Bad to invest with expat group and Rahul Sambhare!

Review On Expat Properties India Limited, Mumbai

As I said, in the title of the message, "It's a bad idea to invest with expat group"

I have particular experience with Mr. Rahul Sambhare.

I have invested in the project Mritsa on the basis of following false promises.

1. There is a huge 5000 acre MIDC coming up!

What I was not told is MIDC is only in the planning phase and land acquisition is just ongoing.

Land acquisition will take ages, already 3 years have passed and still land acquisition is in progress.

Impact of land acquisition will take minimum 15 years to have any meaningful impact.

1. Agricultural land will be changed to residential or commercial land'very soon' 3 years have passed and this hasn't even started. Not possible for next 4 years at least

   
   




2. Appreciation of the land will be very good. Expat and Rahul Sambhare sold this land to me at 8 lakhs per acre and current rate of land as sold by Expat themselves is 9 lakhs after 3 years. A paltry 4% return per year!

   
   




3. Rahul Sambhare has practically stopped taking my calls! He himself has never called back after I had paid the money.

   
   




4. You won't get any communication once you have paid the amount. You are as good as dead for them.

   
   




5. Compared with the prevailing rates 8 lakhs per acre is very very high rate.

   
   




6. Most importantly, you will have a nightmare when you plan for selling the land. You will have to find the customers for your land any way. This is not necessarily their fault, but at least you will think about this before you invest with them. Their lands are almost always very difficult to reach.

   
   




7. You will have to the advertizing, communicating with the prospective buyers. Arrange for their trip to the land you purchased from expat.

   
   

9. There is going to be an international level of resort build by expat. This is an absolute lie. 3 years have passed and there is NO and absolutely NO indication from expat that they are even planning for it. Infact, the other executive whom I had interacted with even mentioned that he is not aware of any such plans.

1. It's your hard earned money. Don't invest with them.

If I make even one guy rethink of investing with expat, I purpose is served.

Regards,

Niraj.

Update 1:

For some reason I am not able to create a new review, hence updating here.

Gruelling experience of cancelling my purchase.

1. It took more than one month for getting a confirmation of cancelling my request.

   
   




2. Expat took one month just to give me the confirmation on cancel that too after my angry email.

   
   




3. Once you decide to cancel they will take 120-160 days to refund the money! That's 4 to 5 months!

   
   

Here is the email I received from Anuradha.

Dear Mr. Sawant, According to the document, once we receive the cancellation request, it would take 90days from that particular date. So it is Mid of March 2016. Actually now it is 120-160 days.

1. They changed the refund period from 90 days to 120-160 days without informing me.

So be aware(or beware!) of these clause.

1. There will be inordinate delay in response from their side, once you let them know that you want to cancel the purchase. Compare that with the response you get when they are trying to sell to you!

Update 2:

The overall business model of Expat. This is my understanding of their business model based on my experience with them, discussions with local agents who do the land acquisition for them.

1. They usually spot a large enough area(anywhere between 100-500 or more acres)

   
   




2. This is usually a barren land and usually very difficult to access.

   
   




3. Due to the inaccessibility land acquisition cost is very less.

   
   




4. The farmers usually get something like 50K to 1 lakh per acre. Based on two discussions with the agents.

   
   




5. Expat usually buys this land at a bit higher price from the agents. But this amount is usually less than 2 lakhs.

   
   




6. The whole amount is not paid to the farmers/agents, just the token amount.

   
   




7. They acquire anywhere between 30% to 60% of the land before maretting the land for sale.

   
   




8. This way, they are usually deploying miminal cash and try to sustain the project cost based on the sale proceeds.

   
   

Update 3:

People who are looking for advise on this or that land to be bought from Expat.

I don't have a direct advise/suggestion. You should really consult some real estate expert, I will share my thoughts though.

Land or real estate(RE) is just like an asset class where you invest. Others being gold, cash, equity(stock market), bonds, fd etc.

RE has given stupendous returns since 2004 and we are in 2016. The best period for investing in RE was between 2004 and 2012.

So for about 12 years RE as an asset class has given good returns.

Prices have more or less remained the same or came down since last 3 years or so.

I don't think this can continue for long. The down phase of RE has started. At least you can't expect returns like what you saw earlier.

Most importantly remember that buying a land is easy infact very easy, it's the selling where you will know the exact impact of the down turn.

In a nutshell, I would advise against investing in RE in general and Expat in particular.

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