Real estate - insider story

My uncle works for one of the real estate companies in Chennai. The company has a strong political connection and so Public Sector Banks were the primary source of funding for this company. 

As sales slowly started drying up , the company borrowed a second round to pay interest for the loan initially taken. (You should not ask how these loans were taken:-) )

While this situation continued, interest rates rose and sales almost came close to zero.In normal circumstance you would have expected the builder to reduce prices. Now they have gone in for  another round of financing from a private financier with double the amount of property as collateral.

Just imagine the margin of this builder, if they are able to pay "Sooooo muchhh" interest and still sell their properties for a profit.

"Property prices keep going up " is the mantra that is held to sell property to the middle class. So, these companies don't want to bring down the prices at any cost.

Moral 1:- Builders will never want the price to come down.

One of my friends had bought a flat from this company 3 years ago for 75 Lakhs. He wanted to dispose this of for 92 Lakhs. But after trying out for 6 months, he has come down to an asking value of 80 Lakhs ( of course a big loss- considering the interest paid). Still no takers. 

The builder is still maintaining the prices of unsold flats in the apartment to market value. My friend is not able to sell his flat , the builder has many unsold flats. But my friend has not been able to hold to his selling price for long.

Moral 2:- Selling real estate may not be that easy for an individual as you may imagine.( Brokers, Builder, Bankers manage the game)

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Did you know ?- Facts on PPF

1) Interest rate for PPF is now pegged against the long term ( 10 year) government securities yield. ( which is 8.8% as on 30 Mar 2014). So, going forward the yield on PPF will vary with the G-sec rate . The days of fixed returns is gone.

2) Interest on PPF is calculated based on the lowest balance in your account between 5th and last day of the month. Interest is compounded annually and is credited at the end of the year. But the interest calculation is done based on the monthly balance rule stated above.( so ensure you deposit your money before 5th of every month in your PPF).

PPF- Public Provident Fund account.

Mutual funds - difference in dividend declaration- Regular and Direct plans

Of late, may mutual fund have declared dividends. If you have been wondering that your scheme ( direct) was treated differently from the other for dividend declaration, here's the reason.

No dividends in yourdirect plan?
Don't worry on this count, as thereare valid reasons regarding realisedgains; look at other factors, too

Investors of the HDFC Prudence Fund direct plan received a

dividend of ~1.25 a unit in March. But investors in the regular

plan of the same fund received a dividend of ~3 a unit. Similarly,

in the ICICI Prudential Tax Plan, the direct plan declared a dividend

of 1.5 per cent a unit, while the regular plan declared a dividend

of two per cent a unit.

HDFC Mid-cap Opportunities Fund declared a dividend of

~1.75 for the regular plan in February but did not declare any

dividend for the direct plan. Similarly, in January, ICICI

Prudential Discovery declared a dividend of ~2.14 for the regular

plan but none in the direct plan.

Data from Value Research says this is not a trend across

mutual funds and schemes. It is specific to some schemes. The

reason why some direct MF plans did not declare dividends or

declared less was because of a Securities and Exchange Board

of India rule that dividends can only be paid from realised

gains, says Dhirendra Kumar of Value Research.

For instance, if the net asset value increases from ~10 to ~13,

the gain is ~3. Earlier, funds used to pay a dividend out of these

gains. Sebi has now said the dividend can be paid only out of

the profits the fund makes, by selling shares and booking profits.

So, if the fund makes a profit of ~1, it can pay dividends only

out of that ~1.

Credits :- Full article on link -