Puravankara to retain focus on residential segment, for now

Real estate developer Puravankara Projects Ltd (PPL) will take a call on entering the hospitality sector in 6-8 months and which segment of the sector to target would depend on the city and the site's location, according to Mr Ashish Puravankara, Joint Managing Director, PPL, Bangalore.

While conceding that the continuous rising of the home loan interest rates may have a near-term impact on the industry, he did not expect it to deter buyers from investing in home purchases particularly in the South.

Questioned at a news conference in Coimbatore on Wednesday, called to announce the launch of Puravankara's Coimbatore project, on the impact of the rising interest rates on the real estate sector, he said there will definitely be a ‘little bit of impact'. But South India was an ‘end-user driven market' and not a speculative market. While a decision on buying a home may be postponed, a 75 bps increase (0.75 per cent) in interest rates would ‘not deter a person who is in need of a home' from investing and the salary levels also have been rising.

To a query whether the company was looking at de-risking its business by entering into the real estate markets in other regions in the county rather than being a South-focused player, Mr Ashish said, PPL was ‘more an opportunity-driven' (company) and it moved into Southern cities because of the opportunities they provided. He saw opportunities in the North as well but would like to consolidate PPL's presence in the South before venturing into other regions in the country. It has a joint venture project in Kolkata and also in Colombo.

On cement sector foray

Asked as to whether the realty sector was serious about its plans to enter into cement manufacture or was it a mere threat to bring around the cement manufacturers, accused of frequently raising prices, he said the issue was under serious discussion among the developers because cement was a crucial material needed by the industry and there was a lot of fluctuation in cement supply and prices. It is being ‘seriously discussed by the developers', but this is at ‘too preliminary a stage' to fix a time frame, he added.

Replying to a question about the entry of Puravankara into the hospitality sector, the Puravankara JMD said, the company owned properties in city centres in different cities that were suitable for hospitality projects. But at this point of time, the company has ‘put them on hold' since its focus was on launching residential apartment projects.

On Purva Bluemont

Referring to the Coimbatore project ‘Purva Bluemont', Mr Jackbastian Kaitan Nazareth, CEO, PPL, said the project, to be taken up in phases in Singanallur on Tiruchi road would have a total of 1,116 units of two and three BHK apartments to be priced in the Rs 3,100-3,200 range, excluding other costs. The promoters have set apart about five acres of land that may later be exploited for commercial use.

He said nearly 80 per cent of the project area would be open and it would come with a host of facilities like gym, club house, swimming pool etc. Keeping in view the current preference of buyers, the project would have more three BHK apartments than 2BHK apartments.

Asked about the monthly maintenance cost and the viability of providing water intensive facilities in a water-deficient city like Coimbatore where replenishing water would be very costly, Mr Ashish Puravankara said, with latest technology being available, very rarely the residents would have to completely replenish the water in swimming pools. The residential complexes would have water treatment plants facilitating recycling of even waste water for gardening.

Mr Nazareth said, while some of the facilities would be common for which every apartment owner would pay, for others charges would be user-based. In fact, in Bangalore, in some of the apartment complexes certain amenities are rented out to generate revenue.

He said, Puravankara was for the long haul in Coimbatore and was looking at launching mid-segment housing project through its subsidiary Provident Housing Ltd.

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