Mid-income Housing is Area of Growth for Lodha

Majority of the company sales have come from mid-income affordable housing, Lodha Group Chief Operations Officer, Ramakrishnan P told SapnaSrivastava in an interview. Lodha Group which is more known for its luxury and high-end projects is also majorly focusing on increasing the share of mid income or affordable housing in its portfolio. As Ramakrishnanmentioned the group, last year we delivered 12,000 apartments, which is the highest across the country. “Lodhahas its own land assets and we develop properties from high luxury to affordable in price range from 40Crore to 40 lakhs. Palava and Thane townships of Lodhain Rs. 40- 45 lakh bracket are definitely affordable from Mumbai standards. Rather we would like to call them as value for money projects than affordable housing,” he added. Lodha has been doing affordable housing for last 10 years and has delivered 2.0 crore square feet till now. Talking of Lodha Township at Palava, he said, “The Township has good infrastructure and around 25,000 people are living there. We already have a mall there and lot of commercial offices have also signed up. HDFC is also launching its new back-office at Palava. It is a phasedmixed use development on a land parcel of 4,500 acres and the company plans to deliver 6000 plus homes every year for next two years.” High quality, mid income housing is the need of the country and as a premium housing developer; we know high quality and have a robust construction delivery set up, systems and IT processes for large scale projects. We are bringing the two together for developing value for money housing. Explaining the construction & delivery strategy, he stated, “Our mantra is delivery with speed, we use all available technologies like jump forms and aluminium shuttering according to the project requirement timeline and budgets.With proper planning,backward integration and mind set of manufacturing, we are able to achieve 5-6 days slab cycle.The robust delivery cycle includes using level 4 planning with software, logistics, manpower and material supplies, all mapped through technology and IoT for real time monitoring.” Market Dynamics According to Ramakrishnan, even in bad times, good product and good amenities will help in grabbing the market share. “Credibility and quality are the benchmarks of Lodha and therefore even during sluggish times we saw consistent growth. India need homes, there is requirement for housing in each segment from luxury, mid-income to affordable, only the percentage changes. If a brand is delivering 10000-12000 homes, then that means the brand is doing well.” He also mentions the changing profile of home buyers which is getting younger. “With the increasing disposable income people are investing early in realty, so there is first time buyers and upgrade buyers, but what I feel is that demand is highest in affordable to mid segment. Markets like Thane, western suburbs and Palava is where a lot of mid and affordable housing projects are coming up. MMR is growing but infrastructure has to be improved. Employment opportunities need to be generated in the extended regions and micro markets for these areas to grow and reach their optimum level. As a developer while I can’t develop infrastructure of the area, it is within the integrated township that we can build roads, street light, waste disposal etc. People are ready to move to the city peripheries for living in integrated townships because these townships provide added amenities and social infrastructure. The buyer’s numbers are increasing constantly and it is a proof that the integrated township trend on the outskirts is picking up.In last quarter across Indian, market launches have increased after absorption of policy reformations. These regulations were much required,” he said.