Farook Mahmood, Director, International Consortium of Real Estate Association (ICREA-USA) and CMD, Silverline Group, was invited for the FIABCI 63rd World Congress at St. Petersburg, Russia, to speak on ‘How to build an international business' and come out with out of the box, innovative ideas with respect to investments and housing for any give economy.
The international real estate federation FIABCI is committed to helping its members expand their opportunities, offering effective tools which support businesses and provide essential networking, education and advocacy programmes consistent with its leadership role in the global real estate industry.
Hundreds of participants attended the Prix d' Excellence ceremony held at the World Congress. Considered the ‘Oscar' of the real estate industry, the Prix d' Excellence had over 800 global business leaders attending the premier event considered to be one of the most esteemed international meetings within the international real estate industry. Here real estate markets around the world were discussed and compared for sharing global comprehensive ideas.
Affordable housing
After the event, an international panel of experts came together to discuss the introduction of affordable rental social housing in Moscow. Farook Mahmood (also Vice-President, World Council, FIABCI) spoke on ‘Policy Matters on Real Estate' at the Russian Parliament (Duma) along with a few international delegates, ministers, bureaucrats and other stakeholders. Farook had a detailed discussion on the pros and cons of the subject with the Minister of Energy, Ivan Grachev.
“We discussed the real estate rentals markets in Moscow and India; the tax sops and benefits extended to developers in India for taking up reasonably-priced, cost-effective and economical housing that benefited the common man; and the economics of taking up similar ideas and extending such beneficiary schemes to builders in Moscow,” says Farook.
Given the fact that the vibrant Russian economy has extended investments in the U.S., Europe, France and Dubai, its resilience is visible with mortgages reaching beyond $ 60 million, explains Farook. “This is a staggering Rs. 330,000 crore. I took the opportunity of inviting the investors from Russia to look into opportunities for investments in India through the FDI route for hotels and mixed development projects, as Russian companies today form part of the huge global investors' market,” says Farook, who has just returned from Moscow after the event.
