Risks in Real Estate Investments

In our earlier post – Real Estate for Small Investors, is it? [click here], we suggested various ways in which people can invest in this field.

But very often it is seen that a common man is reluctant to invest in real estate properties, owing to the perceived and prevalent risks in this sector. This reluctance is even more severe when an individual is asked to invest in the areas, located far from his/her current place of residence. Let us first have a look at the types of real estate investments that a common man generally makes.

• Buy a piece of land
• Buy a constructed property
• Lease a building
• Convert a far flung piece of land
• Book a property in an ongoing project by a builder

No doubt that these are all great means of investing and many a times provides handsome returns on the employed capital. In fact many individuals have made huge fortunes by simply following the above mentioned approaches of investing. But still, this sector seldom sees the confidence and faith among the investors as it is entitled to get. Reason? Well, here are few of them:

Major Risks

These are some of the most common risks that people believe can affect their RealT investments. Let us come to each risk one by one and the ways in which they can be mitigated to some extent:

Risk	Issues	Mitigation
Economic Risk	This is the first & foremost risk faced by any investment in any region. The fluctuating prices of land in some regions due to the mismatch between demand and supply tend to give rise to the fear of this risk.	This risk can be mitigated by setting a clear time horizon of investment. Moreover pre-investment background work of historical price movement in the region can give the investor some confidence.
Illegal Possession	This risk is most common in any investment made outside your hometown & mostly in metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Delhi etc. Rental investments face this risk as there have been cases wherein tenants have illegally occupied the properties.  Even the non-rented properties face this risk due to the presence of land-mafia (a person illegally claiming others’ properties).	Land acquisition laws have become stricter these days. Before renting a property, it is recommended to have a background check of the tenant & have a robust legal agreement of limited tenure. Landlords should increasingly ask for payments through PDC (Post Dated Cheques) to be on a safer end. Regular visits to the non-rented property and putting up your name board on the property can reduce this risk to a large extent.
Project Operating Risk	People investing in the ongoing projects by builders face this risk. This risk may arise when a builder / contractor falls short on finance or other resources required for completing the project. This is also linked with the financial risk explained above.	Never pay complete or major part of payment in advance to the builder. This will finish his liability to complete the project in planned manner. Check the track record and credibility of the company before investing in their projects. Have proper legal agreements ready at each checkpoint of payment.
Construction Risk	Closely related to the above genre of risk, this arises when there are inefficiencies in the construction process. Refer to our previous post – Construction of a RealT project  [click here] for more detailed insights on this point.
Interest Rate Risk	Often due to the not-so-stable political and economic conditions in India, the RBI chooses to change the interest rates of the housing loans. This may cause additional pressure on the individual investor as his planned outlay can change drastically in terms of interest payment.		The individuals should thoroughly clear the conditions with the issuing bank about the interest rate fluctuation in case of changes by the RBI. Some banks allow fixed interest rates forever, but that are slightly more than the market rates; but definitely more secured.
Expropriation Risk	Expropriation risk basically refers to the risk of a private property having used for a public purpose. This risk mainly applies to age-old dormant properties. Mega profit-generating realty projects in very unstable economies like African Nations also face this risk.		This risk can be done away with by being a bit cautious and vigilant for your properties. On age-old ancestral properties, susceptible to this risk, you should do a bare minimum construction time to time. This way it won’t be dormant anymore. In unstable nations, the company carrying out the project should proactively partner with the government in profits or other ways so as to reduce the risk of expropriation drastically.
Financing Risk	Borrowers for real estate investments often face the risk of financing, especially after the sub-prime crisis of 2008. The above mentioned interest rate fluctuations are also included in the gamut of financial risks. More on financing can be read in our earlier posts, which also covers the various ways of financing a RealT project: Financing - Funding a RealT [click here] Financing the RealT by Equity [click here]

These risks are prevalent in almost each and every real estate investment. Of course, the extent of different risks will depend on the size and nature of the investment. But if handled with a little more care, these risks can be minimized to a large extent and then even the Real Estate Investments will find their lost glory again.

---- Thanks for reading RealT Horizon. Your comments will help us improve our analysis. J ----

Special Investment Regions – New Real Estate Investment Opportunities

Every real estate investor keeps on looking for new opportunities for investments, but often ignores the ones standing right in the front. This post is just to throw some light on one such opportunity.

What are Special Investment Regions?

Most of us know about SEZs and their recent outburst in India, but very few of us are aware of the upcoming prospects being offered by the new development plans of Government of India – Special Investment Regions (SIRs). These are meant to be gigantic projects which spans to the tune of several thousand hectares. Just to show it in a hierarchy:

As is quite evident from the above categorization, the size and extent of SIRs is unmatched. The potential for infrastructure and real estate development in these regions can only be judged by the example of upcoming project - Dholera SIR in Gujarat, India.

Dholera SIR – Quick Insights 

• Total Area : 800 sq. kms: a green field location
• Developable Area: 500 sq. kms.
• World-class infrastructure & connectivity: within & outside
• Central spine express way & Metro Rail to link the SIR with mega cities
• Airport & Sea Port in the vicinity
• Proximity to mega cities: Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar, Vadodara
• Capable to cater to both International & Domestic Market
• Close to Gujarat International Finance TechCity (GIFT)
• Logistic support of the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DMIC)
• Benefits of the high impact Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) 

Dholera SIR is a project planned along the Delhi-Mumbai Dedicated Freight Corridor:

As shown in the above map, Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) spans through 6 states with a length of 1483 kms:

• Uttar Pradesh-22 km (1.5%)
• NCR of Delhi- 22 km (1.5%)
• Haryana- 148 km (10%)
• Rajasthan- 578 km (39%)
• Gujarat- 565 km (38%)
• Maharashtra- 148 km (10%)

This scale of the DFC offers a lot of industrial, commercial and subsequently residential development along its length. In order to make full use of this opportunity, Gujarat government has initiated a mega SIR project along the DFC – Dholera SIR.

This visionary approach will offer a lot of real estate development opportunities in this region. Some of the planned RealT & infrastructure developments include:

The above representation indicates just few of many possible developments that are going to take place with the upcoming SIRs in India. These are mega projects that require decades to complete and fully implement, hence giving investors ample horizon for investment. Dholera SIR, for instance is planned to roll out in 3 phases:

Closing Remarks: With the announcement of Special Investment Regions, there has been a huge anticipation of investment opportunities among investors. The other upcoming SIRs include the one between Mumbai-Bangalore DFC. RealT Horizon is keeping an eye on these developments, are you??

---- Thanks for reading. Your comments will help us improve our analysis. J ----

Small Investors: EMIs, JIs & Private Money can make it possible!

As promised, here we go with our views on the next 3 options for small investors in real estate – Joint Investments, EMI options and Private Lending. You might be aware of these vehicles already, but we hope to add few extra points to your knowledge. So here we go:

1.       Joint Investments 

No awards for guessing what joint investments are! Consider this scenario - You and your friend want to invest in real estate, but are short on money. There is a lucrative property deal available which is sure to yield heavy returns; what to do now??

Yes, pool in money and share the property!

Pooling funds for Joint Investment

The above shown scenario is not very uncommon. Every now and then we come across people struggling with this issue, especially small investors. Joint Investments open up gates in such cases and investors can earn profits from the deal which otherwise they would have let go. Joint investments need not be in equal proportions, but it’s preferred so as to avoid any conflicts. Two or more people can join hands for an investment in different proportions and later enjoy the returns in the same ratio.

What is more important in this type of investment is clear agreement between different parties. Having a pre-signed agreement ensures that rights of all the parties are safeguarded and any possibility of conflict is minimised.

2.       Private Lending 

This may look like a new concept for some of our readers. The most common perception of Private Lending as soon as one hears about it is – “get a loan from private lender and go for your purchase”

WRONG!

Private money lending is actually the opposite of what common man perceives. It is giving ‘your money’ to investment companies to invest in real estate and return you your principal and a pre-decided interest portion.

Private Money Lending mechanism

This form of investment is relatively less risky in terms of returns and efforts to be put in by the first time investor. But sure, there are some other issues attached with this form of investing. Some of them may be:

a.       Credibility of the Investment firm

b.      No clarity on the ownership of the invested property

c.       No secularisation apart from the letter of deed

These issues can be mitigated if a proper analysis is done prior to selecting a private money investing firm.

 3.       EMI Options

Yes we know that it is very rudimentary to talk about EMIs. EMI is the most widely used concept today, not only in the field of real estate, but in almost every field. But more often than not, small investors fail to see its utility and neglects EMI as an option for investment.

Take an example of a young professional who wants to make an investment but is perplexed due to obnoxiously high RealT prices. As a result, he continues to reside in a rental apartment and invest in other vehicles like stock market. If planned and calculated properly, he can very well invest in a real estate property, making full use of available EMIs and resources otherwise invested in other investment vehicles.

Disclaimer: The purpose of our above analysis is to bring forth the channels of investment for small investors and make them aware of their in-and-outs. We are not advocating or recommending any of these methods. It is the rationale of the investor who has to take decision while making an investment choice.

---- Thanks for reading. Your comments will help us improve our analysis :) ----