Mahindra Lifespace buys plot in Gurgaon for Rs 472 crore
It has been learnt that the real estate development business of the Mahindra Group, Mahindra Lifespace Developers, has bought a 12-acre land parcel for Rs 472 crore in Gurgaon from the private equity fund Ireo.
Responding to a query, Mumbai based Mahindra Lifespace Developers said, “The project is to be developed by the joint venture that Mahindra Lifespace has with Standard Chartered Real Estate, the private equity arm of Standard Chartered Bank.” The deal size, however, was not commented upon.
Ireo is one of the largest private equity funds committed to the Indian real estate sector.
Last year, Mahindra Lifespace had and SCM Real Estate (Singapore), the investment arm of Standard Chartered Bank had come together to develop residential projects in India. The companies plan to develop projects through Watsonia Developers, in which Mahindra Lifespace and SCM hold equal stakes.
Refusing to share much details regarding the financial arrangement made, Mahindra Life Space said, “Designs have been completed for a premium project and the company is awaiting approvals for the same.” The trends are showing that the Private equity funds have started investing more in India’s real estate sector after 2012. This comes as good news for the cash-strapped builders.
Cushman & Wakefield, the real estate consultancy firm pegs that total inflows from private equity funds in the real estate sector for 2013 at around Rs 7,000 crore, up 13% from the previous year.
The executive managing director of Cushman & Wakefield, South Asia, Sanjay Dutt said “The residential asset class continues to provide tremendous potential for growth in the coming years. With housing requirements growing across cities and funds investing in the asset class primarily in the form of NCDs providing fixed returns, investments in the right project have the potential to yield healthy returns.”
According to Mahindra, its first two projects under Watsonia Developers will be in the premium residential segments to be developed in Gurgaon and Bangalore. All projects developed under the joint venture will be marketed under the Mahindra Lifespace brand.
Mahindra is currently present in about nine cities with a pipeline of 11.3 million sq ft of ongoing and upcoming projects. This also includes 1.55 million sq ft that will be developed by the joint venture through its first two projects at Gurgaon and Bangalore.
Ireo has a 4,500-acre land bank and19 million sq ft of residential and 4 million sq ft of commercial projects at various stages of development at prime locations in the National Capital Region, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Punjab, and Maharashtra.
Source: The Economic Times
Cushman & Wakefield, Gurgaon, Haryana, Maharashtra, Mahindra Lifespace, National Capital Region, Plot in Gurgaon, SCM Real Estate, Standard Chartered Bank, Tamil Nadu, Watsonia Developers
