Realty prices do not change as dynamically as that of stocks, says R. Nagaraju, general manager of corporate planning and strategy at real estate firm Unitech Ltd. "In terms of doing valuation, you can do it on a monthly, quarterly or half-yearly basis. No one is sure what is the right period to do valuation," he says.

Unitech might launch an REMF once the guidelines are clearer.

A real estate asset, says Sebi, includes immovable property including special economic zones. It would not include projects under construction, vacant land, deserted property and land specified for agricultural use.

Valuing an asset every 90 days will certainly add to fund costs, says Sanjay Dutt, joint managing director at property consultancy firm Cushman and Wakefield. "It will add to the cost because professional appraisers will have to be used to value properties, though the cost itself may not be very substantial," he said.

A few developers, however, feel that Sebi might have been prudent asking properties to be valued every 90 days in India's overheated and somewhat opaque realty market.

"I think Sebi is trying to play it safe," says Vipin Aggarwal, executive director at real estate firm Omaxe Ltd. "There is a possibility of overvaluation of assets if it is not valued frequently. Funds could quote a higher NAV without a basis," he said. "That is the kind of scenario that Sebi wants to avoid." Not all developers are complaining.

The 90-day limit will benefit investors, says Pradeep Jain, chairman of Parsvnath Developers Ltd. The "value of assets may not really change in 90 days," he said. It will not be a fresh valuation of a property every quarter, Jain said. Rather, "it will be more like an upgrade to the valuation done previously." According to E&Y's Krishnan, the appraiser will probably inspect the geographies where the property is located and not the sites themselves. "It will not be a physical valuation of the property site every time." In a market such as Singapore, property can be valued instantly as all the information is available online, but in India, because of lack of data, the process of valuing a property will be a challenge, says Jones Lang's Upreti.

Properties will be typically valued by merchant banking, accounting and consulting firms, all of which would need accreditation by a credit rating agency, Sebi's guidelines say.

"The short-run challenge is execution," says Upreti. "The question is: Do we have enough valuers?" In the absence of manpower, getting valuations done every 90 days would be difficult, he says.

Expertise is yet another concern. "Accounting firms have been specializing in valuation.

Whether they have real estate expertise is another question," says Krishnan. "It will take time to build a base of professionals specialized in this area."