Service Apartments

At REALSURAT.COM we keep on getting inquiries for monthly rentals. These come from various sources like visiting NRI families, project based professionals, families in transition, etc..
Very rarely we are able to provide them a solution that meets their requirements, in spite of their ability to pay higher rent.
Surat is one of India's fastest growing cities with major industrial and commercial hubs and to facilitate new professionals and self-employed migrants there needs to be an extended stay type of facility which are generally called "Service Apartments".
As this aspect of transient housing is missing in Surat I included it in my "Fast Forward Future" presentation at RSDS-11 to help developers and investors recognize Service Apartments as a niche-housing product.

Women Workforce Housing

At RSDS-11, my presentation was on Fast Forward Future and part of it was focused on niche housing markets. One such housing product mentioned was housing for working women. Today there was an article in Economic times (http://toi.in/uBkmW5) on how large corporations are hiring more women. The entire presentation is available on http://www.slideshare.net/sumantkachru/fast-forward-future-sumant-kachru

This has already made a minor impact as financially capable working women have started investing in real estate for stability/wealth-creation. We can observe this trend in cities with higher working women population like Pune, Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, etc..
Real Estate Developers should pay attention to such niche demands to differentiate & diversify their product offerings.

Happy New Year - 2012

With global economics in turbulence and Indian political grid-lock every businessman, investor and professional is in confused state. To-Do to Not-To-Do, that's the dilemma. In such situation even common sense decisions seem like big gamble and slows down progress.
In contrast to this, the economic and political situation in Gujarat is very healthy. Government is very proactive and holds itself accountable to progress. The predictability of things to really happen decreases the risk perception. This allows businessmen and investors to take calculated risks and initiate new ventures.
Several actions by large corporations validate this, eg; Tata Nano, Ford, Maruti, etc...
So all this makes me very happy as those with disillusionment with the Global and National situation will look towards  Gujarat as a safe-haven.  This will grow Gujarat by leaps and bounds and make 2012 a very special year for all those who are already here and can take advantage of the progress.