Gandhian ways best to get usurped Waqf property back: Heptulla

BHOPAL :  Union minister for minority affairs Najma Heptulla said the local residents of the minority communities would have to adopt the Gandhian way to save the Waqf Board property and make it free from the encroachers. And for this they would have to stage sit-in and launch agitations

Heptulla made these comments while addressing a press conference in the city on Sunday. She urged the people of minority communities to come forward and save the Waqf property.

 The minority affairs minister said she would also join the agitation for the cause.

She claimed that in the nation around 6 lakh acres of land belonging to the Waqf Board has been encroached upon.

She also added that the Waqf Board chairman of Himachal Pradesh has also captured property of the board. “The people appointed as a protector, have captured the property”.

She added that in Delhi itself the government has encroached upon 103 properties of the board. She demanded whichever government is possessing the board’s property, should pay the rent.

She added that she would try to bring the bill in the cabinet regarding the board’s property. She suggested that the law procedures and legal matters take a long time to solve the problems, but the Gandhian ways, which forced the British to leave India, would be the best suited against the encroachers to make them leave the board’s property.

She added that the NDA government is supporting the minority communities in various aspects. The government have increased the budget for scholarships to the minority students up to Rs 90 crore.

Talking about the panchayat day, she added, “It would be truism to say that we have taken democracy from the Greek or British, while in traditional Indian ruling system the king used to seek suggestions from the head (Mukhiya or sarpanch) of the village while shaping the development plans for the state.”

She shared her experiences of the 73rd and 74th Panchayati Raj Amendment Bills, saying she cried when the bill was dropped by one vote. She said the bill was important for her because for the first time 33 per cent reservation was proposed for the women in the panchayat bodies. Later the bill was passed.

Resource: http://www.freepressjournal.in

The apartments guaranteed to sell

Angela Galvin's two Collingwood units tell the story of Australia's evolving apartment market.

Ms Galvin, a health services professional, paid $555,000 for a two-bedroom apartment in a 90-unit development in the inner Melbourne suburb five years ago. Last year, she bought a bigger apartment, a three-bedroom, two-level dwelling with a balcony in a converted brick warehouse.

Ahead of that purchase, which cost her in the region of $1.2 million, Ms Galvin wanted to put her first apartment on the market.

"I tried to sell it, but I couldn't even get what I paid," she said. "There are just thousands going up in Collingwood. It's not unique and everyone looking for that sort of apartment wanted a newer one."

The contrast between her old apartment and the new one became apparent this week when Ms Galvin's neighbour in the 99 Oxford St building sold his own three-bedroom apartment with terrace at auction for an eye-watering $1,470,000, well above the expected $1.1 million to $1.2 million.

Her experience spells out what buyers and vendors can expect as record numbers of apartment settlements come due both this year and next across the east coast of Australia.

"Anything in a heritage building sells well, anything that's got space sells well," said Luke Sacco, the real estate agent who sold 38/99 Oxford Street. "Where there's an overstock with is the cookie-cutter, the standard 1-to-2-bedroom small apartment space. There's a lot of those available."

After funding a sustained burst of apartment developments focused on both local and foreign investors, banks - prompted in part by growth limits set by the regulator - are reigning in their exposure to that segment of the market and turning to funding developments that cater to the growing local market of owner-occupiers.

"They all are working hard to get owner-occupiers," said Angie Zigomanis, the senior manager for residential property at research company BIS Shrapnel. "Investors are subject to higher loan-to-value ratios and higher interest rates. Part of that is that APRA last year said 'We'd rather you don't increase your lending portfolio to investors by more than 10 per cent', which means if you're trying to grow more than 10 per cent, you have to look to other sectors of the market."

But it also comes as the wave of retiring baby boomers, who first turned 65 in 2011, gathers pace and begin looking for suitable accommodation in which to downsize. The buyer of Ms Galvin's neighbour's apartment was an older couple. Further, the next largest demographic group - Gen Y - is looking to buy property and is increasingly trading off space for convenience by going for apartments in locations close to transport, good food and bars.

In Melbourne, approvals of medium-density apartment developments (those fewer than 4 storeys) have picked up over the past three years across areas such as Port Phillip, Stonnington, Bayside and Glen Eira.

Sydney, with less space available for development and an apartment boom that has already extended across the metropolitan area, has less medium-density, but a flight to quality is evident as more locals look to buy apartments in higher-density developments. In November, Elaine Yong paid $715,000 for a 56-square-metre one-bedroom apartment in Surry Hills, a 2010 five-storey mixed-use development designed by architects Candalepas Associates. She had looked at a lot of apartments before she bid on the 38 Waterloo Street property.

"Many are in good locations, but always something was not quite right," said Ms Yong, who works in financial services. "The building might have a great view, but I wasn't particularly happy with the building. I wanted a building with low strata levies. I didn't see a point in body corporate fees to pay for a pool I wouldn't use."

In contrast DeNode, as her building is called, had large apartments, low running costs and met her wish for a more sustainable way of living.

"It's an apartment designed for someone with a disability - everything's really wide," she said. "DeNode uses recycled water in toilets. Because it's raw exposed concrete the upkeep is relatively low.The orientation of the apartment means it's always nice and shaded and cool. It doesn't overheat."

Real estate agent Shaun Ellis, of CPS Property Surry Hills, said the developer Haralambis Group still owned properties in the building and managed them.

"There's the upkeep and that just creates value," Mr Ellis said.

Back in Collingwood, Ms Galvin kept her original apartment, which she rents out. But the sale of her neighbour's apartment, not renovated since the original conversion a decade ago, shows she's on to a good thing with the new one.

"They got a very good price," she said.

Resource: http://www.afr.com

Apartments could boost Daleville population

DALEVILLE – Even as the Town of Daleville pursues plans to build and expand, it faces a basic problem: more people work in Daleville than live there.

"We double in size during the day and those people leave and go elsewhere at night," Daleville Town Council President Tom Roberts said. "It’s why we invest in the park and the new downtown."

Officials hope a proposed apartment complex could be one piece to a changing community.

Hundreds of workers at the Heartland Business Center and other areas along Ind. 67 commute to Daleville for work, but they don’t live in the town. A look at Daleville’s housing stock suggests one potential reason why: because there are not many options, which hinders the potential for increasing the number of Daleville residents.

Census data from 2014 shows a stagnant population for Daleville, which has had roughly 1,600 residents since 1990. Trends year-to-year show Daleville's population could be on the decline, although the number was fewer than three or four people a year. Working to increase population is at the core of the town's downtown initiatives.

The census data showed one other interesting thing about the town. Daleville has around 32 percent of its housing in rental units, just three percentage points below Delaware County as a whole, but the rental vacancy rate was so low that it registers at zero. Vacant homes are also below the countywide average.

And that's where the town's latest effort comes in. A proposed $8.4 million project, known as Salem Place Apartments, could bring 64 apartments to the growing community. These low-income housing apartments would be built in Daleville’s downtown near Sixth Street, in part on town-own land where the former Lions Club building sits.

“Daleville has been dormant for 20 years, and we are just breaking out of that,” council member Bill Walters said in an earlier interview about the proposed apartments.

At the end of February, the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority announced that RealAmerica Development would receive tax credits for the new housing development. RealAmerica has similar apartments built in Fort Wayne and other Indiana communities.

“We see that the market is there and that Daleville is a desirable place to live,” said Jeff Ryan, Vice President of Development with RealAmerica. The company will complete three market studies to confirm at every step that there is a market for the apartments.

The low-income apartments meet a niche in Daleville. For a single-person apartment the income is capped at $23,100 for eligibility, while a four-person family on one income qualifies for a cap of $32,940 in 2015 qualifiers. These income brackets constitute nearly 42 percent of the current population in Daleville. The income caps are expected to raise with the numbers from 2016.

Daleville’s median household income is $40,795.

The housing is made affordable through a Section 42 tax credit program. While some residents in Daleville voiced concern about Section 8 housing, these two programs are separate from each other and can't be mixed.

Resource: http://www.thestarpress.com

Building Update: Three parish schools becoming apartments

Building Update is a regular feature highlighting progress on development projects throughout the region.

Project name: Parish school conversions

Address: 1030 Parkside Ave., 31 Tamarack St. and 17 Mineral Springs Road

Developer: Karl Frizlen

Cost: $13.6 million

Description: Conversions of St. Rose of Lima, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Teresa’s parish schools into 90 apartments

Completion date: August 2016, November 2016, February 2017

Lowdown: Two former Catholic church schools in Buffalo that are being converted into apartments by Karl Frizlen are well on their way to completion over the next few months, while a third is now getting underway, as the architect and developer adds a total of 90 units to the city’s inventory.

Frizlen is redeveloping the former parish schools of St. Rose of Lima in North Buffalo and St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Teresa’s in South Buffalo. All three are historic buildings, so the projects were eligible for historic tax credits.

The 26,000-square-foot St. Rose at 1030 Parkside Ave., now dubbed The School Lofts @ Parkside, will have a mixture of 21 one- and two-bedroom units, with rents ranging from $900 to $1,200 per month. Each classroom in the building, which was built in 1926, is being reused as a loft apartment, with 12-foot ceilings, hardwood floors, large original windows, doors and moldings and even original slate blackboards. Work is about halfway done on the $3.8 million project, with completion planned by Aug. 1, and about 75 percent of the 21 luxury loft units are already leased, Frizlen said.

In South Buffalo, the former St. Thomas school at 432 Abbott Road is now The School Lofts @ Abbott, at 31 Tamarack St., with 32 one- and two-bedroom luxury loft apartments, ranging in size from 750 to 1,100 square feet. Like St. Rose, each classroom in the building – constructed in 1926 – is now an apartment, with similar features as the other former parish school. Work on the $5.2 million project is 25 percent complete, with an opening targeted for Nov. 1, and about a quarter of the units are leased.

Finally, Frizlen’s team is starting work on the former St. Teresa’s School at 17 Mineral Springs Road in South Buffalo. The 42,000-square-foot building, which dates to at least 1911, will be turned into 37 one- and two-bedroom apartments, with rents ranging from $900 to $1,000 per month. The $4.6 million project, which includes 37 parking spaces, will be called The School Lofts @ Mineral Springs. It has been approved by the city Planning Board, and crews began construction a month ago, Frizlen said. It’s slated to be done by February 2017.

Resource: http://www.buffalonews.com

More details on proposed South End apartments

Apartment company Pollack Shores is moving forward with a plan to build 350 new apartments on Tremont Avenue in South End, and the firm revealed some more details about the development at a recent community meeting.

The building would be on an 8.4-acre site on the south side of Tremont Ave, between Tryon Street and Hawkins Street. That’s near Sycamore Brewing, the Blue Line light rail and thousands of other apartment units in South End that are either proposed or under construction.

Atlanta-based Pollack Shores needs permission from Charlotte City Council to rezone the site, which is currently occupied by industrial buildings. As part of the rezoning process, the company held an informational session earlier this month with local residents.

At the meeting (you can find minutes from it online here), a Pollack Shores executive said the company plans to complete the first apartments on the site in mid-2018 and finish the building by 2019. The four-story building would include a 20-foot easement for a pedestrian and bike path connecting Tryon and Hawkins streets. A new public street would bisect the site, connecting Tremont Street with the southern edge of the site.

The apartment building would include up to 2,500 square feet of non-residential uses on the ground floor, such as shops or offices. Pollack Shores’ plan is to develop the site in phases, with the first apartment building built on the side of the property near Tryon Street. The eastern half of the site, closer to Hawkins Street, would be developed in the future.

Some neighbors expressed concern that the design is too uniform and similar to other apartments being developed nearby. One of the architects working on the project said the design is still being refined, and could look different in the future.

City Council will hold a hearing on the plan in the coming months, and then vote on the proposal. Stay tuned for more details.

Pollack Shores is also developing large apartment buildings on Central Avenue in Plaza Midwood and on Park Road near SouthPark.

Resource: http://www.charlotteobserver.com

£1.5m Battersea power station apartments held back from market

Luxury £1.5m apartments being built in the Battersea power station redevelopment are being held back from the market, as the downturn at the top end of the London property market hits sales.

Prices start at £1.39m for a two-bedroom apartment designed by the architect Frank Gehry on the £8bn site on the south bank of the Thames, while homes from Foster + Partners are marketed for £1.55m and upwards.

The chief executive of the Battersea Power Station Development company (BPSD), Rob Tincknell, told PropertyWeek that 35 apartments were currently up for sale, while another 150 were being held back. “If there is market demand, we will release more units, but the market has softened,” he said.

Tincknell added that his company was offering discounts to buyers but would not follow other London developers in doing heavily discounted bulk sales to institutional investors.

“The market is quite challenging - there are fewer buyers around,” he said. “That doesn’t mean we have stopped - we are still selling apartments, but we’re not chasing the market and we’re not worried.”

BPSD, which is owned by Malaysian investors, said it had sold property worth £110m since November across the whole site.

Properties are being released to buyers in tranches and since the third phase of marketing began in October 2014, 350 of the 539 apartments designed by Foster and Gehry have been sold.

When the first phase of the property sale, 865 flats, went on the market three years ago, they all sold within weeks. About 20 luxury apartments out of 254 that were launched in the next phase two years ago have not been sold.

This is the latest sign that potential buyers are being put off by recent stamp duty rises, while demand from wealthy foreign investors has slackened with the slowdown in China and mounting global economic uncertainty. There are also signs that Britain’s potential exit from the EU is weighing on the property market.

Several investment firms and banks have warned that a glut of luxury housing in London has created a bubble, with US bank Morgan Stanley predicting that the price of new upmarket flats could fall by 10-20% this year. UBS warned six months ago that house prices in London were the most overvalued of any major city in the world.

Tincknell’s comments came just days after BPSD unveiled its first Gehry show apartment, with the “LA interior” featuring rough sawn oak-fronted kitchen cabinets with open display shelves, while the “London interior” has chevron flooring and a metallic kitchen.The Canadian-born architect, who lives in Los Angeles, has designed a cluster of five buildings whose sculptural facades are inspired by London’s John Nash regency terraces. They are reminiscent of the billowing sails of ships – echoing Gehry’s ship design of the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, northern Spain.

A separate block designed by British architect Sir Norman Foster’s firm has a 255-metre roof garden, which looks out on the Gehry buildings. The Foster apartments are styled in a 1930s theme that has been adopted from the power station.

According to property website Propcision, a large number of the homes at Battersea power station that are being resold have had their asking prices slashed.

Resource: http://www.theguardian.com

BRIEF-Eyemaxx Real Estate resolves rights issue to finance property projects

Eyemaxx Real Estate AG :

* Decides on rights issue primarily to finance further property projects

* Capital increase from authorized capital with subscription rights by up to 779,948 shares

* Resulting cash inflows will primarily be used to finance further real estate projects in residential, commercial and maintenance fields in Germany and Austria Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage: (Gdynia Newsroom)

Resource: http://www.reuters.com