Expression of Interest Campaign

L J Hooker India is pleased to announce that the famous TR Mills compound is now available for purchase. For the first time, we are using an Expression of Interest Campaign in India. It is the most suited format to get great valuations for such properties as well as keep the whole process time bound.

TR Mills has been a land mark in central Bangalore (India) since the 1950s. The total land available for development is 15.25 acres. With a prevailing FSI of 2.5 one can achieve 1,660,735 sft of built up area. By loading Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) of up to 60% the total built up area can be increased to 2,657,160. That means 1.6 mil sft to 2.6 mil sft of prime development in the centre of the city!!!!!

The zoning is very favourable with residential or mixed use with up to 30% allocation to commercial/retail being possible. Our initial calculations show a residential project yield of ` 5.85 billion without TDR and ` 9.25 billion with suitable TDR loading. In case the new owner, decides for a mixed use (which we too recommend), the yield for the project is projected at ` 8.22 billion without TDR and around ` 13 billion with suitable TDR loading. (Detailed assumptions and calculations are available in the Information Memorandum)

This prime development site is ideally suited for the PE/VC fund looking for exposure in Real Estate through a landmark project. Keen interest has been shown by various developers, both local and international. However, the highest bidder will win!!!

LJ Hooker a magnet for Indian origin Australians returning home

India is starting to witness a sea change in the attitude of its migrants to Australia,” says Alexander Moore, MD of LJ Hooker in India.

No longer is Australia necessarily seen as the final destination and the land of milk and honey. Indian origin immigrants are starting to look back over their shoulder to the land they left, and what they are seeing is exciting them to go back and utilise some of the skills they have learned here.

He says statistics demonstrate why there is excitement about today’s India…..

• A population growth of 27 million people per annum (that’s over one whole Australia every year!)

• 75% of the population is under 35yrs of age, with a ‘mean’ age of just 25yrs

• Literacy rates are 87% for the under 20yr old segment

• Numbers of high net worth individuals (those with more than $1million USD of investment funds) grew by 51% this year

• A ‘consuming’ population of around 250 million people, giving an ‘aspirant’ class of 1 billion people. There are over 600 million cell phone connections in India today with only 10 million connected in 2003 – 60 fold growth in 7 years !

• A total population today of over 1.2 billion people and heading to be the worlds largest population by 2025

“Basically India has a young, dynamic population that is getting educated and connected.”

“A huge demographic dividend is starting to pay off in India, as this massive and vibrant young market (termed Youngistan by Pepsi) is starting to consume at levels that are unprecedented in the history of any world market.”

There are eight major tier-one cities in India, all of which have a population in excess of five million people - as high as 23 million for both Delhi and Mumbai, and some 50 cities with over one million people.

Young (under 30) entrepreneurs such as Mukul Chhabra and Dhruv Khanna have returned to India to establish LJ Hooker franchises.

After spending 11 years in Australia Mukul is the newest franchise owner in the India network with his office opening in Chandigarh, India’s only planned city (much like Adelaide in Australia).

Initially resident in Sydney where he studied, Mukul later moved to Queensland and worked with the LJ Hooker team at the Algester office in Brisbane, gaining the experience and desire that would take him back to India and the pioneering role of franchise owner.

The Indian residential property market is predominantly opaque and unorganised, with branded players such as LJ Hooker just starting to enter the space.

Says Mukul “After working with the LJ Hooker office at Algester I recognised that this was the right brand and the right time for it in India”

Mukul, like most of his contemporaries that have spent time outside the country, can see the explosive growth in the Indian market and they can clearly see the way that an organised branded player like LJ Hooker can capitalise on this.

Dhruv Khanna the franchise owner of the DLF Phase IV office in Delhi spent three years in Australia (also Brisbane) and like Mukul saw first hand how a branded organised company like LJ Hooker could dominate in the real estate transaction space.

Dhruv returned to India in 2007 after completing his MBA and was keen to get into business for himself. He recognised the tremendous opportunities that were available in the sector and after experiencing the dominance of LJ Hooker in Australia he was keen to partner with the brand in Gurgaon – one of the hottest markets in India.

Says Dhruv, “How many real estate markets around the world are growing at an average of over 30 per cent year-on-year ? This is the right time to be in the property business; Gurgaon is a great upcoming real estate opportunity and I had the good fortune to be a part of the LJ Hooker start up in India. ”

Mr Moore, who has 21 years of residential and commercial real estate experience with LJ Hooker, confirms that the Australian connection continues to be strong for the company in India.

“We have a number of potential franchisees with an Aussie connection, either directly or through a friend or relative. Obviously the strength of the brand and our 82-year-old reputation carry a lot of weight. People know they are dealing with a company that has not only great systems but also great integrity. We hope to welcome many more franchise owners like Dhruv and Mukul to the fold over the next couple of years.”

“And in 2025 who knows, India may well have both the world’s largest population and host the greatest number of LJ Hooker offices!” said Mr Moore.”

Large IPC, LJ Hooker shake up the Indian property market. No Buyer or Tennant Fees !

LJ Hooker is the first real estate business in India to offer their full stock to buyers and tenants with no brokerage charges.

Says Managing Director, Alexander Moore “we only charge buyers or tenants if they mandate us to specifically search for property on their behalf - any buyer or tenant who responds to our property ads (print and electronic), signage, property catalogues etc are not charged brokerage”

Mr Moore likens his business to any other retail shop where to attract buyers he makes sure he has a large amount of well priced stock to offer his customers. He says “can you imagine if your local supermarket tried to charge you to enter the shop and fill your trolley ? you’d laugh, but consumers have been brought up to think that this model is acceptable in property transactions”

He believes this has come about over the years due to the opaqueness of the industry and the difficulty buyers and tenants had in getting to know what was actually available in the market (and for how much).

With the advent of the information age Mr Moore believes that the game in India has changed. “With the advent of the internet and the use of marketing tools like emags consumers are now able to examine the market in detail, and they only want to deal with reputable companies that are transparent and assist them to understand the market”

“The job of a Real Estate Agency is to inform and educate their customers so they can acquire property that suits their needs, as simply and easily as possible, the days of the swift talking slightly dubious salesman are numbered”

So the question has to be asked, it seems good for the consumer, but how can a business cut it’s fee base so dramatically and survive ?

According to LJ Hooker it comes down to simple efficiency. Says Mr Moore “for our offices it’s just a matter of basic efficiency and productivity. You can do one deal at the old fee base or 10 deals at around 2/3 of that old base”

“Given that we don’t charge the buyers or tenants we obviously have pretty much all the buyers in the market on our data bases at any given time – why wouldn’t they contact us ? this in turn leads to us having most of the sellers as well, our job then of matching the people with suitable property becomes that much easier”

According to LJ Hooker this model is the standard system in most parts of the world with India the odd man out.

As for the sellers Moore says they have a much stronger and better relationship than traditional brokers. He makes the point that you’d hardly appoint a lawyer who was also taking a fee of the other side in your court case would you ?