Good morning, today we have a lot of news to unpack for you.
But by a lot, we are reaaaaally pointing to big shifts in human behaviour - for example, our newfound belief in virtual land.
For the less initiated, there's some good news on the RERA front and a somehwat bottomless dive into how warehouses are graded.
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RERA: A Progress Report
When RERA first came into the real estate world less than 5 years ago, the initial chatter was heavily laced with doubts about its near term effectiveness.
How about taking a look at some facts and deciding for ourselves?
Zooming In
Every State/UT today has notified rules under RERA except Nagaland, where it is a work in progress.
30 States/UTs have set up a functional Real Estate Regulatory Authority (Regular - 25, Interim - 05).
Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Meghalaya, Sikkim and West Bengal have notified their rules but are yet to establish functional authorities.
Projects Registered
Per this report, since RERA was fully notified, 71,307 projects have been registered under it across the country as of November 2021.
Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka lead in project registrations so far, with 31,664, 9,272 and 4,497 projects registered respectively.
Grievances Handled
Coming to grievance redressals of aggrieved homebuyers, 78,903 cases have been disposed so far by various state and UT RERA panels.
UP saw 30,990 cases disposed of, while Haryana witnessed 16,864 redressals (together making up a 61% share of national redressals), per the latest progress report from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
Bottom Line
🎙 "As a result (of RERA's effectiveness), we may see increased residential project completions in the times to come", says Anuj Puri from Anarock.
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Omicron Pauses The World
A new variant of Covid-19 called Omicron has pushed pause on the world over its potential to spread rapidly, evade protection offered by current vaccines, and increase the risk of reinfection.
Also known as B11529, Omicron has more than 30 mutations on the critical spike protein, which is what the virus uses to latch onto human cells.
It’s not yet known whether it causes more severe illness than previously discovered strains. The best minds are at work and we should know more in the next two weeks.
Warehouse Grades And What They Mean
FYI, most of India's warehousing was Grade C till about a decade ago. Over time and with increasing demand for higher quality storage space, Grade B and Grade A dominate the market today.
But what in the world of fork lifts do these grades mean?
It's Muddy Water
One of the most common ways of benchmarking an international form of standardization is through the construction and use of ‘Grade-A’ warehouses - yes, the term all logistics folks drop more than names.
We found out that despite ‘Grade-A’ being the hottest term around, there is no standard definition available to clearly categorize a warehouse into various grades such as A, B or C.
But There's Cost. . .
Essentially, Grade-A spaces facilitate efficient operations of the supply chain of any business, meaning warehouses with the lowest Total Cost of Ownership.
📌 Because a shortcoming in any element of the warehouse multiplies inefficiencies in operations, these can negatively impact business and increase costs.
And Scale
Scale and complexity also seem to be driving the need for Grade-A warehouses.
Meaning;
- if there is no scale (scale means a minimum size of 100,000 sq. ft.),
- and there is no complexity (an absence of supply chain processes such as automation or cool robots humming as they carry packages),
there is principally no need for a Grade-A warehouse.
It Can't Be All Notional
No it isn't. Despite the blurry lines, there's a shopping list of items that make a Grade A warehousing facility.
- A minimum eave height of 11m,
- The building aspect ratio of a Grade-A park would range from 1:1.5-1:3.
- The number of docks in such a park is 1 per 10,000 sq. ft. of plinth area or lesser
- The warehouse flooring is at a level of FM2 with a minimum floor load of 5T/SQM
- A concrete apron with a length of minimum 25.5 m
- Should support at least 40-foot trailers right through the compound
- Must have 2-4 road lanes, depending on the size of the warehouse
- Amenities like fire-fighting systems, CCTV surveillance, building insulations, LED lights, security system and others must be pre-planned and provisioned for.
Now To Decipher Some News
Per JLL, with the increased activity in sectors like e-commerce and 3PL/logistics, the warehouse inventory in the country is expected to reach over 380 million sq. ft. by 2024.
Also, 27 million sq. ft. of Grade A and B 😉 warehousing stock was added in 2021, as of September, bringing the total inventory to 265 million sq. ft.
The Matrix Is Coming Online
If you think (just like we did till half a day ago) that only tech companies are gung-ho about the metaverse, you are as far from the truth as the world is from being Covid free.
Real estate, fashion, entertainment, and gaming companies are already treating the next big upgrade to the internet like the future, creating a demand for virtual real estate, which is not funny.
A Parallel Universe
Last week, when we wrote about a virtual plot of land that sold for 2.4 million dollars, we thought it was what you could safely call, a freak event.
Turns out, we have to eat our own words for lunch today.
Word on the street is that digital scarcity of land is already plaguing the virtual world, as there is a limited amount of virtual real estate in these Metaverses and just like our real world, some of that available real estate is extremely desirable.
With Brands In It
Nike has firm plans for a virtual space called NIKELAND. The company has partnered with Roblox, an online gaming platform that offers more than 24 million virtual experiences with focus on immersive content.
Per human analysts at Morgan Stanley, the virtual luxury market could be as large as USD57 billion by the year 2030.
It's So Real That There Are Fakes Now
And just so that it sinks in real hard, we heard of a place selling the entire planet virtually, Eiffel Tower inclusive, for Ethereum, invoking words like fraud from believers of the Metaverse itself. 😳
For about INR 1.62 crore or 50 Ether, you can virtually buy the Taj Mahal while your chai is brewing.
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Have a great day ahead and don't skip a meal.
See you tomorrow. 💚
☕ The Crew@Ginger Chai