April 16 - For home buyers in the city, all roads last week led to the Bandra-Kurla MMRDA Grounds. Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI) had organised Property 2006, its eighth real estate and housing finance exhibition between 6 and April 9, and 100 developers were showcasing more than 500 projects over a 15,000 sq metre area.

Fifteen housing finance companies also participated, along with designers and suppliers of dcor and lifestyle products from India and abroad. The exhibition, which was co-organised by ICICI Bank, HDFC and had LIC Housing Finance as sponsors and Citibank as associate sponsors.

Among the participants were leading developers and financial institutions such as Hiranandani Developers Pvt.Ltd, K. Raheja Universal, Rustomjee Developers (Keystone Group), Acme Group, Akruti Nirman, Kalpataru Constructions, Nahar Group, Dosti Group, Runwal Group, Godrej Properties, ICICI Home Finance, and HDFC Home Loans.

Visitors to the exhibition had a lot of properties, from Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and even Dubai. Many of them were offering special rates to customers who made spot bookings at the venue itself.

The exhibition, which spanned eight multiple halls, was inaugurated by Mr. V. Vaidyanathan, Senior General Manager and Country Head, Retail Banking, ICICI Bank Ltd.

Pointing out that the exhibition offered a “one-stop shop to the customer to meet his real estate requirements,” Mr. Rajiv Sabharwal, Head - Mortgages and Real Estate, ICICI Bank, said, “The economy [GDP] has been growing At over eight per cent while the housing loan market is growing at over 30 per cent. With the increase in spend on infrastructure and growing income levels of customers the housing market is expected to grow at a much faster rate. ”

Mukesh Patel, President, Management Protocol and seminars (MCHI) added that buying a house was not an easy task, and involved a great deal of research for the right property. “MCHI’s eighth exhibition allows the home buyer to be at the right place at the right time,” he said. “Our endeavour is make the home buying process simple and transparent. Thus it’s a win-win situation for both the developers and the buyers.

While home seekers had the incomparable advantage of finding a range of properties all under one roof, developers found multiple benefits as well.

According to Mr. Milind Lane, Managing Director of Godrej Properties Ltd, “This platform provides a good opportunity to interact with existing and potential customers. Apart from generating sales enquiries, such interactions help in getting their feedback, which acts as the feed for our New ventures, processes and plans. “Godrej this showcasing projects such as Godrej Eden Woods (Thane), Godrej Hill (Kalyan), Planet Godrej (Mahalakshmi), Godrej Woodsman Estate (Bangalore).

According to Kaizad Hateria, General Manager, Marketing and Sales, Rustomjee Developers, “The exhibition has been of great help in terms of establishing contacts with customers and brokers. Customers were introduced to their projects, including such as Elita, Elanza and Rustomjee 100 Acres .

For Kalpataru, it proved to be a “branding exercise”, in the words of Shantilal Bohra, Senior VP, Kalpataru Constructions. Kalpataru this showcasing its ongoing projects - including Kalpataru Horizon (Worli), and Kalpataru Estate (Andheri East), with amenities such as gardens, swimming pools, clubhouses and even party zones. “Customers are largely benefitted as they get all the possible exposure in terms of buying property from the various options available,” Bohra added.

For the finance companies too, the exhibition proved to be a boon. Subodh Salunke, Deputy General Manager, HDFC Ltd. “The concept is onestop shop was doing to both developers and home buyers. HDFC used this platform to highlight the 2-in-1 home loan, offering the flexibility of choosing both fixed and floating loans at the same time.” This protects the interest variations rates and subdues the risk factor to a great extent, “said Salunke.

As the area around the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) awaits the completion of the NH-8 expressway and the arrival of the Metro, a lot of construction activity can be seen. This includes malls, commercial buildings and residential apartment blocks. By 2007, a total of around 5 million sq ft of leisure and retail space will be available in this stretch.

One such project is the Time Tower, which is a joint venture of Essel group and Dhoot Developers (P) Ltd.. A complete office building, located on the road Mehrauli Gurgaon, near IFFCO Chowk and near the proposed Metro station, the project’s connectivity is very good. It also has malls and cinemas next door which can help people unwind after a hard day spent at work.

According to LN Goel, chairman, Essel Housing Projects (P) Ltd, “The Time Tower project stresses the importance of time in corporate life as the building’s connectivity is good and it has all the facilities required for efficient business communication too. In these days When time is money, this project provides a high return on investment time (ROTI). ”

The promoters of the project are well established in the field since many years. According to Ajay Aggarwal, Director, Suncity Projects (P) Ltd, “As the builders of Essel Towers, SunCity Gurgaon and other large projects, Suncity Projects and Essel group are the people behind the city’s popular malls, North Square, Vasant Square And Cross River Mall. ” Pawan Dhoot, Managing Director, Dhoot Developers (P) Ltd, adds, “As the people behind large projects like Silver Spring Lake Mall, Town Club Estates, Olympia and others, we are committed to delivering real estate project, with state-of - the Art features. Synergy with Our group Essel Tower promises that time will be a landmark in NCR. ”

The Time Tower project has 11 floors with large floor plates ranging from 25000-60, 000 sq ft. It has a builtup area of 3.5 lakh sq ft 3 basements with providing parking for about 900 cars. With a 5500 sq ft atrium, the building is very well lit.

The building is very well landscaped with 2.5 acres of green area with most offices facing terraces or landscape. It also has a very spacious business centre where conferences, meetings and seminars can be organized There is provision for broadband connectivity in all offices.

According to Vaibhav Tapdiya, Executive Director, Dhoot Developers (P) Ltd, “The Time Tower against grids for a better efficiency 3 metres wide with passages. While 80 percent of the offices are a minimum of 3000 sq ft, the smaller offices are still a spacious 1200 sq ft Floor heights are approximately 4 meters. New technology has been used in the conference halls with smaller column sizes. There is a high end gym and health club exclusively for occupants and specialty restaurants and food courts in the building which Lot offers of choice in food. It also has 5 high speed elevators and a separate service elevator. ”

The building also has latest security and fire fighting systems, 100 percent and back up power for a separate AHU air conditioning offices efficiently. It also runs on an integrated building management system which provides single window access to fire, security, access control and building energy management systems.