Realty News Roundup: Realty Regulator Likely To Cover Small Projects; Piramal Realty To Get India's Biggest FDI

Realty News Roundup is PropGuide's selection of top stories from the real estate sector.

Top News

The proposed real estate regulator is likely to cover small projects too. A 21-member Rajya Sabha select committee has recommended that building projects on land below 1,000 square metres should be covered under the regulator. With the new decision, buyers of small properties will be more secure in terms of their investment in real estate. According to a report in the Hindustan Times, the panel has also recommended that a builder cannot divert less than 50% of money collected from buyers to other projects. It has also retained all penal provisions related to imprisonment of developers for any violation of the proposed law. Read more.

Global private equity firm Warburg Pincus is reportedly going to invest Rs 1,800 crore for a minority stake in Piramal Realty, the real estate development arm of Ajay Piramal Group. This is said to be one of the biggest foreign direct investment (FDI) deals in the real estate sector in India. Primal Realty has said that the capital raised would be used to expand the company's portfolio and acquire marquee land parcels in and around Mumbai. Read here.

Mint reports that developers backed by global and domestic private equity (PE) capital are set for "buying spree" for land in the Indian market. The report says that large tracts of land have been put up for sale in top property markets such as Mumbai, Bengaluru and the National Capital Region (NCR) by companies, private land owners, and some developers. The report cites two such transactions and predicts that many land purchases are likely to take place. Read here.

Off the front page

Latest in the competition among various cities for the Centre's Smart City tag, Nagpur has sought help from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) to make the city's claim for the tag foolproof. Read here.

In Guwahati, developers are worried that the authority is putting them through "unnecessary harassment" in the name of building permissions. Read more.

Opinion

In his second article on FirstPost.com, Vivek Kaul, author of the 'Easy Money' trilogy, today raises a crucial question - how expensive is expensive in Indian real estate sector? Read here.