The much anticipated, Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2011 is being reviewed by a Parliamentary committee and the government is expected to get the bill approved during its parliament's monsoon session.

The government has included some of the changes recommended by the industry stakeholders, from buyers to developers to industry experts. If the bill is implemented, it will make sure that the urban poor have proper housing as it will be mandatory for developers o keep some section of the project for housing for the lower income group.

The trouble of real estate developers in big cities across India has been known to all, but the recent Knight Frank Global Cities Index has reported that residential real estate market of Mumbai has witnessed a decline.

Knight Frank Global Cities report has further indicated that the price in Dubai seen a rise of nearly four per cent. The price has also witnessed a rise in North America in the past 12 months. The price in Mumbai has seen a decline of 9.1% in the past one year.

Cognizant Technology Solutions has lifted up its realty infrastructure expansion in the Indian market by around $200 million.

The US-based tech firm, which has large offshore attendance in the Indian market, has reviewed its investment proposal to a total of $700 million in realty from 2011 through 2015.

This is to swell its campuses in the country by an extra 10.5 million sq ft.

After facing opposition from real estate developers and others engaged in realty sector, the government has decided to not implement one percent TDS on real estate transactions as was announced in recent Budget proposals.

The realty division may still be in a slump, but big developers are positive on demand for residential property in the nation.

They are going ahead with plans to roll out various projects in the existing financial year as they expect sales to be better than the last year.

While Godrej Properties proposes to introduce around 15 projects during this fiscal, Oberoi Realty anticipates developing almost 33 lakh sq ft.

The nation's biggest developer DLF is making plans to set up about 10-12 million sq ft during the same financial year.

Godrej Properties (GPL) registered a 33.65% fall in net profit for the three month period ended March 31, 2012, at Rs 39.8 crore.

The company posted a net profit of Rs 59.99 crore during the same period of the last fiscal.

Company's total income rose 11.28% to Rs. 373.18 crore as against Rs 333.53 crore, the company said.

The government of Delhi is planning to impose a ban on the sale of land through general power of attorney (GPA), a move that is likely to increase difficulties for the people who have purchased the land on GPA.

Under the new rules, a seller will have to execute a sale deed that will be required to be registered in the office of registrar or sub-registrar, in order to complete the sale of land. Experts say that the move will limit the availability of the land in the capital and will thus increase the prices that are already among the highest in the country.

The shares of most real estate companies fell on the domestic stock exchanges on reports that the state government of Maharashtra will announce an increase in stamp duties in Mumbai.

New Delhi, Feb 12 - High real estate costs, lack of any tax incentive and bureaucratic hurdles are huge problems for the growth of the hospitality industry that is one of the country's top job earners, a survey revealed Sunday.

"The high costs of real estate and lack of any tax incentives by the government are acting as hurdles for the hospitality sector. These challenges are further accentuated by overall infrastructure deficit in the country," said a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) survey.

Godrej Properties has announced its decision to sell 49% in Godrej Premium Builders, company subsidiary to Sun-Apollo India Real Estate Fund.

Godrej Properties said in a filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) that the Godrej Group unit entered into a sale agreement with Sun-Apollo. The Sun-Apollo India Real Estate Fund has agreed to invest Rs 45 crore.

A sum of 18.3 crore has been paid to Godrej Properties for the stake while Rs 26.7 crore has been invested in the subsidiary.

Indian realty major, DLF Ltd has acquired the whole 26% share of its partner Hilton International in joint venture DLF Hotels & Hospitality for Rs 120 crore.

After the stake purchase, DLF Hotels & Hospitality would operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of DLF. The Indian firm purchased the stake to take the complete control over the business including its assets, which include hotel sites.

DHL said in a filing with the Bombay Stock Exchane that, "it has acquired additional 26% equity shares of 'DLF Hotels' from Aro Participation Ltd and Splendid Property Company Ltd, affiliates of Hilton International Co."

Adi Godrej, Chairman of the Godrej group has said that the group expects a strong demand for residential projects in the coming time and is not planning a reduction in prices.

While speaking on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum event in Mumbai, he said that the working capital for the residential projects by the company is lower and there is good demand and thus the company is not planning any cut in prices. He indicated that prices may be increased instead.

Several market analysts have said that the shares of the LIC Housing Finance is expected to fall in the coming weeks as the public sector unit has posted a lower than expected profit in the second quarter mainly due to weaker net interest income and provisions burden.

Morgan Stanley said that the shares of the LIC Housing Finance will fall more than the benchmark index of the stock exchange in India in the coming 15 days. The corporation has recorded a 58% drop in net profit in the second quarter while its income grew 37.4% to Rs. 1511.47 crore.

Raheja Developers has announced that it has entered into a joint venture (JV) with Dubai-based Arabtec Construction for its project in the NCR region.

"We must match international standards in construction. So, we have partnered with Arabtec to take construction in India to another level," said Naveen Raheja, chairman, Raheja Developers.

Combo of education and finance has always remained a super-hit formula for both the parties. And, increasingly corporate world is realizing the potential of learning and therefore has been uniting with educational institutions. Latest entry in this field is of Godrej Properties, which has tied its hands with Global Indian International School (GIIS), which is a Singapore based educational institution.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has tightened its belt and, has started its run to bring out all the truths about Emaar Hill County Town Ship Pvt. Limited (EHTPL) project.

To get some firm knowledge about this property scam, the department has also recently issued notices to 89 plot owners, who according to the reports, purchased plots in this project from Emaar Properties. The purchaser’s list also involve Mr. Nara Chandrababu Naidu's daughter-in-law Mrs. Brahmani along with Mrs. Kotagiri Sunitha, wife of KVP Ramachandra Rao, former advisor of the state government.

It has been reported that the second-largest lender in the country, ICICI Bank has finally earthed a fixed-rate retail home loan product, which would allow customers to pick a fixed rate of interest for one or two years following which it will charge the running base rate.

“We are not offering discounted rates in the fixed term like others, so we can’t call this a teaser loan”, said a top official of the bank.

According to reports, DLF Ltd recently revealed that in connection with a complaint filed by Belaire Owner's Association, they have received an order from Competition Commission of India (CCI) and after giving a thorough reading of the order, they have decide to examine all the other legal options which would be suggested by the Company's legal experts.

However the Officials further asserted that the appeal against the competition appellate order would not be limited only to the court, because they strongly believed that they had solid clues, which surely helped them to win the case.

DLF’s Q1FY12 revenue at Rs24.5bn grew 20.5% YoY and was above our estimate of Rs23bn. PAT at Rs3.58bn was 7% below our estimate. However, margins at 45.4% was 320 bps ahead of our estimates. Higher interest cost (Rs4.95bn in Q1FY12 vs Rs4.5bn in Q4FY11) and lower than estimated other income lowered PAT. Operational cash flow, though improved sequentially to Rs8.4bn, may fall further if DLF fails to execute non core asset sale. Key strategy of the company would be to (i)Accelerate cash flows through plotted sales (sold ~2.2 msf in Q1FY12 of which 1.1msf is plot sales; total sale of 1.9 msf in Q4FY11).

Tata is all set to try its hand in constructing the world’s cheapest house worth 500 Euros, named as ‘Euro 500 Home’. After launching the world’s cheapest car Nano, the company is looking forward to build a house in 20 square meters which will cost only 32,000 rupees.