Neha Hiranandani, director, House of Hiranandani, talks to Supriya Ghorpade on the group’s plans for Bangalore and why it’s a preferred choice among property developers.
What is your outlook for the market this year?
In the current environment, we have to take it month-on-month; we can’t even take it quarter-on-quarter. The political environment is tumultuous in Karnataka in particular and we’ve already seen a political shift taking place. We have to stay on top of things, and continue to monitor the market. I don’t think we can make any long-term predictions. However, there is nothing outwardly negative.
What is the status of your projects, considering many projects are being delayed in recent times?
The delay is not due to any sales-related reason. Whatever delays are taking place are because of statutory delays in getting approvals or commodity shortage like labour etc, which are out of our control. But the market has not caused any delays. From what we are seeing across India, Bangalore has been a solid performer vis-a-vis Mumbai.
How important is Bangalore as a market?
It is extremely important. Our exposure to Bangalore market is growing every quarter. We feel positive about the market, it has a tremendous amount of potential.
Which parts of the city are you keen on making your mark in?
We like all parts of Bangalore. We have projects in the south and north corridors. The west is a corridor we haven’t moved towards yet since it isn’t a focus area for us.
Your products lean towards the luxury segment with villas and high-end apartments. Is this the right time for such offering. Considering buyers have been increasingly preferring ready to move properties or mid-segment...
Luxury is a word that has been flung around. It’s a highly subjective term because of the way it’s being used indifferently it has lost its meaning and worth. Rather than selling luxury I’d say we sell a lifestyle.
I believe that any home purchaser is an aspirational home purchaser. Anybody who wants to buy for end-use will buy the best product that he/she can invest in. We don’t offer luxury products, we offer lifestyle products. We try to keep the product in tune with the market. What you would define as luxury in submarkets will also vary.
Do you have a target audience for your properties?
Our products are across the board. For every market, we will try to identify affordability. Before we launch a product, we go through an entire exercise of studying what the market is in terms of affordability, we try to study what other products are available in the market, either ready or under construction. Based
on that, we talk to investors, potential customers, and only then we try to create the right product.
How different is the Bangalore buyer from one in another Indian city?
Each of these markets is different. Bangalore is more cosmopolitan than Chennai, but less than Mumbai. Bangalore and Chennai have always been very traditional markets and we haven’t seen the kind of rapid price appreciation in either of these markets that we have seen in Mumbai — both on the land or the end product side. Stability has continued to reign here.
What could this stability be attributed to?
There is a lot of land still available in Bangalore. It’s a growing city and it is at that stage where large parcels of land in the growth corridors are being lapped up. You will see a time in both these cities, Bangalore and Chennai, when scarcity of land starts to show. That is when you will see massive price appreciations. I think another year or two, we will see huge price appreciations on land taking place.
How do you see yourselves placed against other players in the city?
We are not the largest player in Bangalore, but our aspiration is to be the best and not to be the biggest. Our strategy is to focus on the projects that we take, nurture them and take them to a level that we can portray who we are as a company.
How has the response been to your launches?
It has been better than we anticipated with our first project. Of course, our confidence levels have gone up. We were not expecting that kind of brand recognition, we received a good response, people recognised the good will, the fact that we’ve been in the industry for over 30 years.
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