India's leading real estate developers are accelerating their push into plotted development, a segment once dominated by unorganised players but now reshaped by branded offerings, faster cash flows and evolving buyer preferences. This strategic shift is visible across markets such as Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Gurugram, peripheries of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and even Tier-II cities.
Office redevelopment is emerging as a key growth frontier for developers as India's commercial real estate market shifts towards quality, sustainability, and capital efficiency. With land parcels scarce in central business districts (CBDs) and demand for Grade A offices remaining strong, developers and investors are increasingly turning to ageing office stock in prime locations to unlock value.
Colliers reports that GCC leasing has jumped from 4.6 million square feet in 2021 and is expected to hit 10.6 million square feet by 2025 -- a clear sign that multinationals see Bengaluru as a long-term base.
Developers based outside Mumbai are making a beeline for India's largest real estate market through redevelopment projects. These include Delhi-based DLF, Bengaluru-based Prestige Estates and Puravankara, Pune-based Kolte-Patil Developers and Vascon Engineers, and Hyderabad-based Ramky Estates.
'Every delay directly increases the cost burden on developers. Land holding charges, financing costs, and compliance expenses escalate as approvals drag on.'
'In the past six months, capital markets have seen a dip, and realty is struggling. The stock-market investor will be cautious of putting that investment in real estate when there may be a slowdown coming.'
Unstable markets have prompted Puravankara Projects, a Bangalore-based real estate company, to revise its initial public offer price from Rs 500-525 per share to Rs 400-450 per share.
'A positive momentum in the southern market as far as leasing, absorption, and rentals are concerned.'
The national real estate market presents an intriguing picture. Lower volumes and flat pricing serve as dampeners. Sales bookings across the top ten markets have seen 6 per cent growth year-on-year (Y-o-Y) between April and August 2024, but sales volume is down 8 per cent Y-o-Y. Unsold inventory is up.
'Developers are into profit-making. And there's not too much money in the affordable segment.' 'So, they don't do affordable housing.'
The government's move to tweak the long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax regime proposed in the Finance Bill 2024 and re-introduce the indexation benefit is likely to boost the investments and spur housing sales in the country, industry executives believe. "By enabling taxpayers to choose the lower tax burden between the new and old schemes, the amendment is poised to drive investment and enhance sales across housing segments," said Niranjan Hiranandani, chairman of the Hiranandani Group. In Budget 2024, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed an overhaul in the capital gains tax regime, including lowering the LTCG tax to 12.5 per cent from 20 per cent.
'Though one cannot paint the entire microcap basket with the same brush, investors need to be careful now as to what they're buying.'
The past 18 months have seen a resurgence in the real estate industry, with developers regaining the ground lost to the Covid-19 pandemic. But it is once again adding inventory at a pace faster than sales. The industry's inventory rose by 28 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in H1FY24, com-pared to a 25.5 per cent year-on-year increase in net sales during the same period.
Some of the country's largest listed real estate developers - DLF, Prestige Estates, and Puravankara - are foraying into the Rs 50,000-crore residential property market of Mumbai, where home prices are among the highest in the world. All of them are set to launch residential projects in the financial capital of the country, where the market is dominated by players such as Runwal, Lodha, and Oberoi Realty, among others. Leading the race is Prestige, which has lined up 6 million square feet (msf) of new launches in the city across Mulund and Byculla in the third quarter of this financial year (2021-22).
The net debt of top eight realty firms fell 43 per cent to Rs 23,000 crore last fiscal, from around Rs 40,000 crore in 2019-20, as their cash flow improved on strong housing sales, according to Anarock. Real estate consultant Anarock noted that the unfettered demand for housing across the country has enabled the country's leading large and listed developers to reduce their debt. Anarock analysed financial performances of the top eight developers engaged in the development of residential real estate.
Home prices across the top six cities are set to jump 6-10 per cent this fiscal and 3-5 per cent in the next financial year because of a steep rise in raw material, labour and land costs, and relatively favourable demand-supply dynamics, a report said on Thursday. The report by Crisil also said large residential realtors are on course to log a robust 25 per cent sales growth in 2022-23 and 10-15 per cent in the next fiscal. The unsold inventory level is down to 2.5 years from four years pre-pandemic, and this has credit profile of the large realtors strengthening, the report said.
The key demand drivers -- such as low home loan rates and income tax sops, particularly for affordable housing -- that supported the recovery in H2 FY2021, remain in place and will spur recovery again, feel experts.
Although residential sales faced a major set back in Q2, they made a comeback with help of pent up demand.
Despite a 56 per cent fall in residential launches in the first half of the year compared to the second half of 2019, Anarock Property Consultants believes that consolidation in residential real estate is expected to gain ground, and that branded players may garner a market share of 75-80 per cent.
Oberoi Realty has hit the top slot in Mumbai's ranking of the top-20 developers in terms of sales in 2021, evicting the Runwal group which was number one last year. The Lodha group which had occupied the top slot three out of five times since 2017 slipped to second place in 2020 and continues to be in the same position in 2021. The Oberoi group was in fifth place in 2019 and fourth place in 2020. This is the first time that it has occupied the number one position. The Runwal group which took the top slot in 2020 is down to third place in 2021.
Bengaluru-based developers, such as Puravankara Limited and Sowparnika Projects, have witnessed over 85-90 per cent of their customers being first time buyers or end users.
In the 2017 budget, the government accorded infrastructure status for affordable projects to help such projects raise loans at lower rates
Sobha Puravankara is yet to explain to the safety lapses found by the DGCA.
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Some major property companies based in South India, such as Puravankara and Sobha Developers, are spreading their wings in the high-growth National Capital Region market.
About 5.5 million users are looking for real estate online in India
In the wake of boost from the Budget & RBI move on affordable housing, Tata Housing & Mahindra Lifespace, among others, plan new launches.
As PM talks of lower lending rates, housing companies prepare to cash in.
Developers could not find the model of affordable housing viable as they used same resources for premium projects and due to rise in cement and steel prices.
Warehousing and logistics segment has been among the most resilient asset classes in the pandemic.
Real estate bill seeks to impose penalties, including de-registration of the project and other fines in case of a breach.
Portfolio returns, say analysts at Morgan Stanley, are more likely to be driven by bottom-up stock-picking rather than top-down macro forces.
Property developers plan more launches in the sub-Rs 20 lakh category of homes, after Monday's Budget concession.
The BSE mid-cap Index will include shares of Allied Digital Services, Cals Refineries, Century Plyboards, Gammon Infra, Hindustan Oil Exploration, Indiabulls Securities, Jai Balaji Industries, Jet Airways, Jindal Drilling, Puravankara Projects, Rain Commodities, S Kumars Nationwide, Shriram City Union Finance, Thermax and Thomas Cook India.
Puravankara Projects scores better than its peers on growth and profitability.
Bengaluru's average home prices are Rs 4,000 a sq ft.
Listed realty developers saddled with unsold properties worth Rs 1 trillion
On BSE, 1,826 shares declined and 982 shares rose, while a total of 194 shares were unchanged
'The fact that housing units worth a whopping Rs 4.5 lakh crore in top seven cities are stuck under various stages of non-completion indicates that there is a dire need to create stress-asset fund which will help bail out lakhs of distressed homebuyers,' says Anuj Puri, Chairman, Anarock Property Consultants, a real estate services company.
Smart homes that do your everyday tasks are now coming on the Indian market. Several real estate firms are making this reality as they venture into constructing automated homes.
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