Good morning, you'll be glad to know that climate change deniers are no longer allowed to make money by sharing their hogwash on Google and YouTube.
This is Google's latest step towards reigning in misinformation.
No such worries here, Ginger Chai is brimming over with true stories, which resound with our readers most on Monday mornings.
Read on then. . .
Inspiring Confidence
What the real estate world witnessed through the pandemic leaves little doubt that digitalisation, which grew at a much faster rate in the past year, was the sole reason the sector survived.
With that, it is only expected that going forward, the real estate industry will see continued technological disruption in some way or form.
But what do the numbers say? Per MetaProp’s latest Global PropTech Confidence report, confidence among both startups and investors has continued to grow as real estate continues to adopt technology.
Zooming In
Here are the key takeaways;
📍 Investor confidence hit 8.9 on a scale of 10 in mid-2021, while startup confidence was at 8.3 – an all-time high.
This rise in confidence on both sides is being driven by continued IPOs, M&A transactions and large private venture funding rounds.
📍 Around 41% of investors reported that their proptech portfolio companies were performing better than expected – an all-time high and up from just 13% in mid-2020.
📍 Smart buildings (43%), architecture, engineering and construction (19%) and space management (14%) are the segment wise priorities for proptech investors.
📍 Sectors that investors are most interested in - offices at 30%, followed by mixed-use (22%), multi-family/build to rent (21%) and industrial (11%)
📍 Consolidation, growing acquisitions and greater adoption are the biggest changes investors expect in proptech's near future.
📍 Target markets of global proptech firms - Residential comes out on top, with 48% targeting single family homes and 57% targeting multi-family.
More than half (53%) of startups are eyeing office tech, while over a third are targeting mixed-use (38%), retail (37%), hospitality (34%) and industrial (33%).
👍 Overall, what's remarkable is how quickly the tech is adapting to the dynamic needs of every stakeholder of the real estate industry.
Monday Morning Gold
Navi-gating Through Time
Navi Mumbai's real estate story is worth sharing.
A sizeable 'central suburb' linked to Mumbai by the harbour railway line and a sub 2 km bridge, that boasts of robust infrastructure, great connectivity, and relatively cleaner living compared to Mumbai.
The Backstory
Post independence, India's urbanisation levels skyrocketed and the population of Mumbai began bursting at the seams, sending urban planners in a huddle by the 1970s.
That's when 16,000 hectares across 86 villages were acquired by the state government to decongest Mumbai, and Navi Mumbai was born.
Despite offering a better quality of life than Mumbai itself, Navi Mumbai's reality today is a six-o-clock shadow of the original vision, real estate developments included.
Lackluster Real Estate Timeline
Vishal Bhargava, in an insightful piece notes down three reasons that have played spoilsport over time, restricting the satellite town's real estate development potential.
1️⃣ With Mumbai city offering far more profitable and cash flow boosting development potential, real estate builders never took Navi Mumbai seriously enough.
2️⃣ Navi Mumbai offered sub-optimal land plot sizes, which did not translate into high volume opportunity for top builders, who were better off dealing in large land parcels that Mumbai readily offered.
3️⃣ Navi Mumbai has forever been a laid back, even a sleepy market that has not marketed itself well.
The Story Ahead
Will Maharashtra's incentives to the real estate sector, emergence of large listed players, and an infrastructure boom help Navi Mumbai reach its full development potential?
🔀 There are two lines of thought;
The first says that Navi Mumbai's property market is highly local in nature.
Hiranandani Developers, one of the most profitable real-estate companies in India, failed in its venture in Navi Mumbai, where it sold at a loss.
Yet the second line of thought suggests otherwise.
Infrastructure giant L&T, constructing an integrated township, saw remarkable sales performance even during the peak of COVID-19 last year.
🏆 Whichever way it goes, with a renewed focus on all growth parameters today, Navi Mumbai should eventually emerge as the winner.
Half A Cup Extra
- In the first week of October, daily property registrations in Pune slowly increased from four digits to five digits.
- Nagpur's Mayor has claimed that applications seeking building plan sanction are kept waiting for 8-9 months in the town planning department of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) due to a racket run by brokers.
- Find out more about the changing face of Singapore's retail sector.
Speed And Power
We all have walked out of our homes at some point in time to find that the water supply guys have dug up the road right in front of our doorsteps.
All for greater good.
Once they were done and left behind a patchy repair, sometimes the electricity blokes or the broadband dudes came by and dug up the same spot again.
And if you were going through a rough astrological patch, they even blew the original water line in the process. 😨
Well, those days could finally be over for good.
Are You Serious?
Yes. On Wednesday, October 13, the Prime Minister will deploy the digital platform for the first ever National Infrastructure Masterplan.
Through this, the entire network of projects - from roads and railways, to telecom networks and gas pipelines, - with plans up to 2024-25, will be laid out.
The masterplan, christened PM GatiShakti (meaning speed and power), was announced on Independence Day and will bring together 16 ministries, including seven core infrastructure sectors, on one tech platform.
This will synergise project planning across stakeholder ministries to avoid duplication, expedite clearances and plug gaps at the right time.
How Will It Work?
Simple. For example, when the gas pipeline workers want to work in a certain area, they can first use the platform to find out what the roads and telecom departments have planned for the same place.
The core of GatiShakti will have 200 layers which work forces from various departments can use to map physical features, water resources, roads, railways, gas pipelines and optic fibre networks, to name a few.
This way, they can work simultaneously, saving tonnes of time and money by avoiding repetitive tasks, while residents of the area can finally do without consuming uncountable antacids.
Awesome, Who Benefits?
Apart from the various government departments, private contractors will also have access to this data, which will help them cut overhead costs and reduce implementation times of the various job works they may have been assigned.
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Have a great start to an awesome week ahead.
More updates tomorrow. 💙
☕ The Crew@Ginger Chai