News from the Real estate industry .

1 DLF to purchase New Delhi mill land

DLF, India's most valuable real estate company, will purchase around 38 acres of land in New Delhi.The company will buy Swatantra Bharat Mills from DCM Shriram Consolidated in a deal worth 16 billion rupees - the largest private sector land deal in India.
Bharat Mills, located about four to five kilometres from the capital's central business district, lies adjacent to about 25 acres of land that DLF acquired in 2005. With a further two acres acquired earlier this year, the company now has 65 acres in one locality.
DLF has already received an in-principle approval to develop an IT SEZ on this land, and may invest 110-120 billion rupees in building an integrated township there.These purchases mark a shift in DLF's focus towards the capital and away from peripheral markets such as Gurgaon, in which its operations had previously been concentrated.


2.Massive property expansion planned by Reliance Retail

The hypermarket arm of India's Reliance Retail, Reliance Mart, has acquired over 50 million square feet through franchise direct routes over the last six months alone as it eyes fast expansion, Rediff India reports.The company has set a target of 100 million square feet by 2011 to develop its hypermarket
business, the news service said.The firm's first hypermarket will open in Ahmedabad .
Two further hypermarkets, ranging in size between 1,65,000 to 2,00,000 square feet, will open in Jamnagar, Gujarat, and Gurgaon, Haryana, in September.The company aims to open one or two new stores every month during this financial year.

3. Indian property investment moving to smaller cities

Smaller cities could be the next big wave in property investment in India, according to industry experts.With property prices soaring in the main cities, tier II and tier III cities might benefit from an increased attention from property developers and investors .Better infrastructure due to the proliferation of IT companies might further draw interest to tier II and tier III cities, as previously only major cities were sufficiently well connected, argues writer Rakesh Malhotra, of The Indian Real Estate Forum. Tier II cities such as Mangalore, Mysore, Lucknow and Jodhpur can save companies up to 30 per cent in costs drawing interest in operations and employees setting up there.According to estimates, demand for commercial property in tier II cities could amountto 1.2 million to 1.5 million square feet in the next year.Property developers have seen their stocks soar in recent years, with New Delhi-based Unitech having seen its share price almost triple in the past year, and the Bombay's Stock Exchange's main index for property has grown by almost 40 per cent in thesame time period.The growing interest in commercial property development in more out of the way towns could mean that growth is far from stalling in India.