Real estate investments likely to fall

Private equity players investing in the real estate market may not be a happy lot, with abundant commercial and residential supply likely to hit the market in 2007, as returns on real estate investments are likely to fall, reports CNBC-TV18.

The lucrative real estate market may not remain as profitable for private equity investors or developers as it has been in the past two years. The higher dividend distribution tax and the 12.36% service tax on commercial rents imposed by the Budget will eat into returns of investors. This comes on top of surging land prices, which have sharply reduced the margins of developers.

"There is too much liquidity foreign funds chasing the limited land supply so automatically the prices of land are very high and as a result of high land prices returns or margins of developers, investors, private equity players have fallen drastically" says Subodh Runwal, Managing Director, Runwal Group.