Century Real Estate Group investing 1,100crore in affordable segment

By Realty Quarter Bureau

The company also plans to launch about 1,350 plots next year in two projects and expects a sales realization of about Rs 600crore, its managing director Ravindra Pai said.

Century Real Estate, which has a huge land bank in Bengaluru, will enter affordable housing segment and invest Rs 1,100 crore to develop 7,000 homes in the next five years.

The company also plans to launch about 1,350 plots next year in two projects and expects a sales realisation of about Rs 600 crore, its managing director Ravindra Pai said.

“We have more than 3,000 acres in Bengaluru and our aim is to monetise our land parcels at best price,” Pai told.

In 2018, the company plans to launch four affordable housing projects in Bengaluru comprising 4.5 million sq ft of developable area and about 7,000 apartments. The projects would be executed in the next five years, he added. Asked about the investment, Pai said: “We already have the land for these projects. The construction cost would be about Rs 1,100 crore”.

About 6,000 flats, located in north Bengaluru, will be sold at Rs 35-40 lakh.

On plotted development in two projects comprising about 70 acres of land, he said there would be little investment for infrastructure development. Last week, Pai had announced plans to develop 7 million sq ft of commercial projects in Bengaluru over 6 years. He had also said that the company was in talks with private equity investors to raise Rs 1,000 crore.

On asked about the progress, he said: “We are in talks with private equity players”.

The company had earlier raised funds from Kotak, Piramal, JM Financial, Xander and others to develop projects. In February next year, the company will start development of one million sq ft area involving construction cost of Rs 350 crore. With the real estate sector facing multi-year slowdown particularly, housing, developers are focusing on office projects which are doing better and attracting huge investment from domestic as well as foreign funds.

The company has so far completed about 15 projects comprising 3,000 apartments and 2,000 plots. It is currently developing 10 projects. The company was founded in 1973 as land aggregator and facilitator. It has provided land to almost all the big developers in Bengaluru. It became real estate developer 10 years ago and started doing projects on its own.