Builders told to improve operational efficiency.

India’s real estate industry was at an inflection point, and would leapfrog to US$350 billion in 10 years from $120 billion at present, said Abhishek Lodha, Managing Director of Lodha Group.

Pointing out that not all the delays are due to lack of financing, he called on builders to improve their operational efficiency and take on emerging opportunities.

It was the right time to buy real estate in India, added Ramesh Nair, CEO & Country Head, JLL India.

Even the builders are changing their strategies adapting to changing dynamics, he pointed out.

“Nobody wants to stick to land banking, overall ticket size has come down, deleveraging is the name of the game, launches have come down and focus has shifted to completion of existing projects, and profitability has found its level at 15 per cent, coming down from 40-50 per cent earlier,” said Nair.

Neel Raheja, Group President of K Raheja Group, highlighted the need to focus on urban housing in the wake of the prospect of 350 million people moving from rural areas to urban centres in the next 10 years, mainly to Tier-I and II towns.

But Niranjan Hiranandani, Co-founder and Managing Director of Hiranandani Group, added “Even if the industry is growing at 35 per cent per annum till 2022, we can hardly fulfill 50 per cent of this dream.”

The industry leaders were speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) recent conclave on real estate in the country and discussed opportunities offered by the Prime Minister’s ‘Housing for All’ initiative.

New regulations are expected to establish transparent, credible and attractive real estate sector in India, added Rishi Bagla, Director of Bagla Automotive Systems India Ltd.

CII and JLL India earlier had jointly unveiled two incisive research reports at the Conclave. ‘2017: The Inflection Point of Indian Real Estate’ which provides a comprehensive analysis of the major real estate policies and examines the impact of technology and other market forces shaping the Indian real estate industry this year and going forward.

The other is ‘Co-working Report’ prepared by CII, JLL and WeWork. fii-news.com