Investing in real estate looked so sexy. Like the tech-stock bubble that turned college kids and housewives into day traders, the real estate boom turned insurance brokers, doctors and bicycle mechanics into real estate flippers, who would buy and then quickly sell homes for easy profits.

Now those profits are shrinking fast. Nearly one in five flippers who sold from April to June actually lost money on the deal, the highest level in 2½ years, according to HomeSmartReports.com, which today will release a report on flipping activity in 147 metro areas.

When critics of the special economic zones (SEZ) policy argued that promoters of SEZs are only interested in developing residential townships, they never imagined that the RBI would also agree with their views. Through its latest clarification to domestic commercial banks the central bank has done just that.

The RBI has clarified to commercial banks that all loans to SEZ developers and for acquiring units in SEZ should be considered as exposure to commercial real estate. In other words, such loans would not be treated as industrial advances and hence the interest costs would be much higher. Till now, banks were inclined to treat SEZ projects as infrastructure projects in the absence of any specific directive from the central bank.

apanese real estate is making moves again. According to some real estate gurus Japanese real estate can appreciate 50% over the next three years.

The prices are depressed over a decade. The economy is pulling up and there are early signs that the Japanese real estate will make a solid upward movement in coming years.