Purvankara enters Affordable Housing

Taking a big leap into affordable premium housing and targeting the middle classes, including the first time home buyer, real estate major, Puravankara Projects Ltd has launched its 100% own subsidiary, Provident Housing and Infrastructure Ltd, to set up 64,500 affordable homes at an investment of Rs 8,000 crore in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, and Mysore with a total built-up area of 59.80 mn square feet, over the next five years. The funding of these Phase I projects will be through construction debt and customer advances amounting to Rs 6,500 crore, with internal accruals and equity sourcing the remaining Rs 1,500 crore, which will be utilised for land acquisitions. In Phase II, Provident's footprint will cover cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Kochi, Jaipur, Pune, and Nagpur.
Ravi Ramu, director, Puravanakra Projects said, "Provident has been established as an independent stand-alone entity with its own budget, offices and staff.
Modern technology based methods are being used to achieve scalability at an affordable price." Jayakar Jerome, a former IAS officer, who is credited with resurrecting the Bangalore Development Authority and taking up a slew of infrastructure projects in Bangalore city, will be the managing director of Provident Housing and Infrastructure Ltd, while the Puravankara Group head, Ravi Puravankara will be the chairman of the company.
Provident Housing and Infrastructure will function under the supervision of the Puravankara Group, he added. Further, Ramu explained that the prices of Provident Homes, which are to be developed in a phased manner, are presently priced at Rs 10 lakh, Rs 15 lakh, and Rs 20 lakh and comprise one, two and three bedroom homes.
The first three projects of Provident in Bangalore and Mysore of over 19,000 homes covering an area of 17.10 million square feet are in the advanced stages of plan sanction with the first project in North Bangalore of 4.50 mn square feet, comprising some 5,100 homes ready for launch in the next few months.
Jayakar Jerome added, "Provident will target middleclass families and first time home buyers, with the objective of meeting the ever increasing demand in this space.We will provide affordable premium homes, which will cater to a largely under serviced market in the country." With rising income levels and aspirations and the emergence of a new salaried class, the demand for homes has far out-paced supply. According to industry experts, India's housing shortage has increased from 19.4 mn units in 2004 to 22.4 mn in 2005-06 and this figure has kept rising.
Puravankara Projects is planning to launch new mortgage finance schemes in the real estate segment. With a land bank of over 125 million square feet, the Puravankara group has above 20 million square feet of residential and commercial space currently under construction. Included in this are on-going residential projects amounting to 18.30 mn sq ft, comprising 11,010 homes.