Despite the arrival of Coronavirus, the economy is still the first choice for real estate investment. According to a report jointly released by Housing.com and the National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) Concerned YET POSITIVE – The Indian Real Estate Consumer (April – May 2020), real estate still remains the preferred method of investment. is. This is accepted by 35 percent people. This was followed by gold (28%); Fixed deposits (22%) rank among stocks (16%).

Housing.com’s survey was conducted in April and May 2020, at which time the Indian economy was under lockdown. More than 3,000 potential homebuyers were included in the process through random sampling techniques to enable the survey to be conducted in an unbiased manner.

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A journey from an Entrepreneur to an Artrepreneur !! Entrepreneurship is a marathon and when one starts thinking entrepreneurial, the marathon gets even better. From professionals to Entrepreneurs and now Artpreneurs, here is an inspiring story of a few young minds from Mumbai, India.

Background

‘ASA’ is an established Architecture and Interior Design Studio formed by Principal Architects’, Rajnikant, Parag, Rachana and Ankit Savla. We develop creative and innovative design solutions by understanding people and their lifestyle. It helps us develop empathy with the target user and has evolved as a base for our Design Thinking process. This Design Thinking process helps us systematically extract and apply human-centric techniques to solve problems in a creative and innovative way – in our designs, in our business and in our lives. We innovate and explore new building technologies and have constantly focused on delivering the projects par excellence. We have designed and executed Residential, Commercial, Industrial and Healthcare projects locally as well as globally. You can further browse our website www.asastudio.in

Design Thinking Expanded

Design Thinking provides a solution-based approach to solving problems by challenging assumptions and creating ideas for innovative solutions. The process involves five stages of Empathise, Define (the problem), Ideate, Prototype and Test. It is a way of thinking and working as well as a collection of hands-on methods. Design Thinking helps us in tackling problems that are unknown by creating many ideas through brainstorming sessions.

The Pandemic has challenged and changed the way we carry out our lives with work, with home and most importantly with work from home defining the New Normal. One of the immediate challenges was with our existing projects that had to be redesigned based on the New Normal. Exploring design solutions to solve problems in creative and innovative ways for office considering social distancing as well as for residential spaces considering work from home was the approach for redesigning. Even when the solutions provided may seem or sound simple, the implementation called for a number of iterative processes of thinking and designing. The idea of space got redefined and was now more sensitive to human ideology. Prior to the pandemic, spaces were designed considering social bonding, but suddenly the new approach for designing was to consider social distancing for the betterment of the community. We were in the midst of a chaos and were trying to ease the way out. This furthermore evolved a deep interest in developing an understanding of the people for whom we are providing our services. It sparked an idea to develop and launch a product that can be useful to the society.

The sparks fired up the ignition and a series of brain storming sessions were followed by adopting a hands-on approach in prototyping and testing the product. This innovative process of evolution of an idea which would lead to the demand in the new emerging market and create a sustainable community has made us launch our new venture ‘Peek-a-boo Art Store’, by Parag and Rachana Savla.

‘Stay Safe’ within as well as protect the ‘Mother Earth’ were our initial thoughts that led us to explore this idea of ‘Reusable’ Designer Masks. Wearing a mask had to create a sensorial value of positivity and happiness. As wearing a mask is a new normal in these times of a Pandemic, we thought of giving a unique touch to it. The person’s identity somehow gets lost in the crowd, where all are wearing similar masks. The thought of adding some fun element and an artistic touch to this ordinary thing made us create, unique graphical designs as well added some taglines to make a statement.

Further exploring designs for the masks, led us to incorporate multiple colours, art, cultures and creative tags which keeps the spirit up and creates a sense of happiness in our daily lives. In addition to this, we also opened up an opportunity for people to customize their own masks, with respect to names, logos for corporate clients and their own artwork as well. Eventually there was a good response and demand for our designer masks. Especially Kids, they are so excited to wear a mask with their name on it. Taking our ideas further, we collaborated with few Artist. Look forward to some more innovative product introductions through the collaborations.

Besides the creative and designer approach, we used our Design Thinking process to provide for a functionally reusable and comfortable mask as well. As wearing a mask all day can bring strain to the ears, we launched our new product range of Headband with a button. For all the frontline workers, Health care community and all those who have to wear a mask all day can now do so by hooking in to the head band.

Road Ahead

In this process of constantly exploring new ideas and innovating creative design solutions, the team is looking forward to launch new home decor and daily use range of designer products, by positively strengthening collaborations with Artists and promote Art Work and Handcrafted products.

Do try their exclusive range of designer masks and keep looking for the upcoming products. You can find them on Instagram as @peekaboo_artstore and the Facebook handle @Peekaboo Art Store.

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Over a time when industry forecasts suggest that the co-working market would experience a major shock as a result of the lockdown because they cater for a wide portion of start-ups and medium-sized enterprises, major players in the city claim they are drawing up plans to tackle the situation – from increasing working hours and rent revision to raising hygiene quality and implementing social distance norms.

“Some of our clients have demanded discounts, waivers or deferment for rent payments. We are exploring our options right now, “said Table Space Technologies co-founder Karan Chopra, who has six lakh square feet (sqft) of leased space in the city.

However, the firm is not too troubled by a reduction in seat strength, as it deals primarily with big corporations.

“We certainly don’t have anyone moving out of our spaces,” Chopra said while agreeing with the industry that experienced at least two-quarters of a “flattened curve.”

The condition is almost the same in the case of Awfis-another significant player.

“The customers are more cautious today. A limited number of consumers (3% to 4%) are not coming back. But most others either are looking at a reduction — in rent or amount of seats — or are happy to stick with the current layout,” said founder and CEO Amit Ramani.

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The Delhi government released an order asking all landlords not to ask rent for one month from workers, including migrants, who have been affected by the lockdown caused by a coronavirus. Any landlord identified to be in violation of the order is charged under the Disaster Management Act 2005.

The order issued on April 22 specifies that action should also be taken if landlords compelled students to pay the rent immediately or threatened to evict them. The government also urged workers including migrant workers and students who are coerced to pay house rent by their landlord can call 100.

A large number of citizens stay in the city in rented accommodations. The tenant population is mainly made up of workers and migrant workers and students living in nearly every area of town. The compulsory lockdown of coronavirus has generated tremendous financial hardship for employees, migrant workers and students in addition to citizens involved in various economic activities leading to the closing of business establishments, trading centres, construction activities etc.

The landlords who claim rent from the tenants will add to their distress and may inspire them to move out which is adverse to the lockdown measures.

The chief secretary has ordered all district magistrates to conduct awareness campaigns on the problem especially in areas with a higher density of workers, migrant workers and students to advice affected persons to file complaints in the police control room by calling 100 against the erring landlords.

The chief secretary asked police deputy commissioners to send weekly reports on these complaints lodged by tenants and action taken on the complaints to the DMs on April 27 evening.

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Emirates REIT, a sharia-compliant real estate investment trust headquartered in Dubai, is contemplating buying back some of it’s nearly $400 million in Islamic outstanding bonds to boost its balance sheet, three sources told Reuters.

Given the economic pressures induced by the coronavirus pandemic, which is worsening an already stagnant property sector in Dubai, the idea is one of a number that the organization is looking into.

The company is also contemplating refinancing Islamic bonds or sukuk, two of the sources said, adding that talks with local banks have collapsed partly due to their exposure to distressed hospital operator NMC Health, which restructures talks with lenders.

At a recent earnings call, Emirates REIT Chief Executive Sylvain Vieujot said a possible sukuk buyback was briefly discussed.

Refinitiv data shows that the sukuk, maturing in 2022, traded on Tuesday at less than 60 cents on the dollar with a yield of 27.6% compared to 6.1% at the end of 2019. They were released with a coupon of 5.125% in December 2017.

As of the end of 2019, Emirates REIT had $48.4 million in cash, according to a statement on their website. Its shares traded at $0.22 on Tuesday, compared with a net asset value (NAV) of $1.57 per share at the end of last year.

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A Delhi High Court order received by private-sector lender Indiabulls Housing Finance toward market regulator Sebi has placed mutual fund houses in a tight position.

The HC has permitted Indiabulls, a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) not to pay its debenture holders, including fund houses, interest and principal, as far as the RBI requires banks and NBFCs to give their borrowers a moratorium. Fund managers now worry that over the next few weeks; many NBFCs can follow the same path and not pay MF’s.

It is the first time a situation has emerged in India where fund houses will not be in a position to meet their payment obligation to their investors unless they get capital from debenture issuers, that is, NBFCs. “A scenario like this has never existed. Looks like more NBFCs are going to follow the same path and not pay MFs on the NCDs they carry, and MFs will not be able to pay investors,” a top fund manager said. “One way out could be for the RBI to move in as in 2008 and 2013 and guarantee a credit line to the fund houses.”

According to Indiabulls’s lawyers, the reasoning was how would they be able to pay their debenture holders if they didn’t receive money from their borrowers because they have to give them a loan moratorium? Under Sebi Act section 11B, Indiabulls appealed to the court to defer its obligation to pay its NCD investors. The court demanded a status quo on the situation and asked Sebi to respond by 19 May.

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COVID-19 outbreak and government-mandated social distancing standards will affect workplace requirements and designs in the coming future as businesses look at ways to safeguard their employee’s health. Companies working in commercial complexes are required to uphold social distancing norms and be able to confront any unexpected health issues.

Many firms, particularly in information technology and IT-enabled services, which used to allot 70-80 sqft per employee in the workplace is now supposed to be given more space per employee.

For certain instances, the room was 60 sqft for every employee against the default, 125 sqft as businesses are trying to conserve on costly real estate.

Although there can’t be any expansion of existing offices, effective planning and design would offer a way out. Negotiations over new office spaces are required to lead towards revised facility specifications.

Realty developers say companies’ space requirements will go up and these calculations would be the basis for discussions for future transactions.

Experts say companies will seek concepts such as creating workplace batches and allowing around 30 per cent of employees to work from home by rotation. It would mean reduced workplace density, with more room for everybody. This is far too early, though, to propose any concrete or sustainable approaches to social distancing norms.

Given the new health, sanitation and productivity problems, businesses are expected to start decentralizing their processes such that if one facility falls into containment there is business continuity.

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Motilal Oswal Real Estate (MORE) raised Rs 1,150 crore from high net worth individuals for its fourth realty fund to invest in housing and commercial ventures around six major cities, a senior company official stated.

The fundraising exercise for the India Realty Excellence Fund IV (IREF IV) started in September 2018, and a pledge of Rs 1,150 crore has now entered the final closure. The organization has already made an investment commitment in nine projects of about Rs 550 crore from this fourth fund, MORE Director & CEO Sharad Mittal told.

“Our average investment size is about Rs 75 crore. Approximately 80 per cent of our investments are residential and 20 per cent commercial,” Mittal said adding the company’s expectations for a return on its investment of over 20 per cent.

He said the organization will be careful to make further investments from its fourth fund and will wait and watch for at least next 4-5 months to consider the effect of the coronavirus outbreak on the global economic slowdown.

MORE is a part of Motilal Oswal Private Equity (MOPE) which is Motilal Oswal Group’s alternative investment platform. The total AUM (asset under management) under MORE currently stands at more than Rs 3,600 crore.

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As per Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on 13 April, with the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent 21-day lockdown causing a financial crisis, cash-starved Karnataka agreed to auction 12,000 housing sites to raise funds.

“The government will auction 12,000 corner sites, idle in Bengaluru, to collect funds for development work,” Yediyurappa said following a meeting with ministers and officials here. The meeting discussed forms and means of mobilizing capital to support different schemes, declared on March 5 in the 2020-21 budget and passed on March 24 in the Assembly.

“The state government would also be able to mobilize stamp duty and penalty funds by regularizing illegal houses and buildings after rapid disposal of the cases pending in the high court and the Supreme Court,” the chief minister said.

“The meeting also agreed to amend the legislation to require empty sites/plots to be sold in private and cooperative housing societies to construct homes or flats and collect funds from their registration fees, including stamp duties,” Yediyurappa said.

The meeting also agreed to use Rs 1,000 crore to modernize all state-run hospitals and improve services with the state-run Rajiv Gandhi Health University.

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Special guidelines and legislative measures will soon be issued for the real estate industry, including the Real Estate Legislative Act (RERA), to counter this crisis, said Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, Housing and Urban Affairs.

“We are caught in an unimaginable scenario that has engulfed the whole world in its grip. In these critical days, we need to take action to help us restore our economies and all industries and business sectors. We need to look at the circumstance for the long-term benefit of both our workers and the country,” he said.

Mishra has been in discussion with, Rajeev Talwar, Chairman, Naredco, Niranjan Hiranandani, President, Naredco, Ashok Patni, Vice President (Central), NAREDCO and Parveen Jain, Vice President, Naredco, among others.

The minister said he was having discussions today via a video conference with 2,600 real estate developers throughout the country.

“We addressed some problems that are prominent during the lockdown and steps being taken to overcome those issues. I would like to thank all ministry officials and numerous developers and stakeholders who have come forward as responsible people to lead their workforce and look after them properly,” Mishra said.

NAREDCO has sought $200 billion through government relief to ease the COVID 19 impact. It has also demanded that all NCLT operations be stopped for the next six months. The aim is to have a breathing room for firms who have suffered massive losses owing to quickly falling stock prices, which has left high net worth businesses vulnerable to foreign investors taking control, the consequences of which may be disastrous for India.

The realtor’s body has also recommended partially lifting the lockdown on the construction site to start the work while observing all the guidance issued by the government to ensure people’s safety.

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