Birla Estates aims for top 3 spot in core markets with ₹45,000 cr pipeline

Aditya Birla group's realty arm eyes commercial scale-up via partnerships

Birla Estates, a wholly owned subsidiary of Aditya Birla Real Estate (ABRE), is targeting the top three position in its core markets with an unlaunched project pipeline of ₹45,000 crore, while expanding its commercial portfolio through financial and strategic partnerships.

 

K T Jithendran, managing director and chief executive officer, said that the company’s focus areas remain Mumbai metropolitan region (MMR), Pune, Bengaluru, and the national capital region (NCR).

 

“We’ll aim to be in the top three developers in each of the regions that we operate. It’s achievable for us. As of now, we have enough work to do in these four cities. It’s important to focus on management bandwidth and the complexity of getting approvals, which varies in degree of complexity from region to region,” he told Business Standard.

 

The company plans to deepen its presence in these markets. “However, we’ll keep scanning other cities with opportunities. But there are no immediate plans to enter a new market,” he added. Birla aims to launch residential projects worth ₹13,932.3 crore by the end of FY26.

 

Birla Estates currently has two commercial developments totalling 6 lakh square feet in MMR, generating annual rentals of around ₹150 crore. Jithendran said the firm is exploring partnerships to scale this portfolio and is targeting annuity income of ₹1,000 crore in the next five to seven years.

 

“It’s a good time for us to expand, given that commercial real estate brings more stability into a portfolio because of its annual income. In commercial real estate, there’s a lot of capital required upfront. The payback period is longer. So, we would look at having a financial and strategic partner. Together, it would make more sense for us to build the commercial portfolio. We are in the process of doing that,” he added.

 

Birla earlier secured ₹420 crore from the International Finance Corporation and entered a ₹560-crore joint venture with Japan’s Mitsubishi Estate in Bengaluru. Jithendran said the company will continue pursuing such partnerships.

 

Birla Estates is also planning a 1 million sq ft commercial project on its land in Worli. “The time has come for us to balance our residential portfolio with some focus on commercial,” he said.

 

The company’s land bank has a development potential of about ₹70,000 crore, of which it has launched ₹25,000 crore and sold around 80 per cent. It expects to launch seven to eight more projects in the next three months, subject to approvals.

 

Birla Estates’ bookings have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 77 per cent since FY20. It reported sales of ₹8,087.5 crore in FY25 and aims to cross ₹15,000 crore annually in the coming years.

 

In MMR, it is in talks with several housing societies for redevelopment. Jithendran believes that infrastructure development across the city presents a great opportunity for redevelopment and that Birla Estates has ‘unfair advantage’ in the market where trust is a very strong factor due to “the legacy of the brand and the amount of trust it enjoys”.

 

The company’s net debt stood at ₹4,226.3 crore as of Q2 FY26, which Jithendran described as ‘comfortable’. Net debt is expected to fall close to zero once proceeds from its pulp and paper divestment come in. Earlier in March, ABRE approved the sale of its pulp and paper business to ITC for ₹3,498 crore, with completion expected by Q3 FY26.

 

“Financially, we are in a very strong position in terms of net capital and net cash flow. Almost all our projects are net cash positive. We are not going to the public markets for funds. Currently, there’s no requirement to do that. We are only looking for the right projects, the right returns, and the right location,” Jithendran added.

 

Additionally, the executive stated that he is bullish on the demand prospects, particularly in the premium and luxury residential segments. “For the right kind of branded developers with strong financial depth in their balance sheet, great reputation, strong focus on execution, choosing the right sizing, the right locations, and also the right pricing are very important. If all these combinations are there, the demand will continue to be strong. We see a stable demand driven by more actual users rather than pure play investors,” Jeethendran said.

 

On Tuesday, Birla announced that Birla Pravaah, its premium residential project in Gurugram, was sold out within 24 hours of launch, clocking sales of over ₹1,800 crore.