Tata Housing plans to develop 20-mn sq/ft land in 8 cities

Tata Housing, the realty arm of Tata Sons plans to develop 20 million sq/ft land in eight cities in India which include Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai over the next few years. The company already has 29 projects and 70 million sq/ft land under various stages of planning and execution across 13 cities.

The managing director and chief executive Brotin Banerjee of Tata Housing told reporters,   “we have additional 20 million sq/ft land for development in the pipeline . We are in talks with the land owners in this connection.”

Speaking on the sidelines of a social cell initiative by Tata Housing where homes will be sold through Facebook in Goa ranging from Rs. 29 lakh to Rs. 50 lakh between October 26 – 28, he added that the additional 20 million sq ft land parcels throughout India will be developed in the course of next few years.

The company has already delivered 5,000 homes during the last 3-4 years and it plans to deliver another 4,000 homes in the remaining part of the current fiscal. “We will be launching four residential projects during October-December,” he added.

While tying up with e-tailer Snapdeal last year for the sale of premium houses, Ratan Tata was sure that the investment would be testimony to the growing interest of established business houses in India’s burgeoning internet trade.

The property carnival by Snapdeal in association with its realty partner Tata Housing on June 5, 2015 witnessed the largest deal of Rs 1.1 crore.

Hours after commencing the online sale of Tata Housing’s premium and luxury apartments on its website, e-commerce major Snapdeal announced its biggest transaction worth Rs. 1.1 crore. The property festival has received an overwhelming response with more than 1800 enquiries.

Snapdeal Vice President for Fashion, FMCG and Real Estate, Amit Maheshwari said, “We offer an effective and economical channel for Tata Housing to reach its target group across India”. “Since the launch of the real estate category, we have focused on forging alliances with some of the most trusted names in the industry to provide a range of housing options to customers”, he added.

While Snapdeal has reaped success in online sale of real estate, the Co-founder & Managing Director of realty portal Shopsandhomes.com Rohit Dixit says, “Buying homes online is preferred only by large Investors who believe in a particular brand.  “ . “ The end user who purchases a flat with the motive of occupying it will never choose a property online, be it any trusted e-commerce gateway ”, he adds.

Tata Housing is about to invest Rs. 600 crore

One of the leading realty firm Tata Housing is planning to invest more than Rs. 600 crore for the development of new residential project at the Bahadurgarh, Haryana.

For this particular residential project Tata Housing has tied up knot with the local real estate developer, who owns about 21.7 acres of land for the development of this project which will contain more than 800 to 1,000 units. As per the statement of Tata Value Homes, which is the subsidiary of Tata Housing, with this deal it has entered in the Delhi and NCR region for affordable housing market by launching the new project at Bahadurgarh, Haryana, where apartments price will start from Rs. 50 lacs.

Apart from that Tata Housing, still hiding the fact that how much they are going to invest in this latest projects, but as per anonymous sources Tata Housing is about to invest Rs. 600 crore. As per the officials company has received all the necessary government and non-government approvals to develop this project, however; it is expected that the construction work will start within one to two months.

Brotin Banerjee, MD and CEO of Tata Housing, stated that this project is in the close proximity for New Delhi and Gurgaon both city and Bahadurgarh has potential to become next corporate hub in terms of value and affordable housing in the NCR region.

Tata Housing is about to become the public limited company however its subsidiary, Tata Sons Ltd which hold more than 99 per cent stake in the realty firm. Currently, Tata Housing has more than 70 million square feet under development which is in various stages from planning to execution with the additional 19 million square feet area which is under pipeline. In present, currently, three projects are underway from Tata Housing.

Tata Housing started five affordable housing projects

Tata Housing Development Company has started its five affordable housing projects, including one in the city, as per the statement of company official. Brotin Banerjee, CEO and Managing Director of Tata Housing Development, said that we are setting up five affordable housing projects in all over the country, including Kolkata city.

For Kolkata city, Tata Housing Development has entered into a development manager model with Square Four Group with a aim to set-up a project on B T Road in the northern part of the metropolis.

As per the development manager model of Kolkata city project, Tata Value Homes, which is a 100 percent subsidiary of Tata Housing, would provide managerial and technical expertise including ground support, whereas; the investment would be by Square Four group which would be Rs 1,800 crore. According to Banerjee, Tata Housing will invest between Rs 2,500 crore to Rs 3,000 crore for building premium and affordable housing projects in the up-coming years.

3D preview of flats

Now you can have a three dimensional view of your wannabe residential flats as the developers have created a buzz with digital marketing and soft tools to induce the buyers. The developers and builders are using every tool in the kitty right from using drones to film new projects and thus offer a preview of how the flat will look like to the prospective buyer.

Already affected by the sagging sales, the developers have resorted to digital marketing tools to sell at least 2, 00,000 residential units during the October-December period, which translates for about 40 per cent of the annual sales. Industry watchers say developers are hoping to close as many deals by the year end as possible.

A host of builders are using 3D walkthroughs that help prospective buyers to visualise what they are going to buy. Speaking about the new approach, Advitiya Sharma, co-founder of Housing.com told a newspaper, “We have used drones to capture the view of a project from various angles. For a consumer, the Internet is the first point of enquiry and we want the experience to be good.”  This company, which counts Tata Housing and Rustomjee among its clients, says it has about 10,000 projects under its net. Several developers, including Tata Housing, Godrej, Mahindra, Wave and CHD already have a digital presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest. Tata Housing recently partnered with Snapdeal to sell homes online.

It may be noted that the businesses are moving towards new age marketing. Real estate is no exception. Nowadays referrals and word-of-mouth are becoming very critical for brand building and sustaining growth. This explains why social media and online presence have become very pertinent for real estate marketers, as they help them engage with prospective buyers, says A Harikesh, Senior Vice-President, Marketing & Sales, Tata Housing Development Company.

As per the data put out by the ASSOCHAM, its recent study found that realty firms spend about Rs 2,500 crore every year on publicity across different media and digital marketing accounts. Real estate portal CommonFloor.com has launched an augmented reality-based property search app called CommonFloor Real Estate, which also enables GPS-based map search and brings all its services to the mobile phone. If compared with traditional marketing like newspaper advertisements or billboards, digital advertisements are far cheaper and have a longer shelf life. Besides, industry watchers say that the shift to digital media is also helping developers cut costs by 10-15 per cent.

US Consulate’s Lincoln House property

Two years back in March 2012, Mumbai’s realty circles were abuzz with news of Tata Housing, Tata Group’s realty company bagging the US Consulate’s Lincoln House property in South Mumbai for a cool Rs 850 crore. Almost three years on, a stroll past it reveals no sign of the Tata involvement, just a sole security guard, wearing a US Mission-logoed uniform manning the post.

Lincoln House, a heritage structure, underwent a grade change which worked as the spanner in the deal wheel. “Lincoln House hasn’t gone anywhere. We are not involved with the deal anymore,” says Brotin Banerjee, MD & CEO, Tata Housing said.

In July 2012, Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, on basis of the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee’s recommendations, published a revised list of heritage structures. As per this list, the heritage status of Lincoln House was upped from grade III to II-B. While redevelopment of heritage structures with grade III is permissible, there are several restrictions in place for change especially external, to structures with grade II-B. “The development potential reduced. We are hoping for changes in the Coastal Regulation Zone rules,” says a source involved with the transaction.

Tata Housing had not signed any documents to close the deal or pay the US Consulate any sum. They were the highest bidders and had only paid the earnest money deposit, put down by every bidder. The amount has since been repaid, says the source.

Banerjee says there’s a possibility of a future involvement in the property. “Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Delhi NCR are our two biggest markets. If I can get better projects for Tata Housing in , I’d be keen to do it. I wouldn’t say I am not interested.”  Here is a catch. Banerjee feels that he must be capital ready and the project investment ready for a deal to come through. No point waiting for “500 years for it (investment) to show (results)”. He says, “No point investing Rs 700-800 crore and then the development potential, which you thought was a million square feet, comes down to X. It doesn’t make sense.” As for Lincoln House, it continues to be in limbo, he told a newspaper.

Developers and builders are rushing out to acquire cheap land and technology for low-cost housing after the government announced incentives for affordable housing. The government and central bank also announced cheaper loans to developers and buyers.

Prominent real estate companies including Tata Housing, ATS Infrastructure, Bhartiya Group and Anantraj Industries are busy sewing up land deals for projects in the Rs 5-20 lakh home segment. According to experts, there is unlimited demand for homes in this segment. “There is a large market for such homes but a big supply constraint as well,” said Shailesh Pathak, executive director of the Bhartiya Group, which is planning to build 10,000 low-cost homes over the next two-three years on a 50-acre land near Chennai. Its larger plan is to upscale this to a million homes in the next decade across the country.

As per the statistics put out by the ministry of housing, India faces a shortage of 18.78 million homes, of which 96% is in the economically weaker and low-income segments. The challenge for builders is to find cheaper land that makes it economically viable for them to build such homes. Such lands, however, are only available away from the cities, where, in most cases, there is a lack of transport facilities.

The builders can keep cost of construction under control by adopting technology to speed up construction. Tata Housing, which has decided on a long-term strategy for this segment, has set up a pre-cast plant in Bangalore where a house is literally manufactured and then assembled on site.

“This technology standardises our homes and because it is factory based, we save on both time and cost,” said Rajeeb Kumar Dash, head of marketing services at Tata Housing. What conventional construction achieves in three to four years, this technology does in two to three years. The one year saved translates into cost benefits. Korea has been successful in providing mass housing, while Mexico and South Africa have interesting success stories, says Pathak of the Bhartiya Group.

His company is looking at international and other Indian case studies with the aim of incorporating key learnings and eventually adopting one of the technologies. Noida-based ATS Infrastructure has built 400 apartments priced less than Rs. 10 lakh in Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh and is looking at similar projects on the outskirts of tier-2 cities such as Muradabad, Kanpur, Saharanpur and Bhiwadi.

Mayank Saksena, Managing Director at property advisory firm JLL, said several developers are looking at buying cheap land and some are even open to revenue share and joint developments for projects with owners of land in good locations. But there is a word of caution. While the government has articulated a clear vision for housing in the budget this month, apart from cheaper capital and land, approval delays and regulatory hurdles need to be sorted out. “Any delays could severely impact such projects because of the thin margins they operate on,” said Vishal Gupta, managing director of Ashiana Housing.

In an interview to a newspaper, managing director of ATS infrastructure G. Anand said, “This is a volume game, with very thin margins.” Builders are working on different models. Anantraj Industries, for instance, secured cheap land from the Rajasthan government in Neemrana, but on condition that the company would not sell houses over a certain price. It built 2,300 homes with one room, toilet and kitchen in the industrial area and sold them at Rs 8-9 lakh each. “We are now looking at replicating the model for other projects as well. Low cost of land and low cost of money will help,” said Amit Sarin, director at Anant Raj Industries. ATS Infrastructure would look at incurring capital expenditure for technology only after a certain scale is reached. At the moment, his in-house construction team sources materials from around project sites to keep costs low, as did noted British-born Indian architect Laurie Bake.

You buy mobiles, cameras, laptops and even groceries online, so why not buy your dream residential flat on the net? If you were waiting for such a thing to happen, your wait is now over.

Online marketplace Snapdeal and Tata Value Homes, a subsidiary of Tata Housing with focus on affordable housing, recently announced partnership to enable users to buy houses online. As part of the partnership, about 1,000 homes across projects in cities such as Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Chennai will be put up for sale on Snapdeal. These houses are priced between Rs.18 lakh and Rs.70 lakh and range from 1 BHK to 3 BHK.

The idea was inspired by the fact that as per the reports, one in every two online real estate searches is to buy property and there is a $43 billion market opportunity here, said sources. We started selling homes through our own website last year in December and have already sold over 600 units. This partnership will help us take that to the next level,” Tata Housing Development Company Senior Vice President, Marketing and Sales, A. Harikesh, told a press conference to announce the deal here. Additionally, Tata Value Homes will continue to sell through its own portal as well, he added.

When you take possession of the house, customers buying the house through Snapdeal will get Rs.10,000 a month for a year as an assured rent whether they stay on premise or lease it out as part of the deal. “Details about the project and other things are shared on the website. Registered users can book a unit for Rs.30,000 and then our offline team takes over,” he said. However, the booking amount is not refundable in case the customer does not buy the house. E-commerce story is unfolding in a major way in India and it is predicted that more portals will embrace this idea of promoting realty. “We already have close to 50,000 merchants on our board. I think real estate, as a category, will do well on our platform because people trust our brand. We want to offer our customers the best deals,” Snapdeal co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl said welcoming the home buyers on to his portal. Harikesh said the company also planned to launch new projects in Kolkata and Delhi-NCR before March 2015, which might also get added to the deal.

Digital technology has touched every part of our life. So how can the multi-billion dollar realty sector remain untouched by it?

Right from setting up branded YouTube channel that showcase walkthroughs of upcoming projects, to hiring social media marketing firms, real estate players such as Godrej Properties, Tata Housing and Adani are joining the digital media marketing bandwagon in a bid to strengthen sales.

Real estate developers in Mumbai and other metropolitan cities have taken to digital media in a big way to boost sales, sidelining the print media. The reason is not far off. Not only are the developers finding digital media cost efficient but also increasingly effective in enhancing conversion rates.

Not only are the developers finding digital media cost efficient but also increasingly effective in enhancing conversion rates. So on one hand while Tata Housing saw over 10 bookings in first few hours of going live, Godrej Properties finds 20 per cent of its sales coming from online play.

The Mumbai-based real estate developers recently found success in the three-day ‘Great Online Shopping Festival’ where Google in association with Tata Housing offered prospective buyers of houses and encouraged them to book a flat or apartment by the company. Moreover, Tata Value Homes (TVHL), a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tata Housing recently received over 200 applications online within three hours on the National Home Buying Day. For Godrej Properties as well, the number of online enquiries for its projects has more than doubled over the past few months.

In the aftermath of the success of both Great Online Shopping Festival and National Home Buying Day – where both the marketing of the sale, and the transaction itself, were conducted purely online – we plan to add several more to the calendar, providing consumers more frequent avenues for accessing quality homes. This is emerging as an exciting option to target HNI’s and NRI’s,” says Brotin Banerjee, CEO and MD, Tata Housing.

A study by Google India says: The internet is influencing consumer behavior as 7 out of 10 buyers know the exact brand and model they want to buy with the help of online research.

Says Girish Shah, Executive Vice President (Mktg & Sales), Godrej Properties Ltd: “We use digital media to build communities of like-minded individuals, without an overt brand presence. This allows for a lot of creative flexibility and the ability to co-create products by crowd-sourcing trends and preferences. We also use it to convey transparency and are probably the first real estate brand in the country to have branded YouTube channel, which has sets dedicated to walkthroughs, news about the brand and project updates,” says Girish Shah, Executive Vice President (Mktg & Sales), Godrej Properties Ltd.

The realty developers not only run contests on Google plus and LinkedIn to connect with diverse customers, but also have integrated IP-based calling that is connected to call centres that are trained to handle specific campaign-related enquiries.

If that is not enough, developers have also begun taking help of professional digital media marketing firms for enhancing their web presence.”In the recent times, a number of our new clients have been from the real estate industry. Real estate developers this year have found it hard to continue business only through the offline media platform and have, hence, begun outsourcing their digital media activities to firms like us to enhance their web presence and bring in increased conversions,” said Anshul Gupta, chief executive officer, Digimedia, a Mumbai -based digital marketing firm.

What also has been attracting real estate developers to the platform is the cost efficiency. Dipesh Roy, vice president (marketing) Adani Township and Real Estate Company says: Digital media tends to cost us one tenth of the conventional print and outdoor platforms and yet bring in at least 40-45 per cent conversions which is only growing. Also, there are lots of leakages in the conventional platform whereas the digital platform can be used to focus only on the target consumers. We have seen that out of 10 people using digital platform for our projects, nine have come to see the product.