Shapoorji to ramp up mid-income housing business

Bengaluru: The real estate arm of Shapoorji Pallonji group plans to acquire multiple land parcels for its Joyville mid-market housing brand while monetizing non-core land, a top company executive said.

Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate, which hasn’t launched a project since June, also plans to launch 6-7 housing projects between November and March, including three projects under Joyville Shapoorji Housing Pvt. Ltd, besides four premium projects in Mumbai, Pune and Kolkata.

Under Joyville, the Mumbai-based firm plans to acquire 3-4 land parcels within the next six months, which will give its mid-income housing platform a deeper pan-India presence. Each land parcel will have 1.5-2 million sq. ft of development potential.

“We want to carry this platform forward and plan to acquire land in cities such as Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune and Mumbai,” Venkatesh Gopalkrishnan, chief executive officer, Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate, said over the phone.

Shapoorji Pallonji launched the Joyville platform in 2016, and partnered with Standard Chartered Private Equity (now Actis), Asian Development Bank and International Finance Corp. to invest around $250 million. While there were talks of Joyville raising a second round of funding last year, Gopalkrishnan said a consensus on this were being arrived at and a decision will be taken soon.

Currently, Joyville has four projects in the National Capital Region’s Dwarka Expressway and suburban locations near Pune, Mumbai and Kolkata. Joyville, which sells most of its homes at ₹30-60 lakh, launched its first project in NCR in January and sold well, though the inventory was priced at ₹65 lakh to ₹1.2 crore.

Even as overall residential sales remain tepid, mid-income homes costing up to ₹50 lakh, or so, have been the sweet spot for builders and buyers alike, with rising demand in this price category, aided by benefits under the goods and services tax (GST), and the government’s aim to provide housing for all. An increasing number of property developers are looking to tap into the so-called affordable housing segment because of high demand and decent profit margins.

“...The liquidity situation in the market is worsening by the day. While we are happy with our sales, we hope the crisis gets some kind of a push from the government,” the CEO said.