Good morning, one of the most important metrics to track in order to decipher a country's growth path is its cement consumption.
💡 India's per capita cement consumption stands at 195 kg. currently, against the global average of 500 kg., meaning there's significant potential for the growth of the Indian cement industry.
With Adani striving to 5X the current output from the plants, the Adani-Holcim deal of USD10.5 billion is big, both for our country and Adani.
But, will prices correct? Will GST on cement see a downward revision from the current 28%? Well, since we are neither called Ginger Sitharaman, nor Ginger Adani, we think….
🚴♀️🍎🧃
Homebuyer Dilemma 101 - Lopsided Agreements, Zero Transparency
We’ve all heard of people getting too-good-to-be-true realty deals and paying the price one way or another.
From builders crying foul about rising input costs and charging more money, issues with selling under-construction units, to irregularities in refunds, turns out lack of transparency is an incurable sore for homebuyers.
Zooming In
🔽 Improper contracts.
🔽 Buyers do not challenge rule violations.
🔽 Lack of awareness and non-transparent terms and conditions.
🔽 Police unable to take action owing to arbitrary contract clauses.
Probable Solutions
🔼 Buyers may get unfair contracts declared as null and void. It may be done via the State Consumer Commission/NDRC.
🔼 Uniform and binding Builder Buyer Agreement as recommended by the Supreme Court.
🔼 Proper disclosure standards akin to disclosure forms signed by sellers in many countries, with suitable penalty clauses.
This could be different from RERA declarations and standards, to ensure uniformity. These standards could list the risks and specify penalties for lack of disclosure.
Quick Quiz
⚡ Are these solutions extremely difficult to implement? No.
⚡ Will we have a solution sometime soon then? No.
Huge Corporate Realty Buys Stimulate Market (Virtual Only)
Have you heard of the Gold Rush? The global realty space is seeing a mad, insatiable rush to buy land/assets. Pepsi, McDonalds- you name it and they’re already at it.
But wait; we're talking virtual. We're talking Metaverse.
Who’s ruling?
Brands are engaged in Gold Rush 2.0, i.e. the war for Metaverse real estate. Take the example of VR platform Admix. It has Metaverse assets worth USD200,000-USD1,000,000 and is working with these global biggies for more.
It’s not the only one; everybody’s gunning for a piece of the Metaverse. In fact, it could determine how we use and sell everything down the line, from art and apparels to property.
Makes sense then, for every big brand worth its internet connection, to be there ahead of time.
💡 Meanwhile, global real estate developers hope that real imitates virtual (roles do reverse at times).
Tuesday Treat - Standing Out
Photographer Andrei Kostromskikh shows us that you don't need to be all glass and steel, or half a kilometre high, to stand out. Sometimes, you just do, for being who you are.
📌 Moral of the story: Say no to plastic bags. 😬
Unwanted Record: China's Real Estate Market In Free Fall
While records are meant to be broken, not all of them are welcome.
In April 2022, China’s property market posted the biggest sales drop since 2006, courtesy policy interventions and cooling demand for housing in a post-COVID-19 world.
What’s happening
📉 Realty sales nosedived by 46.6% this April from the year-ago period.
📉 It’s the biggest such fall since August, 2006.
📉 Fyi, March saw a drop of 26.17%, meaning April wasn't a freak show.
📉 Sales came down by 29.5% (YoY) for January-April.
📉 National developer investments fell by 2.7% (YoY) for Jan-April. Also, it fell by 10.1% in April (YoY).
📉 New constructions came down by 26.3% in the Jan-April period.
What Beijing is doing
Mortgage interest rates have been reduced even more, over 80 Chinese cities are taking demand-revival steps, while subsidies and smaller down payments are being dished out like tomato-and-egg soup.
These lifebuoys came only after authorities tightened the noose on high borrowing by real estate developers earlier, sparking fears of stalled projects galore. However, the outlook stays painfully grim, and with lockdowns continuing, things could get even worse, feel experts.
Brake-check reasons
Lockdowns. Unemployment. Falling Income. Uncertainty. In that order. Even Komatsu (construction equipment maker) saw machine usage plunging by 16.6% last month.
Kind of tells the whole story doesn’t it?
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Plants are straightforward in their expressions – they wilt from being underwatered, or their stems can rot if they get too much of it.
But tech companies are trying to more precisely understand what plants are going through by stringing together sensors, software, and science, and selling farmers integrated platforms to help them get the most out of their plantations.
🍀 And just like bamboo, these companies are growing fast: According to Pitchbook, the precision agriculture market reached USD7.8 billion in 2021 and is expected to nearly double to USD13.9 billion by 2026. Who's leading? Israel of course.
Brb with more updates tomorrow morning. 💚
☕ The Crew@Ginger Chai