Bharti Realty to invest Rs 35 bn in Delhi-NCR commercial, housing projects

Bharti Enterprises' real estate firm Bharti Realty plans to invest about Rs 35 billion (Rs 3,500 crore) to develop one commercial and a housing project in Delhi-NCR, a top company official said.

The company sees a big shift in demand towards organised real estate developers after the introduction of new real estate law RERA and GST, Bharti Realty MD and CEO S K Sayal said.

Bharti Realty currently has around 15 completed projects, having 5 million sq ft of fully leased Grade-A commercial space, in Delhi-NCR and some other cities, while 1 million sq ft of an office building is nearing completion in Gurgaon.

"We have bagged a project from Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) to develop a commercial property which will have about 2.5 million sq ft of leasable area, mostly retail," Sayal told PTI.

The company will soon start development of this 23 acres of land parcel and targets to complete it in next four years, he added.

Asked about the project cost, Sayal said this retail real estate project, one of the biggest in Delhi-NCR, will be developed with an investment of about Rs 15 billion (Rs 1,500 crore).

In January last year, DIAL, which operates the aerodrome in the national capital -- had given the contract to Bharti Realty to develop an area of nearly 2 lakh sq metres of retail space near the airport here.

This contract, decided through a bidding process, involved an upfront payment of Rs 3.15 billion (Rs 315 crore) as well as license fee equivalent to 20 per cent of revenue with minimum guaranteed payments, GMR had said last year. DIAL is a subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure.

Bharti Realty already has two-three properties in commercial hub 'Aerocity' near Delhi airport.

Asked about residential business, Sayal said the company had tied up with Eros Group to enter into the housing sector.

"We entered into a joint venture with Eros to develop a housing project on a 52-acres land at Surajkund in Haryana. We have got all government approvals to develop this project," he said, adding the construction work would begin soon.

This project, comprising 2,300 units and 5 million sq ft development, would be completed over the next seven years with a cost of around Rs 20 billion (Rs 2,000 crore), Sayal said.

The housing project at Surajkund will be a vertical smart city where apartment price will be in the range of Rs 12.5 million (Rs 1.25 crore) to Rs 40 million (Rs 4 crore).

The two projects would require a total investment of about Rs 35 billion (Rs 3,500 crore) and the same would be funded through internal accruals and bank loans.

Sayal asserted that the company follows right business practices and therefore was unaffected by the real estate law RERA, GST and demonetisation.

"We see demand shifting from unorganised developers to big organised players like us," he said.

Sayal said the company would continue to focus on the national capital region market.

The Bharti Group has a presence in telecom, agri-business, financial services, retail and real estate among others.