The massive spike in the number of apartments built in the US last year was almost entirely because of a single city

One city in the US that is responsible for most of the recent apartment boom.

According to Michelle Meyer and the Bank of America Merrill Lynch team, the US saw a startling spike in multi-family housing starts (basically apartments and condos) and New York City was the reason why.

Meyer and company edged down their projection for the number of multi-family starts in 2016 to 375,000, bringing total housing starts down to 1.175 million this year from 1.25 million.

"The downward revision to multifamily starts this year is partly a response to the past three quarters, where multifamily starts declined an average of 31% annualized following the 229% annualized gain in 2Q15," said the note from BAML.

"This volatility largely reflected the rush to start projects in NYC before the expiration of a tax credit. If we subtract NYC building permits from the total, we see a more gradual weakening in building permits over the past few quarters."

The exemption, called 421-a exemptions, allowed developers to get tax relief for building affordable apartment on vacant land. It expired in January of 2016, and based on the economics team's estimation, the pressure to get projects started under the wire led to the spike.

Thus, with the exemption not renewed, the number of multi-family starts should settle in 2016.

Resource: http://www.businessinsider.in

See inside Ashley Olsen’s brand new apartment

We get obscene amounts of pleasure from nosing around our friends’ houses, so we can’t begin to explain our utter glee at looking at the pictures of the New York apartment that Ashley Olsen has just bought.

Bearing in mind that the ex child star and her sister Mary Kate run a $1.5 billion fashion empire, the condo which is based in Manhattan’s iconic and enviable Greenwich Village is a prime piece of real estate. The condo is a 3,000 square-foot, floor-through unit located on East 12th Street (in case you want to send her any mail).

And while it hasn’t been confirmed how much Ashley has purchased the property for, others in the eight-storey building have gone for around the $7.3 million (£4.86 million) mark.

The condo, which is in a 19th century building, and was at one time an art gallery, contains two bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms, and has 11-foot ceilings , a private elevator and exposure on the north and south sides. There is also a 24-hour fitness centre, and round-the-clock doormen and security. It was converted in 2014 by development giants, Edward J Minskoff Equities.

While representatives for the 29-year-old Olsen twin would not comment on too many of the details of the apartment or her reasons for buying it, they did ensure the Wall Street Journey that the multi-million dollar pad was ‘very private.’

Being a billionaire fashionista, Ashley wasn’t exactly going to go for a pad kitted out in Ikea and free-cycle bits. According to streeteasy.com, the finishes and fixtures include brands Miele, Wolf and Sub-Zero kitchen appliances, Calcutta marble, and the piece de resistance – a reclaimed marble vanity from the Museum of Modern Art.

Resource: http://www.marieclaire.co.uk

This is how much Monica's apartment in 'Friends' would really cost

TV offers an escape from reality, but sometimes it goes far beyond what's possible. Special effects, medical miracles, huge inexpensive apartments in New York City. Case in point, Monica Geller's pad in "Friends."

 The New York Post looked at some of the most coveted real estate on TV and revealed the going rate for similar properties in real life. And most of our favorite properties would cost a very pretty penny.

According to the article, Monica's two-bedroom, one-bath apartment with an open kitchen/living room and outdoor terrace in New York City's West Village would cost at least $4,500 a month.

RELATED: 'Friends' cast reunites for James Burrows tribute: See the 6 best moments

Former interior designer Iñaki Aliste Lizarralde researched the fictional space, as well as properties in the area, to come up with the number. The average rent in the neighborhood is around $4,000, but anyone who watched "Friends" (and has done the real estate game in NYC) knows that the apartment would be considered a gem in the market — and a higher price tag would certainly come along with it.

The writers worked up a somewhat legitimate story line to make the 20-something TV chef and her roommates be able to afford the place on their salaries: a rent-controlled inheritance from her grandmother.

 Just as "Friends" viewers walked away with a deep desire to find their "lobster," they also dreamed of the day a family member would bestow upon them an inexpensive apartment in the heart of the city.

The famous NYC dwelling wasn't the only place featured in the Post article. Here are the others:

•     Jerry Seinfeld's NYC apartment in "Seinfeld — $3,400/month
•     Carrie Bradshaw's NYC apartment in "Sex & The City" — $2,700/month
•     Sheldon and Leonard's California apartment in "Big Bang Theory" — $2,000/month
•     Main NYC apartment in "How I Met Your Mother" — $3,000/month
•     Will and Grace's NYC apartment in "Will & Grace" — $6,750/month
•     Lorelai Gilmore's home in "Gilmore Girls" — $500,000
•     The Simpsons' home in "The Simpsons" — $375,000

Resource: http://www.today.com

Cause of Harvey apartment fire under investigation

Investigators are working to determine the cause of a fire at a Harvey apartment complex Monday morning. No one was injured in the blaze, which was reported just before 7 a.m. at the St. Germaine Apartment Homes, 2201 Manhattan Blvd., Harvey, said Capt. Mike McAuliffe, an inspector with the Harvey Volunteer Fire Company No. 2.

No one was home at the time of the fire. The residents left the apartment about 30 minutes before neighbors reported seeing thick smoke pouring out of the residence, McAuliffe said.

The fire appears to have been concentrated in a kitchen garbage can and spread to nearby cabinets, causing heat and smoke damage inside the apartment. The fire possibly burned for almost 25 minutes before being detected.

It took crews about 20 minutes to bring the blaze under control. While the cause is still under investigation, the department ruled out a cooking fire as the cause, McAuliffe said.

Stay with NOLA.com for more on this story.

Resource: http://www.nola.com

Property tax hike in Bengaluru capped at 25% for FY17

BENGALURU: The increase in property taxes in Bengaluru for 2016-17 is going to be capped at 25% regardless of the raise the BBMP self-assessment portal shows and the zone in which the property is located.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah held a meeting with city incharge minister KJ George, Mayor Manjunatha Reddy, BBMP Taxation Committee chairman M Shivaraj and BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad on Thursday after the city MLAs and corporators started getting complaints from people as the increase was huge in many cases.

"I had received many representations from present and past mayors, and the public requesting to sort out the property tax issues after the recent revision. I conveyed them to the chief minister," George said. The root cause of the problem was the simultaneous jump in property taxes as well as the zone where a property is situated. Bengaluru is divided into six zones -- from A to F. While the natural jump in a property's zone -- say from B to A -- caused a certain hike, this was compounded by another raise in revision over the prevailing rates. In many cases, the BBMP's online portal showed jump by two zones: a property is supposed to move up by just one zone over the 2007 zonal classification. Where properties moved up by two zones, the tax payer was supposed to choose the next zone. But the confusion prevailed.

"We will place the subject before the BBMP Council by way of a resolution tomorrow (Friday), and send it to the governmentThe changes will take effect after the government's approval," Shivaraj told ET.

While many MLAs are in favour of a refund in cases where people have already paid excess tax online to avail of the 5% rebate, Shivraj said the rules came in the way of a refund, and hence, the BBMP would adjust the excess amount against next year's taxes. A city-based minister wondered whether it would be fair on BBMP's part to keep honest taxpayer's excess money, and penalise him for paying ahead of the deadline.

Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy hailed the Thursday's developments as a welcome relief to citizens.

There are about 15 lakh property in Bengaluru's municipal limits, and the property taxes are the main source of income for BBMP.


Resource: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

1001 startup ideas - A marketplace for Real Estate Brokers

What is the idea? 

The startup idea is to establish an online platform, which aggregates real estate brokers. The platform will provide tools and information for brokers to be more productive and knowledgeable; the platform will also facilitate information transfer between broker communities and the real estate developers, who can directly access the end consumers through the brokers who use the platform.

Market Definition

 According to an estimate, approximately 210,000 companies operate on the residential brokerage and management field. These companies generated $200 billion in revenue last year. The same report also estimated that there were 35,000 companies operating in the commercial brokerage and management field last year, generating $35 billion in revenue. 

Competitor Analysis

 Most of the current real estate portals are working on B2C model, ignoring the fact that most of the end customer sale still happens through on-field brokers. Through this model, one will be able to tap into existing network of brokers, producing more value for all the stakeholders. Broex is the early mover in the segment in India and has secured 1 million in seed funding last year. They are getting very good response for broker community and running their operation in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad & Jaipur. Globally there are quite a few startups that are disrupting this field, India is also seeing action with E-commerce player Flipkart's co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, along with other investors, have invested $3,50,000 in a real estate startup named Plabro Networks. Mobile collaboration startup for property brokers BroEx got $1M from Lightspeed in funding last year.

Pain Point & Target Audience

Currently, the brokers do not have an intra-broker platform, through which they can reach out to multiple brokers in a cost effective manner instantly. Unlike the United States, where there is MLS feed listing all deals in the market, there is a lack of such services in other developing countries, which aggregates listing from the brokers and then relays it further. The brokers do not have access to larger deal flow, there only source of information is the current listing sites, where the owner is directly listing the properties. There are many properties, which don’t get listed immediately and are traded through a close network of confidant brokers. The online portals are technology friendly, have better user experience and make recommendations on the basis of researched data. In the race to modernization, the brokers seem to have been left behind. The end consumer has better access to real estate reports than the brokers, thereby diminishing their credibility. The brokers do not have access to tools and knowledge, which can make them compete with other online portals; they are increasingly being seen as technologically challenged and lacking in market trends. The brokers need a platform which can aggregate all of them and give them tips, data points and market trend info in advance so as to be better prepared for deal making. The platform should make it easier for the brokers to scout for and close deals faster. 

Value Proposition

This platform will empower real estate brokers with tools to broker deals faster and compete effectively with other online portals. With this platform, the Broker will remain updated on real estate trends and will be able to effectively compete with online portals. Brokers will also get access to the wider market through fellow brokers for their customers / investors. Real estate developers can use this platform to launch their new projects and reach directly to the large pool of brokers across different cities; this tool will also help them to get early feedback about the market response, before launching the product to the end consumers by spending mega bucks on promotional events and advertisements. 

Business Model

The basic services like market information, deal listing should be provided free of cost to the brokers. Additional services like a an app for managing deal cycle, CRM tools and other tools to enhance productivity of the brokers should be charged on a monthly basis. The services should be delivered as a Saas. This is the same model, which is followed by LinkedIn, Dropbox and other aggregators. 

Way to market

The first step would be start collaborating with real estate associations, to get the database of brokers. Thereafter run a short survey amongst the end users to identify top pain points and develop a beta product strategy. It may be a good idea to scout for a knowledge partner, who can supply real time information from the ground for your consumption and relaying, its best to rely on other providers and outsource this to experts, so that you can focus on the core application.

 Milestones

The first couple of years in this business should be focused on creating a strong community of brokers who use the portal/app on an everyday basis. Based on the feedback and by tracking usage of the platform by brokers, the startup can create the upgrades for which it will charge its customers and start converting its user base into paid users. Typically a good business running on Freemium model can convert 3- 5 percent of its free users to paid users. 

Investment Needed For Prototype

For testing & building the prototype, pitch for raising $100K- $250K from angel investors or incubators like 500 startups. There should be no office rentals or salary payout; the entire budget should be apportioned for customer acquisition and technology. 

Team Capability

You would need to have a real estate expert and a tech expert as co-founders. The real estate expert will bring his expertise in real estate industry to help the tech expert in creating the platform.

Investors / Expert Take

Overall, the private equity investors threw a projected $1.5 billion at real estate tech startups in 2015; as per reports from CB Insights. That’s a big leap from $1.1 billion in venture/ private equity funding in 2014 and represents a threefold increase from 2010 numbers. Whilst most of the real estate technology startups are based in New York City, or at least in the US, there is an untapped market for such emerging products globally. International juggernauts like Jones Lang LaSalle, Cushman & Wakefield and CBRE have been in the brokerage business for generations and would be keenly watching this space as it has the potential to topple their applecart, if it picks up steam.

Resource: http://www.moneycontrol.com

Housing prices down 1% during March quarter in Delhi-NCR: 99acres

NEW DELHI: Housing prices fell by 1 per cent in Delhi-NCR during January-March this year compared with the previous quarter on sluggish demand, according to a report by realty portal 99acres.

Rentals also fell by 1 per cent during the last one year.

The report captures capital and rental price trends of the residential realty market on quarterly basis across seven major cities of India.

"Property prices per sq ft in Delhi NCR witnessed a minimal downtrend of 1 per cent in January-March as compared to October-December 2015," the company said in a statement.

The rental market, too, plateaued over the last one year, it said.

"Delhi NCR's real estate graph continued to delineate a marginal downtrend, with the land pooling policy of the government offering a ray of hope," said Narasimha Jayakumar, Chief Business Officer, 99acres.

The national capital also witnessed the second highest absorption of office space in the country, predicting an optimistic future for the rental landscape, in the long run, he added.

In Delhi, the capital market of apartments continued to remain lacklustre in the first quarter of 2015 with limited number of new launches across the city.

"A few localities fared well on the capital growth index, primarily due to over-ambitious 'ask' rates by sellers. One such locality, Dilshad Garden, noted a capital hike of 5 per cent in January-March 2016 against the previous quarter,"

Despite the huge supply pipeline, some sectors in Dwarka -- sector 14, 12 and 7 -- witnessed a quarterly increase in capital values to the tune of 2-3 per cent.

Resource: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com