The company entered the world of real estate in the year 1970. Since then, the company has delivered several projects that have become landmarks in their own right.
After four decades of unwavering commitment towards innovation and service, Gera is today a force to reckon with. The company has spread their footprint across Pune, Goa and Bangalore by meticulously constructing and delivering over 50 projects, with close to 4 million sq.ft. of development. Our projects proudly stand as great examples of elegant designs and robust engineering.Mr. Rohit Gera, MD, Gera Developments shares his overview on current real estate scenario with C&A.
“Looking forward to 2016 we hope that home buyers will realize the benefits of investing their money currently being paid towards rent for their equity in their home instead”
To begin with gives your overview on current real estate scenario?
The overall real estate market is currently facing tremendous headwinds on various counts in different parts of the country. While the end outcome is the same that is developers are currently under high levels of stress, the root causes are different in different areas. Markets like Pune have seen a nominal drop in sales and a substantial increase in supply whereas other markets are plagued with steep drop in sales with no major increase in supply. The end outcome however is the same and that is sales are not adequate to take care of financial closure for the project.
Tell us about some of your project in different parts of India?
We have presence in Pune, Goa and Bengaluru in both commercial and premium residential sector. We have always been innovative in our approach, we launched India’s first ChildCentricTM project. The concept of ChildCentricTM Homes created a new category of living spaces with service oriented proposition. It provides holistic 360° approach to family living taking into account parents aspirations and needs with regards to their children. This concept has been implemented in our project Song of Joy – GreensVille, Kharadi in Pune. Gera has to its credit the series of IntelliplexesTM in Panjim – The 5 Gera’s Imperium projects in the central business hub of Goa.
Gera’s Isle Royale is located in the lush green forests of Bavdhan in Pune is also unique which has super luxury villas and high rise apartments. Some of our landmark projects in Pune are Gera’s Trinity Towers, SkyVillas, Emerald City, Astoria, Park View 1 and amongst others. Unique aspects associated to our brand and the projects are that we provide 5 Year Warranty in all our projects consisting of Preventive Maintenance and Repairs.
What are your expectationsform 2016?
The real estate sector has been facing strong headwinds over the past couple of years on numerous counts. Customers are adopting a wait and watch approach hoping for prices to come down. While prices have corrected somewhat in most markets across the country, the combined effect of cost increase and reduced prices along with the increased finance cost on account of the slow sales has left developers with no head room to lower prices any further.
Looking forward to 2016 we hope that home buyers will realize the benefits of investing their money currently being paid towards rent for their equity in their home instead. There is talk of improving the approval processes across the country at all government levels. This will lead to an improvement in the overall supply there by keeping prices in check such that we do not anticipate any run away price increases as we have seen in the past. The real estate regulatory act will certainly lead to a fair amount of confusion and uncertainty as it is expected that initially there will not be clarity on how current projects where sales are already taken place will be treated. The changes in the norms for Foreign Direct Investment in the real estate sector while positive are likely to lead to a large inflow of funds for projects. With this move the projects which have been stuck due to lack of capital will be also be revitalized. On an overall basis we expect the market to be mildly positive to flat but do not see much room for further price correction barring some pockets of some individually stressed developers.
How has the revenue mix been so far in recent times?
The expectations for things to change continue to be pushed further out on account of the expectation of lower interest rates as well as a pickup in GDP growth leading to increase profitability on account of higher salary levels. The expectations on improvement in approval processes etc. have not been met, as the change takes time to be implemented. All in all, 2016 seems to be a tough year for the sector.
