Skip to main content

Commercial Real Estate Investing

Best SIP Funds Online 


Investing in commercial real estate is not as difficult as it may appear. 

If you follow the principles of long term investing, you can earn much higher returns than most debt instruments. Keep the following points in mind while investing. 

1. Location, Location, Location 
Location is everything. Commercial properties provide returns through two avenues— rent and capital appreciation. Both are heavily dependent on the location. Look for locations where vacancy is less than 5%. This will mean that supply is in check and tenants are less likely to vacate, leading to higher rents and capital appreciation. A high vacancy location gives tenants options to move and renegotiate rents. 

2. Quality: B, B+ OR A 
Two buildings may be in the same location, but the one boasting better quality will always get rented first. It will also attract better quality of tenants. Needless to say it will fetch the investor higher rents, better tenant retention and higher capital appreciation. Multinational tenants are always willing to pay a premium for quality. Look for certifications like LEED gold or platinum ratings or buildings that have nicer looking lobbies, more elevators, higher ceiling heights and better views. Higher quality properties are also more liquid and can be sold much faster. 

3. Demand vs Supply 
This is one of the first things a savvy investor has to analyse before committing to buying a commercial property. Every city has different micro-markets. In Bengaluru there is ORR, Whitefield, Electronic City while in Mumbai you have BKC, Nariman Point and Parel, among others. Each micro-market has a stock (amount of office already completed and leased) and upcoming supply. Annual demand is also published regularly by brokers like JLL, Cushman and Knight Frank 

If the annual supply over the next 2-3 years exceeds historical demand, the rents and prices would come down. A disproportionately high supply will affect both new and old buildings. New buildings will command lower rents as tenants will get more options in the market while tenants in older buildings will renegotiate rents and escalation clauses. 

4. Market rent vs in-place rent 
This is a slightly advanced concept that institutional investors use to see how risky the property is. Let's assume that there are three properties available at more or less the same price but each with a tenant paying different rents. 

* Building A has tenant paying Rs 10 and is selling for Rs 100 
* Building B has tenant paying Rs 11 and is selling for Rs 105 
* Building C has tenant paying Rs 9 and is selling for Rs 95 

Which one would you choose? Many would say Building B as it has the highest rental return (10.5%). However, an intelligent investor will first ask, "What is the rent in the market?" meaning what are new buildings being rented at today. 

5. Quality of tenant 
A good tenant can significantly increase the value of a commercial property. Looks for bluechip multinational tenants and avoid smaller and unknown companies. Good tenants pay rents on time, pay higher deposits, stay longer and increase the value of the property. 

6. Interior fitouts 
As an investor, you should always ask who has done the interior fitouts in the property. When an office is delivered in India, it is provided bare shell (like a garage). The tenant needs to do the flooring, ceiling, air conditioning, wiring and the interior cabins, conference rooms etc. Some tenants like to do their own fitouts while others ask the developer to do it for them for which they pay an additional fitout rent. Fitouts generally cost between Rs 800-1,000 per sq ft and developers charge Rs 25-30 per sq ft per month (Rs 300-360 per sq ft per year). A tenant who has done his own fitouts is likely to stay longer in order to sufficiently recover the costs. 

7. Base rents vs fitout rents 
Developers often dupe investors by showing higher rental returns by including the fitout rent component while hustling them for a higher price. But here's the catch: fitout rents are not permanent and are payable only for a fixed period (generally five years). So if the base rent is Rs 50 per sq ft and fitout rent is Rs 30 per sq ft, the tenant will pay Rs 80 per sq ft (Rs 960 per sq ft per year). If the normal selling price is Rs 6,000 per sq ft (where the tenant has done his own fitouts), a developer may try to sell the fitted-space for Rs 9,000 per sq ft promising a higher return of 11%. While this may sound enticing, the fitout rents will stop after 5 years dropping the return to 6.7%. 

8. Lease structure 
Commercial lease strictures are very different from residential ones. They are structured as 3+3+3 or 5+5+5 meaning 9-year (or 15-year) lease with escalations every 3 years (or 5 years). They are also one-sided. The tenant can vacate at any time whereas the landlord cannot ask them to leave for the lease period. There can also be a lock-in period (generally 3 years) during which the tenant cannot vacate the property. While analysing an investment, the investor has to understand how the lease is structured and the inherent risks involved. In general, the longer the lock-in, the better it is for the investor. 


9. Security deposit 
Security deposits in commercial properties vary between 10 and 12 months' rent. Be careful when a tenant offers 6 months or less as it means that they could be looking at a short-term option or have cash flow issues. Startups typically tend to ask for smaller deposits and shorter lock-ins. 


10. Diversification 
We've all heard that diversification reduces risk. This is especially true in commercial real estate. If you invest all your savings in one property, you are exposing yourself to a higher risk. In case the tenant vacates, rents will stop while maintenance payments, property taxes etc will have to be paid. Investing in multiple properties across cities will reduce variance in income by diversifying propertylevel risk. 


SIPs are when Stock Market is high volatile. Invest in Best Mutual Fund SIPs and get good returns over a period of time. Know Top SIP Funds to Invest Save Tax Get Rich

For further information on Top SIP Mutual Funds contact Save Tax Get Rich on 94 8300 8300

OR

You can write to us at

Invest [at] SaveTaxGetRich [dot] Com

Popular posts from this blog

Surrender ULPPs

  ICICI Pru LifeTime and ICICI Pru Lifestage are Unit Linked Pension Plans. Such insurance linked retirement plans are neither good investments nor do they offer sufficient insurance cover. As you can see, these have turned out to be bad deals. In the Lifetime plan, the fund value is not even equal to the total premiums that you have paid and in the Lifestage plan your return is just about 6% which is quite low. The mortality charges are as per your age which is why they have increased. Moreover, once these plans matures, you will have to compulsorily opt for annuity (regular income) and the annuity rates are generally modest. Assuming these plans mature in the next one year, it will be wise to surrender the plan now and curb your future commitments.   Before you choose to buy a term plan, you have to consider a few points. You need to insure yourself, only during the time you are working and your family is financially dependent on you. At the age of 59, not all insurance companies w...

ICICI Pru Constant Maturity Gilt dividend

Invest ICICI Prudential Constant Maturity Gilt Fund Online ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund   has announced dividend under the following schemes: Scheme Dividend ( R /unit) ICICI Pru Constant Maturity Gilt-DQ 0.26543239 ICICI Pru Constant Maturity Gilt Direct-DQ 0.27171609 ICICI Pru Q Interval Plan I-D 0.10617296 ICICI Pru Q Interval Plan I Direct-D 0.10703967 ICICI Pru Q Interval Plan I Ret-D 0.10617296             The record date has been fixed as June 13, 2016.   ----------------------------------------------- Invest Rs 1,50,000 and Save Tax under Section 80C. Get Great Returns by Investing in Best Performing ELSS Mutual Funds Top 10 Tax Saver Mutual Funds to invest in India for 2016 Best 10 ELSS Mutual Funds in india for 2016 1. BNP Paribas Long Term Equity Fund 2. Axis Tax Saver Fund 3. Franklin India TaxShield 4. ICICI Prudential Long Term Equity Fund 5. IDFC Tax Advantage (ELSS) Fund 6. Birla Sun Life Tax Relief 96 7. DSP BlackRock Tax Saver Fund 8. Reliance Tax Saver (ELSS) ...

NPS Investment Choice for Safe Investors

Invest NPS Online       Whether they invested through SIPs or put in a lump sum amount, risk-averse individ uals have earned the highest returns. These are investors who stayed away from stocks and divided their NPS corpus between G class gilt funds and C class corporate debt funds. On average, gilt funds have given 9.75% annualised returns while corporate debt funds have churned out more than 11% in the past five years. As a result, the average return for ultra-safe investors in the past five years is in double digits. Even in the short term, ultrasafe investors have been the biggest gainers among NPS investors. Will the good times continue? The gilt funds of NPS are holding long-term bonds with an average maturity of over 19 years and a modified duration of about 9 years.These funds have done well because interest rate cuts have pushed down bond yields. But experts say this trend will not stay forever. NPS is a long-term investment and the bonds are predominantly held to matu...

Buy Health Insurance Plan even if you are covered with my Employer

Buy Health Insurance Plan Online Yes, getting a private insurance cover now, which extends beyond your retirement age, is recommended There are a few reasons why buying a health insurance plan may make sense even though you get medical insurance from your employer. Here are the points you need to think about. Firstly, your employer's insurance coverage will only protect you as long as you are employed with the company. The policy will terminate when you quit the job or when you retire. Post retirement is perhaps the phase when one needs it the most but you won't have it then. Moreover, buying a new insurance policy after the age of 50 means that there will be no coverage for pre-existing diseases.   Lastly, health insurance policy you get from your employer may or may not cover your dependants. ------------------------------ ----------------- Invest Rs 1,50,000 and Save Tax under Section 80C. Get Great Returns by Investing in Best Performing ELSS Mutual Funds Top 10 Tax Saver M...

SBI MAGNUM MIDCAP ONLINE

Invest SBI MAGNUM MIDCAP ONLINE   SBI MAGNUM MIDCAP fund didn't fare well in its initial years but, in recent years, has steadily improved its performance under the capable hands of its current fund manager. Although investing predominantly in mid-cap stocks, the average market capitalisation of its portfolio is lower than other category peers.   Although the stock selection approach is mostly bottom-up , the fund manager doesn't shy away from taking bold sector bets , as is reflected in its large exposure to the healthcare sector. She is equally adept at handling performance across market cycles--the fund has captured more of the upside during market upticks and contained the downside during downturns in a better manner than its peers.   Given its superior risk-reward equation, the fund is a worthy pick in its category.     ----------------------------------------------- Invest Rs 1,50,000 and Save Tax under Section 80C. Get Great Returns by Investing in Best Performing EL...
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Invest in Tax Saving Mutual Funds Download Any Applications
Transact Mutual Funds Online Invest Online
Buy Gold Mutual Funds Invest Now