The Hindu Business Line : Serviced apartments in Mumbai may see surge in demand

Mumbai, Dec. 1 As always is the case, opportunities surface even in adversity. The terror strike has left the city numb, but realtors, battered by poor offtake and falling prices, are expecting the serviced apartment space in Mumbai to look up in the short term.

The battle-scarred Taj and Oberoi hotels are expect to take some time to get back to life and it is here that they sense the opportunity.

Mumbai-based Royal Palms, which has 350 serviced apartments, intends to build 500 more in the next two to three years. Mr Dilawar Nensey, Joint Managing Director, Royal Palms, said his list of clientele include Videocon and Reliance, besides a host of international companies. Royal Palms entered the hospitality segment about five years ago and has a five-star hotel at Goregaon — The Palms.

Ms Meenal Sinha, General Manager, Imperial Servcorp, which offers functional serviced office space and virtual offices, says the company has been receiving calls from those who had been staying in the Taj and Trident hotels for service.

The Raheja-Servcorp combine has 22,000 sq ft of commercial space each, at Hyderabad and Mumbai. And, as such bookings are close to 90 per cent in the serviced office space. As the company does not offer serviced apartments, the clients apparently intend relocating themselves elsewhere and avail themselves of its facilities.

Mr Ramashrya Yadav, Head (Finance and Strategies), Orbit Corporation, says it could see a spurt over a period of one year.

Orbit Corporation plans to get enter the service apartment business and it has commercial space at a few prime locations in the city.

Mr Kumar Gera, Chairman, Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India, felt at best the demand could be only Mumbai-specific and would have no implications in cities such as Bangalore and Hyderabad. Security would, in any case, remain a concern even if it were serviced apartments. Mr Gera was confident that security at work place or hotels would undergo a sea change in the days to come.

Some real estate consultants are none the less upbeat and one said he was near closing contracts for 300 serviced units.

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