Saturday, August 11, 2012

Regional centres are teeming with realty potential

In all the talk about globalisation, being local does have a bad name. But as per B&E’s analysis, regional centres are teeming with realty potential. And regional players are proving that staying local could actually prove to be a blessing in disguise

This robust growth is also attributed to unique selling strategies of the developers to achieve profitability and maintain steady cash flows. Says Kamal Taneja, MD, TDI Group, “We are catering primarily to the mid-market segment and have therefore priced our product to suit the needs of the customers.” In various regions like Kochi, as prices of the urban land sky-rocketed; developers moved to villages where land value is less and applied a new village-oriented business strategy. For other established players like M-Tech Developers, the strategy has been a healthy mix of a strict monitoring of the Price-Value matrix of offerings and periodic progress information. According to Manoj Swain, DGM of a local real estate company Trisat in Bhubhaneshwar, small real estate companies are basically dependent upon the local broker who sell properties on their behalf whereas medium sized companies appointed some youth as marketing executives on a salary and incentive basis. Favouring the fortunes of regional players is also the changing profile of the customer base. Says Mittal, “After witnessing a spurt of speculative buying with an aim to take advantage of the arbitrage the sector offered, property is now being bought to serve the personal investment criteria of customers.” Customers want to be early occupants and are looking for apartments that are affordable (Rs.20-30 lakh), aspirational, in good locations and well-connected with infrastructural back-ups.

“I believe,” asserts Taneja of TDI Group, “that real estate is fundamentally a regional industry.” As per a report by Jones Lang La Salle Meghraj, 307 million Indians live in 3,700 towns and cities across the country and account for 30.5% of the population. Being regional helps the developer understand customers better. Just like media, the realty sector is seeing a boost in fortunes of regional players. In the coming pages, we bring you field reports from six strongly emerging regional centres. Undeniably, glimpses of the future of India’s realty abound in these reports.




 

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posted by Editorial at 5:52 PM