The Hindu Business Line : Mahindra Lifespaces looks at foray into ‘value homes’ segment

Mumbai, Sept. 30 Mahindra Lifespaces, the real estate arm of the Mahindra Group, is in the process of mapping its entry into the affordable home segment.

“The first could be at Gurgaon, where we have 19.5 acres; there are apprehensions over the extent we can go about given the per acre density of 250 people that the development rules specify,” Mr Pawan Malhotra, Managing Director and CEO, Mahindra Lifespaces, told Business Line.

A major concern is to ensure that the quality assurance that goes with the ‘value homes’ of Mahindra, even as the company looks to establish a pan-India presence in the category. “Everyone knows one cannot construct below Rs 1,000 a sq ft. How that can be achieved with high quality standards is the task at hand,” he said.

The company has evaluated affordable homes being built at Manila, where steel columns have been used to build 250 sq ft units that have a mezzanine floor as well. Besides, the company intends to study the mass housing programme taken up in Mexico, before going to the drawing board to chart its domestic rollout.

2.25 million sqft

Mahindra Lifespaces has about 2.25 million sq ft under production, apart from its residential project at Mahindra World City in Chennai. The current projects are at Faridabad, Mumbai and Pune.

Conversion rate low

Conceding that the slowdown in realty has had its impact in terms of conversion rate of enquiry, he said if it was one in 25 earlier, it was now close to one in a hundred. Booking for the Mumbai project slated for delivery in 2010 was close to 75 per cent, while it was 30 per cent in Faridabad.

Mr Malhotra said the second phase of residential space was being taken up in the Mahindra World City, Chennai — a 1,400-acre campus on the outskirts of Chennai. The company intends establishing accommodation for about 5,000 families on 325 acres. A range of multi-format homes with shopping malls, multiplexes, schools, medical centre and sporting facilities are to be made available to support the on-site residential populace.

Maharashtra SEZ

The company has begun land acquisition process in Maharashtra for setting up a special economic zone. Declining to specify the location, he said it would be as large as the one in Jaipur, which the Mahindras and the Government of Rajasthan are jointly developing.

Mahindra World City, Jaipur, is an integrated business city on 3,000 acres on the Jaipur-Ajmer-Mumbai highway.

IT majors such as Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, and Nucleus Software have signed up with the developers for establishing their offices.

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