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Kolkata Developers Get Ready For Bigger Stakes

By sachiv1, Section Real Estate
Posted on Fri May 04, 2007 at 04:04:28 AM EST

With West Bengal's laws limiting the size of projects, realty firms feel the need to go elsewhere for scale

Enter the world of Avani Heights and it's a dizzying maze of activity with young upmarket shoppers meandering their way through an array of brands ranging from Guess to Body Shop that have made this Kolkata destination a sought after retail spot. Housed on the top floor of the residential-cum-retail block, located on one of the city's arteries, Chowringhee, is the real-estate company responsible for creating the place. And the frenzy here is spilling over.
At least for Anirudh Daga, the enthusiasm is hard to contain and has given him the assurance that he is in the right business and the only path forward is expansion--and not just in Kolkata.

"We are gearing up. In the near future, we will be able to handle projects of much larger scale," says Daga, managing director of Avani Estates. "Geographical location would not be a limiting factor for our group," he adds.

Daga is not alone. A raft of Kolkata real-estate companies ranging from Ambuja Realty, Shrachi Group, PS Group to the Rungta Group, all of whom have so far focused on West Bengal, are rolling up their sleeves to aim for a bigger piece of India's real-estate pie.

Real-estate prices in India have risen at least 30% in the last year, driven by demand from a younger population earning ever higher incomes, with more than three years of about 8% economic growth putting more money into the hands of people.

The growth in the value of real estate has also made it an attractive investment opportunity and while it started in the larger, so-called Tier 1 cities such as Delhi and Mumbai, it's now spreading fast to smaller towns and cities. "Developers are hedging their funds in these cities as the country on the whole is experiencing a boom," says Ramani Sastri, president of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers of India. West Bengal, which has for decades lagged behind in investment growth compared with states such as Maharashtra, is now aggressively wooing investors and real-estate values in the state capital are playing catch-up.

According to Cushman Wakefield Research, the arm of the real-estate consultancy that tracks the industry, in March 2007, the office capital value rate in Kolkata was between Rs4,350 per sq. ft and Rs6,550 per sq. ft in prime locations; in Pune, between Rs3,750 and Rs5,560 per sq. ft and in Chennai, between Rs3,500 and Rs6,200 per sq. ft.

(Source- Live Mint, 04/05/07)

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