Real Estate Bank India (REBI), is planning to set up 3,000 franchisees across the country

Across the eastern region, REBI would open 200 stores, said Hemant Sikaria, regional head of REBI, on the occasion of launch of two-day expo, Franchise Expo 2008-09.

This would be a platform for entrepreneurs and business houses to explore business opportunities in real estate.

REBI was present in places like Bangalore, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jabalpur, Jaipur, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Mysore, Surat, Trichy, Truvandrum and Varanasi.

“India’s realty segment is the only industry with a track record of 30-35 per cent growth per year in terms of investment. With the realty sector booming in east, we are confident that to be able to provide solutions to all real estate requirements of the people here,” Sikaria said.

Indian real estate goes abroad

state, Cento International Investments, U K based real estate consultants have organised 'Invest India Tour London 2008.'

Cento along with Baron Group International, a U K based property investment company and E 18, the marketing division of Network 18 have organised this tour which they say will provide a platform for real estate developers from India to interact with foreign investors and help promote the country as a lucrative investment hub.

The United Kingdom (UK) with a population of 15 million has an untapped market of investors for the real estate in India, Baron Group MD Nayan Bavishi said.

India rises in real estate transparency index

The domestic real estate market, which is grappling with slowdown in demand and a tight liquidity situation, may have some reason to cheer. When it comes to the level of transparency in commercial real estate within Asia Pacific, both India and China have improved their position — moving up from low transparency to semi-transparency, according to Jones Lang LaSalle.

“Five markets moved from Tier 4 (low transparency) to Tier 3 (semi-transparent): China, Dubai, India, Romania, and Ukraine. Vietnam, moved from Tier 5 (opaque) to Tier 4. Although Venezuela’s score declined, it did not move to a lower tier,” the Global Real Estate Transparency Index 2008, said.

The transparency has been measured on parameters such as availability of data on real estate market, data on real estate performance indices, accounting standards and regulations, governance, clarity in taxes, planning codes, land registry, ease of transaction (sale or lease), professional standard for agents, amongst others; hence an improvement in a market’s

Real estate helps in hedging against inflation

Mumbai, June 24: Real estate industry though hit hard by high interest rates, Niranjan Hiranandani feels that high rate of inflation might be a blessing in disguise as historically it has always attracted more investment into the sector.

“Historically, if you see, people used to invest either in real estate or gold to hedge inflation. Only in recent times people are investing in shares, but real estate is a long-term investment and so it is the best bet for investment when inflation is higher,” Hiranandani Construction’s Managing Director Niranjan Hiranandani said.

The higher the inflation, the more the depreciation of rupee and the costlier the properties. Thus when inflation is inching up, people should invest in real estates, the prices of which are certain to go up further, he said.