribution, 100Floors is providing useful content in collaboration with content companies (check out the legal section).
100Floors also provides offline services like property valuation, legal documentation drafting etc - which is ofcourse, a bigger market (especially if you target the NRI segment).
One of the USP of 100Floors is maps integration - one can search/browse via maps (an experience limited to broadband users) - the map section details out property’s location - though a lot needs to be achieved there (for example, hospitals/schools/parks near localities).
The product is in beta (has some jagged edges) and is available in 15 cities.Do give 100Floors a try and share your opinion.
The challenge with real estate portals is that no matter what they do, they don’t want to cut the broker channel - so essentially, their USP is information aggregation.
But is this information aggregation that big a USP to create differentiation (vis-a-vis offline agents)?
What’s your opinion?
From Novice to a Brandname
1) Why has Suksh particularly opted to get into the real estate space?
Suksh has a charter to venture into consumer friendly applications. Suksh will be venturing into various online and offline software products and services targeting Indian consumers.
To start with Suksh wants to create a niche in the Real Estate sector. The importance of Online is also gaining acceptance among advertisers considering it is the only medium which can have measurable performace and is also comparatively cheaper than traditional media. It also allows advertisers to have a global reach easily. Online real estate market in India is untapped since most of the online portals today service the B-S-R marketplace model which according to us comprises only of 7% of total 20 Billion dollar Real Estate services market in India. So we believe there is lot of room to create niche in the sector and hence would look at providing services holistically around real estate. Suksh will provide a platform for end consumers allowing them to make useful decisions around real estate by providing statistics around the same.
As per the statistics the housing demand hasn’t slowed down. There will be 5 million homes added every year considering the growing population. Also we believe that the demand in low to medium housing sector will increase considering the growing demand & also financial sops like rate cut being offered. Considering the slowdown and the pressures on the marketing budgets there will be a growing acceptance to online marketing mediums. Also since property buying cycle has become longer people will make use of information available online when taking property decisions. Hence we certainly see a growth of the online real estate sector.
Points to Ponder
“Buy land, they’ve stopped making it”, said Mark Twain. It’s very true
almost everything else in which you can invest else can be produced risking
the value of what you own. So real estate by far is a safest investment of
today. Despite financial turmoil realty stands against all odds by showing
lesser ups and downs, as it’s tangible what you have will always remain with
you. Few questions which may ponder the mind of yours around realty sector
can be
Q:Should I buy home or stay in rental homes..?
A: Always think if your rentals can build an asset for you. Given as a youth
renting may look as most obvious option however it’s recommended to also think
of some location where you would like to invest in property, this can even very well be your native.
Just look for pockets which has a potential to appreciate quickly and if you can even your rentals with EMIs
you have planned your realty needs and you are ready to make money! Just as a thumbrule, when paying
rentals which account to 10-12% annually on actual value of home, why not
consider buying a home. Even if property rates do not appreciate you are
still profitable, you have an asset to bank on with EMIs equal to your
rental. Considering a long investment horizon (10 year) this is always a
good option.
Q: What should I do when I need to buy a house and I have shorter investment
A:If you are buying a home then considering you might get hit with a shorter
investment horizon with property rates going down you must consider
following factors,
a)Consider home buying in localities which have planned infrastructure
development around it viz. metros, shopping malls, IT offices, Airport, etc.
b)Consider buying home on the main connecting roads than interiors. Even a
good house in interiors can fetch lower valuations.
c)Buying home from a Good builder will always be plus
d)Do a prior valuation, legal checks of home before buying. This will help
you know if you are paying the right price and risks involved. Remember you
have a house for lifetime than your bank so it’s recommended you do this
checks despite your banks ensuring such things, but they are not always
enough.
g)Beyond this you can look at factors like economic growth in your region,
what are you long terms plans to settle, are there good schools and
h) Everything in this market is negotiable to hunt for the best deal, best
price, best discounts as small % discounts can save you lot of money
In addition know the home phenomenon it’s very important for making
decisions. When planning your home, do keep in mind that the home concepts
are changing rapidly. The home paradigm from 80s to this decade have huge
shift. Today homes fall more under lifestyle than a necessity. And now
people are also adopting new concepts called intelligent or smart homes.
Wi-fi connectivity, automated access controls, security gadgets, HVAC
systems and remote home management are some of the new age features which
can be seen in these concepts. This would also mean if you wish to keep up
with the new age, ensure your selection has such future options or have
options to install these or the society around you have a zeal for these
concepts and they would adopt this as a group in future.