Good morning, before the weekend appears out of the woodwork and consumes our curiosity for real estate updates, trailing below are some handpicked blurbs meant for immediate consumption.
We will be back in your mailbox on Monday morning.
Stay safe, avoid public gatherings and do not participate in the relay of incorrect Omicron related information.
😷 👨💼↔👨💼
Noida: Registration On Carpet Area Only
For a long time, homebuyers have been demanding for apartment registrations based on carpet area only. In an answer to that long standing ask, Noida authorities have complied.
There's A New Rule In Town
And it mandates the registration of apartments on the basis of their carpet area instead of their super built up area.
Backstory. . .
The Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) had earlier mandated that builders must sell apartments based solely on their carpet areas.
And while developers did comply and began to mention the carpet area of apartments, the waters got muddy when it came to registering them - where stamp duty was mostly charged based on the super built up area.
Will It Translate Into Savings?
Yes. Number crunchers from the industry feel that it will save the average homebuyer between INR 1 lac to INR 2.5 lacs at the time of registration.
🎙 “This order by the Noida Authority will bring much relief to homebuyers as it will reduce their registration fee cost for the flats and thereby lower their overall property acquisition cost,” Santhosh Kumar from Anarock, said to MoneyControl.
Signs Of A Healthy Housing Market
While a housing transaction might look like a daunting task, if you read the basic signs correctly, a home sale/purchase will not feel like a gamble.
Here are some signs that will accurately reflect the health of any housing market.
The Young Are Buying, Not Renting - When entry-level/starter homes (INR 40-75 lacs) are in high demand, it's a sign that the housing market is on the right track. Note that when the market is jittery, young and first-time prospective home buyers typically opt to rent instead of buying.
Steady Growth In Housing Prices - Cost of housing does not increase in an unhealthy housing market—they decrease to attract new buyers as unsold homes sit on the market for months or years at a time. When the market is healthy, home price tags will typically rise, and sometimes, rapidly.
Mortgage Rates Are Low - Here's a thumb rule when it comes to housing loan interest rates. The higher the rate, the higher the risk for the bank. If mortgage rates are low, it's a sign of good health for housing. Increasing home loan rates mean risk on lending is rising and a poor market could be the reason.
Real Estate Companies Are Hiring - One of the easiest signs to read. When you get a lot of 'Immediate Joining' posts on social media/job portals from real estate firms, it signals a healthy housing market. When real estate folks are being laid off, or are unemployed for long stretches, the market is bad.
Homes Are Affordable - What's the point of a healthy housing market if people can't afford homes? Red hot markets with high price tags are signs of poor health. Price tags which foster demand and enable purchases and sales point to good health.
Sellers Are Buying Bigger Homes - When the housing market is healthy, sellers typically feel comfortable buying larger homes, shortly after selling their existing one. When the market is unhealthy, home sales often happen in distress - to close the home loan, get out of the EMI commitment and survive.
🕹 Manual Override Clause: Your Mother In Law Says It's Time - Ignore all that chatter above and do as she says. The peace that will get you can help you walk through hellfire. Unhealthy housing market? Piece of 🍰
A Town Eating Monster
📽 Watch: Aerial footage shows volcanic ash devouring Spanish towns.
The volcano that has been erupting for months on the Spanish island of La Palma has damaged or destroyed over 2,700 buildings, according to local authorities, and with no end in sight.
This must-watch drone footage from Reuters shows scary-long lava rivers and entire neighbourhoods being slowly buried in volcanic ash. 😳
Prayers for the affected please.
Wanted: Real Estate Risk Data
When the going is good - in terms of health, money, business - we feel that all our decisions are spot-on but when things start going downhill, we frantically start dialling doctors, accountants and other specialised professionals.
Why? Because we expect them to give us data and insights to make better decisions and get out of the soup we are swimming in.
Real Estate Investments And Risk
Constantly low interest rates are reducing returns from fixed-income investments and other institutional standbys.
And the higher returns offered by real estate have made the industry an increasingly important source of opportunities for investors.
But with COVID-19 introducing a sledgehammer to many real estate assets changing how tenants use shopping malls, commercial offices and other assets traditionally seen as sources of steady returns, investors are scurrying for reliable data to manage risk.
Data Is King (Again)
Because of the massive volatility of cash flow through the recent past, real estate investors have realised they did not have the tools or the data to properly compare the riskiness of real estate rental income across assets, portfolios and regions.
Those with access to such data are now helping reshape real estate investment methods.
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Forwards and onwards to a socially distanced weekend then.
If you have a mother in law, give her our regards.
💚
☕ The Crew@Ginger Chai