Of the 93,140 homes that were sold in the first 9 months of FY21, 22 percent were sold by just eight real estate developers, research data from Anarock has revealed. Only four years ago, these developers — all listed ones at that — accounted for just 6 percent of 2.03 lakh homes that were sold in FY17.
In a nutshell, that has been the story of consolidation in Indian real estate, in favour of Brigade Enterprises, Godrej Properties, Kolte-Patil, Mahindra Lifespaces, Oberoi Realty, Prestige Estates, Puravankara and Sobha.
While these listed companies have gone from 6 percent sales share in FY17 to 22 percent sales share in FY 21 (first three quarters), non-listed A-grade developers have also done well, in this period. Names like Aparna Constructions, Lodha Group (recently listed), and Casagrand, to name just a few, have registered sales share growth from 11 percent in FY17 to 18 percent this fiscal.
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In terms of area, Anarock's numbers indicate that these top eight listed companies sold 21.23 million square feet in the first three months of this fiscal — a 2 percent rise from the corresponding period in FY 20. Godrej sold the bulk of this space at 6.64 million square feet, followed by Prestige Estates at 5.04 million square feet.
Impact of Demonetisation, RERA & GST
"After the roll-out of structural policies including RERA and GST, organised and branded players' dominance has risen exponentially," said Anuj Puri, chairman, Anarock. It’s a popular opinion over why listed real estate majors have done well, and Brigade Enterprises’ Rajendra Joshi agrees.
"This was always in the offing ever since demonetisation was announced in 2016, and RERA came into being the very next year," says Joshi who is CEO (Residential) at Brigade Enterprises, "Add to this the GST rollout in 2017 and the liquidity crisis in NBFCs the very next year, and you’ve begun seeing a situation where smaller developers and unorganised players have failed to get any funding."
Joshi feels these multiple factors has paved the way for larger and more trusted real estate brands to capture more market presence and clock better sales. It’s no coincidence that these names are also bigger, listed companies.
Expansion plans up ahead
"We at Brigade are hoping to ride high on recent sales volume and are charting expansion plans in the South," says Joshi, "We are looking beyond Bengaluru, to launch anywhere between 3 to 4 million square feet each in Hyderabad and Chennai over the next 12 to 24 months."
However, while expansion is only the most natural outcome of increasing sales shares, developers are also beginning to attach a great deal of importance to timely delivery. "You can’t help but encounter project delays, especially while executing projects during a pandemic amid lockdowns," says Abhishek Kapoor, COO (Residential), Puravankara Ltd, "But we’re seeing a clear case of homebuyers trusting the listed players when it comes to facing minimal delays."
With existing lockdown restrictions making it all the more difficult for unorganised players to execute any projects at all owing to a variety of factors from the availability of labour to liquidity concerns, A-grade developers — listed and non-listed — look all set to take home a larger slice of the Indian real estate pie
(Edited by : Jomy Jos Pullokaran)
First Published: May 28, 2021 7:16 PM IST
