Banks face huge defaults as Real Estate sector faces meltdown

With sales refusing to pickup and the economy in dire straits, its no secret that the real estate sector is in a severe recession. Not only have new projects failed to find any takers, even the old ones are struggling to survive. That the builders are in a severe mess is evident by the ongoing public outcry, court cases, media coverage, street demonstrations etc..but the chain reaction has also started to hit the banks which have lent money to this sector.

Recent figures of sales in the top eight cities shows that home sales increased only 6% in the past 1 year.

Infact,the home sales in the largest real estate market of India,the NCR,fell by 10% from a year ago.

New residential launches in Mumbai had dipped by 36%, In Bengaluru by 27% and in NCR by 20% in 2015.

If this scary and precarious situation continues, it may well lead to defaults by the real estate companies, to whom banks have an exposure of 1/5 of their total assets.

If the prices go down further, the banks will be left holding mortgages which are much more than the security that the banks are holding against these loans.
If that happens, the possibility of a default increases many fold.

A clear indicator of the health of the real estate sector is the recent auction of Kingfisher house for 150cr.The same has been re-priced at 135 cr as no buyers came forward at 150 cr.

The total amount outstanding to the real estate sector is 7.58 lakh crore.
Even if one major company goes bust, it may well take down the entire sector with it.

The banking system is already facing severe pressure with NPAs of PSU banks approaching 10 lakh crores.

Dangerous days ahead.

Panvel builder arrested for cheating buyers

A panvel builder, Narendra Mehta (alias Raj Mehta) and his son, Raunak Mehta 23 yrs old, have been arrested and remanded in police custody till february 27.Narendra Mehta is accused of cheating 200 investors of 5 crores by promising them plots in Panvel. The builder allegedly took buyers to the site and told them that he was the owner of the plot. It turned out that the farmer had only received 60 lakhs and that the plot was still under his ownership.
Despite recent scams, buyers continue to trust builders blindly and lose their hard earned  money in the process.

2200 builders refuse to pay VAT

Many builders have ignored the Govt deadline to register and pay VAT before the October 31,2012 deadline despite Supreme Court rap.About 5257 builders registered themselves to pay VAT for the sales between June 20,2006 to March 31,2010 with the Sales Tax Dept.However,approx 2200 builders from Pune have not paid VAT.Most have showed nil returns.Most builders ask buyers to pay up for their VAT liabilities but social activists say that VAT payment is the responsibility of the person registered with the sales tax dept.A public interest litigation has been filed to prevent builders from extorting VAT from buyers.It will come up for admission on March 8.Builders say that they are entitled to collect VAT from buyers as the sales tax dept has supported their stand of issuing a debit note to flat buyers for the same.

This will be the second time that the dept will raid builders to recover VAT.Many thought that govt will reduce their tax liability hence they did not pay it,though they may have collected it from flat buyers.

It is amazing,that after months of confusion and court battles the govt is yet to specify whether flat buyers are liable for VAT or not.Just one more proof of how the flat buyer is left to fend for himself while builders display their normal high handedness.

Navi Mumbai real estate market collapses

Dire economic situation and rising inflation has taken a heavy toll on the Navi Mumbai real estate market in the past 2 months.The proof of this collapse has come from the registration figures in the registration dept and the amount of new proposals being subimtted in the NMMC and CIDCO town planning dept.Developers are struggling for cash and coming up with creative schemes like 80:20 scheme wherein the buyer pays only the 20% booking amount and the rest only after the project is completed,hence the buyers avoid paying the pre-emi interest to the bank.Most of the builders only make inquiries and only submit proposals but do not make further payments to obtain approvals.Developers have no money to pay the fungible FSI fee.Fungible FSI is the additional money the developer has to pay for enclosed balconies,flower bed area etc.Earlier the builders used to get these areas free but after manipulation was detected by most of them,the BMC smartened up and started charging money for the same.
This slowdown is the most significant in the past 2 years.One only needs to visit the registration dept in Belapur to witness the complete collapse of the market.
The effect of this collapse is primarily in the newly developing areas like Ulwe,Kamothe,Khandeshwar,Panvel,Dronagiri,Kharghar etc.Premium locations in well developed areas like NRI complex,Sector 19 Nerul,etc are relatively less affected due to the scarcity of good flats in good societies in these localities.

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Petitioner against illegal buildings shot dead

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WGIACEMing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kwG4N3xCvE

Navi Mumbai police have arrested an ex-cop in connection with the murder of builder Sunil Kumar Lahoria. The ex-police officer, Samuel Amolik, had been dismissed from service for his alleged links with the underworld. He has been charged with murder and conspiracy and remanded to police custody till February 22..
Police say that scrutiny of Mr Kumar\’s mobile call data record revealed that he had received several calls from those who attacked Mr Lahoria before the murder.
Mr Lahoria was shot dead in front of his office on Saturday morning in the satellite town of Navi Mumbai. The entire murder was caught on the CCTV camera installed at the entrance of the office.
At around 8 am, as soon as Mr Lahoria, owner of SK Brothers, stepped out of his white BMW in front of his office in Vashi, a man in a security guard\’s uniform shot him six times from a point-blank range. Another man then attacked Mr Lahoria with a chopper when he fell on the ground. As they were trying to escape, one of them was caught by locals.
Mr Lahoria, 52, was rushed to the Fortis Hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.

Latest Update (21st Feb 2013)

Two accused in the murder of Mr.Sunil Kumar Lahoria, namely, Mr.Anurag Garg (Dimensions architect) and Mr.Suresh Bijlani are absconding and the police is on the lookout for them. They had filed for anticipatory bail in the Thane court but it was rejected. It has come to light that the threat calls made to the relatives of Sunil Kumar were indeed made from Suresh Bijlani\’s number. Six other builders were also interrogated and their passports confiscated. Bijlani did not submit his passport saying that it was in the renewal process.

http://www.mid-day.com/news/2011/aug/070811-Navi-Mumbai-Chief-Minister-Prithviraj-Chavan-illegal-construction.htm