Business conglomerate Shapoorji Pallonji’s real estate platform Joyville will invest around Rs 400 crore to develop the third phase of its housing project in Gurugram as demand for residential properties has recovered from June last year, a senior company official said on Sunday.
In an interview with , Joyville Shapoorji Housing Managing Director Sriram Mahadevan said the housing sales were hit badly during the April-June quarter of this fiscal year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but demand has improved significantly thereafter.
Joyville is a USD 200 million mid-income housing platform established by Shapoorji Pallonji, ADB, IFC and Actis.
In January 2019, the company had launched the first phase of the 18-acre project ‘Joyville Gurugram’ on Dwarka Expressway in Gurugram, Haryana. The second phase was launched in June, 2019.
“We have launched the third and the last phase of our housing project in Gurugram. We will develop more than 400 units in this phase,” Mahadevan told in an interview.
Mahadevan said there had been price appreciation in this project over the last two years. In contrast, the first phase was launched at Rs 5,800 per sq ft, the unit in the third phase costs around Rs 7,200 per sq ft.
Asked about the investment, Mahadevan said the project cost for the third phase would be around Rs 400 crore.
The Joyville platform is developing around 1,500 units in all three phases of the project with a total investment of Rs 1,200 crore. It bought the land parcel from another real estate developer BPTP Ltd.
“There is a clear cut shift of customers towards quality. They are relying more on brands. Millennials are looking at residential properties for buying. There is also a renewed interest of homeownership,” he observed when asked about the demand scenario during this pandemic.
So far, six projects have been launched under the Joyville platform, of which three are in Pune and one each in Mumbai, Kolkata and Gurugram.
“During this pandemic, we launched two projects in Pune and have got a good response from the customers,” Mahadevan said, adding that the company has adopted digital tools in a big way to reach out to potential buyers.
In December last year, the company launched a new housing project, ”Sensorium” in Hinjawadi, West Pune, spread over 10-acre and comprising over 1,100 flats, with an investment of about Rs 700 crore. Before that, in October, a 21-acre housing project, “Joyville Hadapsar Annexe” was launched in East Pune, comprising more than 2,700 units.
“Across six projects, we have launched around 5,200 units so far, and out of that, 75-80 per cent are already sold. There is development potential for about 4,000 units more in these six projects,” Mahadevan said.
The platform has started the handover process of Phase 1 at Joyville Howrah (near Kolkata) as per the timeline and is planning to begin the handover process of Phase 1 at Joyville Virar (near Mumbai). The construction works are underway in the other housing projects.
Apart from this platform, Shapoorji Pallonji group firm Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate has a development pipeline of over 80 million sq ft.