Q&A: Mohit Gujral, Vice-Chairman & MD, DLF
'Plotted development helped us to de-stress'
DLF is the largest real estate developer, in terms of market capitalisation. Presently it has been following plotted development strategy than focusing on group housing projects.
The company recently announced launching of new plots in the second phase of their upcoming residential project near Chandigarh.
Mohit Gujral, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, DLF limited shares his view about the DLF Punjab plans and about their plotted development strategy, in an interview with Vikas Sharma. Edited excerpts:
Can you brief something about DLF Punjab plans?
Like Gurgaon, Chandigarh and its surrounding areas now are emerging as major anchor spots for DLF. DLF is planning to invest in excess of Rs 2700 crores in its prestigious development, the ‘DLF new Chandigarh’ in Mullanpur(Punjab), once its aggregating land in excess of 1,000 acres. As of now DLF has around 500 acres of land with CLU available for 142 acres.
Having sold off around 800 plots in ‘The Hyde Park Estate’, part of DLF New Chandigarh project, in the first phase , the company has now launched 200 more plots. The base price for these plots in two sizes 350 and 500 sq yards will be Rs 32,000, he said, and plots will be handed over to the buyers within the stipulated 24 months time period.
Apart from this, DLF also has plans to launch “Value housing” project in Ludhiana. DLF recently has been focusing on plotted development compared to house development. Can you explain the rationale behind this move?
DLF had large commitment of projects that are still under construction. Executing projects and giving delivery on time was priority for the company. Focusing on plotted development has helped the group to de–stress.
As plotted development is construction light and less construction intensive compared to housing development, the strategy has indeed de-stressed the group by allowing it to focus on delivering projects under execution on time.
Next year we will begin fresh on our construction model and assign equal weightage to plotted and housing projects.
Your comments on the company’s debt position?
There is lot of misconception about company’s debt position. More than half of our current debt could be serviced through rental assets.
Moreover, debt is all about management and the group has been able to manage its debts.