DLF appoints four creative agencies in its roster

DLF, the Delhi-based real estate major, now plans to go national. Towards this end, it has added three creative agencies – FCB-Ulka, Capital Advertising and Lintas Personal – to its roster, while retaining the incumbent agency, Percept H. The four agencies will handle different projects for the company. Media duties will be handled by Percept Media, sources close to the development have told agencyfaqs!

When DLF started reviewing its creative and media duties in October 2006, seven agencies participated in the pitch. The company has allocated a media budget of Rs 25 crore, and this could increase in the future. The four agencies have been awarded business for one year, after which the creative and media duties will be reviewed. It is learnt that the company had given the agencies a brief to reposition DLF as a national brand and as a real estate company with innovative excellence and size.

DLF plans to start housing projects across the country as it successfully did in Gurgaon (Haryana), a suburb of the national Capital.

Source: http://www.agencyfaqs.com/news/stories/2007/01/25/16940.html

Luxury living: Middle class looks to Tier II & III cities

Italian marble floors, bar, modular kitchen, a state-of-the-art bathroom and a swimming pool in the backyard: luxury has just got redefined, and that too for the middle class as far as housing is concerned.

With real estate prices in the NCR region soaring, developers are looking at greener pastures in tier II and tier III cities: in fact, the boom has just begun in Kundli, Sonepat, Panipat in Haryana and Rudrapur in Uttaranchal, where luxury apartments, affordable even by the middle class, are fast coming up.

"All roads today lead to tier II and tier III cities that are around two to three hours drive from Delhi where these luxury apartments are coming up," says Kashif N Usmani of Taneja Developers and Infrastructure Ltd (TDI).

"The last decade saw the transition of sleepy towns like Gurgaon, Noida and Faridabad into enviable addresses. But today, these tier I towns, as they are called, are all saturated and far beyond the means of the middle class," he says.

"The focus is now on other closer-to-Delhi cities of Haryana as the development policies there are very conducive for real estate development. For around Rs 20 lakh, a middle class person can get a luxury apartment," says Sunil Anand of Anand Properties & Infrastructure Ltd.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200701170312.htm

HUDA allots pending plots in Gurgaon

The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) this month allotted 98 Gurgaon plots, including those which were pending allotment since 1990 under the Oustee Quota, according to HUDA Administrator, S P Gupta.

Gupta said there were more than 199 pending cases, including those whose land was acquired by local government bodies and were awaiting allotment on compensatory grounds.

Further, three marla developed plots in Sector 52 Gurgaon were allotted by the Haryana Urban Development Authority to the backward class communities under the twenty-point programme today, Gupta further added.

Source: http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=215467