MacBank flexes its arm in India

MACQUARIE Bank's Singapore partner Ascendas may list a real estate investment trust made up of its Indian assets.

Ascendas, which manages the city state's second-biggest property trust, would list the Indian property trust in Singapore, according to Jonathan Yap, head of the company's Indian unit.

The Singapore-based company, which started a $S350 million ($300 million) Indian property fund about a year ago, is studying several options to boost returns for investors that include General Electric Commercial Finance Real Estate, Bangalore-based Mr Yap said in an interview in Singapore.

Home loan business hot despite rate spike

The home loan business remains hot, despite attempts by RBI to curb the credit flow to this business by driving up interest rates, property developers and bankers said.

Interest rate hike may, at the best, drive away some real-estate investors, but not consumers who buy houses to reside in them, they said.

Home loan rates are way below what they were six years back, said Chanda Kochhar, deputy managing director, ICICI Bank, after the bank raised its home loan rates last week by 50 basis points.

Gulf money moving to real estate with focus on Asia

Billions of dollars flowing out of stock markets in the Gulf Arab region are heading into real estate, with markets in China and India a key focus, the head of real estate investment at a leading Kuwaiti bank said.
Markets in the wealthy, energy exporting region are among the worst performing in the world this year after rising on average 92% last year, and burned retail investors are still scrambling to get out.

Real estate funds, considered an easy fit with Islamic law, where interest is banned and income must be derived from a fundamental economic transaction, are benefiting as retail investors in the Gulf migrate toward what they consider a more comfortable asset class.

“When we went to these investors six months ago and said, for example, that we are creating a US real estate fund that will give you an average of 8% per annum they said we’re getting 8% per month on the local stock markets,” Rakesh Patnaik of Kuwait-based Global Investment House said.

“Now our funds are becoming the flavour of the month for investors in the Middle East,” he said on the sidelines of a two day funds conference in Dubai on Monday.

Courtesy: http://www.gulf-times.com