Small Properties in Thane, Mumbai (Guest Post - Rashmi Karan)

The Increased property rates in Mumbai have forced the buyers to move towards the suburban localities of the city, one of which include Thane East and West. Thane is among those suburban localities around Mumbai that offers good options for the buyers belonging to the middle-income group. This area serves as the perfect investment destination for the mid income buyers.

The Infrastructure

Spread over an area of 147 square kilometres and ensures excellent connectivity with Mumbai through various linking roads, which are the State Highway 42 and the Eastern & Western Expressways. Thane has very good rail connectivity through the local rail lines between Thane-Vashi and Thane-Panvel. It is also well connected to other neighbouring suburbs through the suburban rail network of Central Railway.

The Localities

Localities like Dombivali, State Highway 42, also known as Ghodbunder Road, Badlapur, and Kalyan West alone account for around 40% of the total supply of 1 BHK units in Thane. These areas have also witnessed tremendous infrastructural developments along with modernization with the construction of several shopping malls, and other commercial establishments. Such developments have greatly improved the growth prospects of the localities.

The most popular types of housing units in both Thane East and West are the 1 BHK flats. The buyers look forward to invest in the 1 BHK flats as compared to a 2 BHK or a 3 BHK flat. Undoubtedly, Mumbai is the winner when it comes to demand for small sized flats and homes. However, due to spiraling property rates in Mumbai, people have started to shift to the suburban locations to find less costly accommodation, and this has certainly given a boost to the realty segment of Thane.

The main reason why people look out for smaller flats is that they think it is better to invest in flats rather paying a hefty sum as rentals. These days, the rentals of a 1 BHK flat and the EMI on a home loan are equivalent. In fact, in certain localities, the rentals are much higher than these EMIs, suggest the market experts.

Reasons for growth of Thane as Realty Hub

Some of the remarkable reasons for the growth of Thane as real estate destination are excellent connectivity with Mumbai and other suburbs, infrastructural developments, and lesser capital values. Thane has built up its buyer’s base for small sized homes. Flats having a total built up area of 500-650 sq. ft. are available in the price range of Rs. 3,000-4,500 per sq. ft. If you wish to buy a 500 sq. ft. property in Thane West or East, you will have to pay somewhere around Rs. 15 lakh. On an average, the price range of 1 BHK flats in these localities is somewhere between Rs. 15-32 lakh, which is pretty affordable.

A number of builders who were earlier targeting Mumbai for development of new projects have now headed towards Thane and have rode the wave of success. Some of the builders and developers like Indoasian Buildcon Pvt. Ltd., Lodha Group, Siddhi Real Estate Developers, Kabra Builders, Puranik Builders, Swami Developers, Skylark Constructions Pvt. Ltd., to name a few, are offering 1 BHK flats in Thane West and East. In addition, the interested buyers can also look forward to invest in the 1 BHK flats in Dombivali East and Kalyan West also.

If the market experts are to be believed, Thane has been able to attract the buyers owing to availability of properties at affordable rates, and such growth is expected to continue in future. Those who have a detailed knowledge of the market, expect that there will certainly be a hike in the prices of properties in Thane. Some new realty developments are also planned.

G+2: An Emerging Real Estate Model

As we said in our earlier post that we went to the fields in Jaipur to explore this sector further, today we share with our readers a prevalent model in this space. During our visit to actual sites and meeting with various people closely associated with RealT, we came across a model that is highly prevalent in Tier 2 cities at present. Let’s share some insights on this topic.

What exactly is G+2?

Due to recent developments, Tier 2 cities have stringent land by-laws. These laws restrict unplanned and uneven growth of these cities which are on their way to become mega cities. One such by-law restricts the vertical growth of town to a certain limit, based on the size of plot and width of the road on which the plot is located.

A typical G+2 construction

Paying full respect the laws, Builders & Developers have devised an alternative to make optimum use of the available plot and have come up with the concept of Ground+2 floors. Now depending on the designs prepared by the Architect, Builder can erect 4-6 flats on that small piece of land. Generally these plans are designed in a way that there is ample space for parking of 4-6 vehicles alongside the building. If the dimensions of plot doesn’t allow ample parking space, Builder can even go for Stealth floor for parking. Even in this case, the next 3 floors will be counted as G+2.

G+2 with stealth floor

Benefits of G+2

• Ideal for mini-builders
• Cost of construction minimizes due to economies of scale (multiple constructions on the same piece of land)
• Pretty good profit margin
• Easy to sell
• Time-to-complete the project is small

Why is it lucrative for mini-builders?

Small Investors and new entrants prefer this model of RealT so much so that you would see hundreds of such projects going on in Jaipur all around. The reason being:

Low cost of Entry	These projects can be initiated with relatively small amount of money as compared to traditional huge projects.
Minimized Risk	Even if all the flats are not booked, the builder is safe as he is sitting on a valuable asset.
Funding Operational Costs	The operational costs of next floor can be funded by the bookings of previous floor.
Controlled Expansion	The builder is free to pull back from going deep into the project at any time.

Closing Remarks: Want to foray into Real Estate? – Go for the above model, but don’t forget to do a proper market analysis for demand side!

---- 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 :) ----

Real Estate for Small Investors, is it?

First of all, apologies for a delayed post this time. We were hooked up with some Real Big issues!

So tell us, where do you think is money in RealT Sector? Or is it just a fad & small investors can never make out anything from this sector?

As far as what we have concluded from our secondary research data, it seems that more than 65% of people are not interested in investing in real estate primarily because they think – “we require huge investments to buy a property!”

We would not completely deny this fact but at the same time, it doesn't entirely hold too. Before we go any further and clarify this ‘myth’, let us first give you a glimpse of where money lies in RealT Sector:

So as apparent from the above categorization (we are assuming that you are a normal investor with not much knowledge of other fields of real estate), there are several fields apart from transactions and development from which you can make money in this sector. Take for example Relocation Services. By relocation services, we mean that you can provide services to relocate people or businesses & arrange for accommodation and other services in case required by them. This will provide you with an opportunity to make some handsome amounts with fewer efforts.

Services like ‘Appraisal’ require technical know-how of how to value a given property. If you have the proficiency to do this, you can make this as your career and trust us, you won’t require anything else to pursue as your profession.

On the similar lines is another vertical – ‘Property Management’. As Portfolio Manager is to Stock Market, Property Manager is to Real Estate. And we think that we need not to reiterate how much fortune a Portfolio Manager makes! If you have some expertise and experience in the field of real estate, this is your place to be.

How can Small Investors invest in Real Estate?

This is probably the most important question that haunts every middle-class individual when he/she starts earning. With the rise of middle class population in India in recent years, people who just graduate from the universities look forward to invest in some vehicle. But due to unavailability of any structured or convenient vehicle for investment in Real Estate, the obvious choice that they are left with is – Stock Market or Fixed Deposits.

We would like to throw some light on how a mid-income group person or a small investor can invest & make money in this market. There are several measures available for this purpose, few of which include:

• Affordable Housing
• Attractive EMI schemes
• Joint Investments
• Private Lenders
• REITs

Within the scope of this post, we will just try to explain Affordable Housing & later we will take on other measures.

Affordable Housing

As per JLL’s report on ‘Affordable Housing in India – 2012’, there is no clear-cut definition of the term ‘affordable’. This is because it has different meanings in different scenarios as it is a relative concept. Just going by KPMG’s definition of affordable housing, it can be seen as:

	Income Level	Size of Dwelling Unit	Affordability
Economically Weaker Sections	<INR 1.5 lakhs pa	Upto 300 sq. ft.	EMI to Monthly Income: 30% to 40% House price to annual income ratio: Less than 5:1
Lower Income Groups	INR 1.5-3 lakhs pa	300-600 sq. ft.
Middle Income Groups	INR 3.0-10 lakhs pa	600-1200 sq. ft.

 
  Source:  KPMG

Affordable housing is a new concept which emphasizes on catering the needs of the above 3 mentioned income group individuals. The differentiation is based mainly on the size of dwelling unit and the location of the unit.

Small investors, typically falls under the umbrella of Middle Income Group. There are a number of trusted and reputed players in the business of affordable housing all over India, mainly in the metropolitan cities where the concentration of LIG’s and MIG’s is maximum:

Source: JLL Research, 1Q12

Closing Remarks: It is said “where there is will, there is way..” This falls apt in case of real estate investing. Though seemingly very tough, it becomes simple if you want to devise ways in this sector. And believe us, the pace and size of returns which you can expect from real estate is far more than any other investment.

---- Thanks for reading J ----