Paranjape Schemes enters affordable housing

Launches brand 'Happiness Hub' for this segment

Pune-based real-estate developer Paranjape Schemes (Construction) (PSCL) today announced its foray into affordable housing segment. The company launched a separate brand 'Happiness Hub' for this segment.

The first project under this brand will come up at Varwe near Pune. The ticket size of the apartments in this project will range from Rs 10.35 lakh to Rs 25 lakh. The apartment size varies in the rage of 221 sq feet to 535 sq feet.

The company has invested Rs 150 crore for this project and will develop 2,000 units consisting of a saleable area of around 1.28 million sq feet.

"This project will give a fillip to the affordable housing space catering to the needs of the people who are looking at buying cost-effective homes. The project is coming up in a area that is witnessing a new era of development. Many small and large scale industries and manufacturing industries are being set up in the surrounding area," said Shrikant Paranjape, chairman, Paranjape Schemes.

The company also intends to strategically focus on extending the Happiness Club brand to other tier-2 and Tier 3 cities of Maharashtra.

Recently, Paranjape Schemes has entered into hospitality sector by launching first Gateway Hotel brands of Taj Group in Pune. The 150 rooms hotel spread over three acres of property has been built with an investment of Rs 115 crore. The company is also planning to raise Rs 600 crore via initial public offer (IPO). It has filed Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with Sebi.

In Pune, many of the renowned real estate developers like Godrej Housing, Tata Housing, Vascon Engineers, Xrbia and Vastushodh Projects are now focusing in the affordable housing segment.

Affordable housing emerged as a growing sector for the Pune residential market and topped the list with 33 per cent, (less than 40 lakhs) followed closely by mid-segment with 30 per cent supply.

Typically in Pune, affordable housing or budget homes have prices in the range of Rs 10 lakh to 25 lakh depending upon the size of the units and are of the 1 RK, 1, 1.5 and 2 BHK flats that would range between 356 square feet and 794 square feet.

According to several real estate developers, there is a huge demand-supply gap in affordable housing sector. The market demand for these homes is of 7 million homes while the industry is developing only one million.

Established in 1987, Paranjape Schemes boasts over 160 completed projects. It has completed over 7 million square feet of projects and has 22 million square feet of projects under development.