Realty News Roundup: Maharashtra Shortlists 43 Cities For AMRUT; Govt To Launch Property Portal To Sell Distressed Properties

Realty News Roundup is PropGuide's selection of top stories from the real estate sector

Top News

Maharashtra government has shortlisted 43 cities to be developed under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government's ambitious project, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT). Under the AMRUT project, households in 500 Indian cities will be provided with basic amenities such as water supply, sewerage, and infrastructure among others. The central government will provide the state Rs 1000 crore for the implementation of the project. Click here to see the full list of cities shortlisted for the project by the Maharashtra government.

The Centre is all set to launch a property portal to sell distressed properties. According to reports, the portal will initially list about 50,000 residential properties. These properties are the ones that the Debt Recovery Tribunals (DRTs) have allowed banks to sell through auction after their owners defaulted on loan repayment. To participate in the auction, the potential investors will have register on the portal by submitting know your-customer (KYC) information, which includes Permanent Account Number (PAN) and Aadhaar number. Read more.

Off the front page

According to a data released by VCCEdge, private equity (PE) funds have invested about $2.4 billion in the Indian real estate sector in a period of nine months this year, in a total of 53 transactions. According to reports, the sector has already crossed last year's total PE investments of $2.1 billion. A total of 80 transactions took place in 2014. Read more.

Opinion

DLF Group CFO, Ashok Tyagi says that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) rate cut is clearly a strong inducer for demand once the banks passed on this in the home loan rate. “It will clearly be a strong motivator for at least the people who are on the edge in terms of whether to buy or not to buy homes,” he was quoted as saying in this interview.

Sam Chopra, Founder and Managing Director, RE/MAX India, calls for tie-up between property portals and real estate consultants to offer the last mile services and a one-stop shop to all the customers to meet their residential needs. Read here.