Provident Housing aims to stand out as a top brand in the large property landscape of Mumbai Metropolitan region (MMR). Sensing that below INR one crore housing is the most desired but least served segment of housing in the region, the developer with expertise in catering to mass housing has big plans in the pipeline across west zone. In an exclusive interview with Ravi Sinha, Rajat Rastogi, CEO-West & Commercial Assets (Pan-India), Puravankara Limited, sounds optimistic that the brand has good recall and acceptance among the home buyers of the region.
The reason why Provident Housing is increasingly getting bullish in the western region is the realization of the company that there is a dearth of branded quality players in the affordable housing segment of MMR. Rajat Rastogi asserts that Provident Housing is already an accepted brand in the western market with only three current projects – two in Pune and one in MMR. Now Provident Housing is taking multiple steps to grow the business across west India.
Provident Housing is evaluating around eight to ten projects across the western region and two projects are scheduled to be launched in 2024. The company aims to generate INR 2000 crore topline from western region in the next couple of years, with equity investment of INR 600-700 crore.
“There is very high acceptability of Provident products in the given segment & price range, say around 80 lakhs. After all, we are offering far better quality than the local developers in the category. That is where the differentiation is coming right now. Affordable housing that is anything less than one crore commands a market share of 35-40% in the region. This is a large segment and not every brand has project portfolio in that segment. Most of the brands in this market are in INR 2 crore upwards segment. So, there is a lot of scope to grow in this space,” says Rastogi.
He feels the fiscal numbers for Provident Housing appear less at this moment since the company has lesser number of projects. But in terms of apple-to-apple comparison, the track record of Provident Housing is impressive. All that could change in the next few years with four to five projects in the pipeline.
Despite limited footprint in the region, Provident Housing is slightly higher in terms of pricing as the buyers are ready to pay premium to the brand. Probably what works as a pull factor in marketing is the fact that each sales gallery of Provident Housing has been showcasing details of each & every specification that is being put in the apartment.
“No player in the western region gives details about every nut & bolt that is being fit into the apartment. So, we are giving confidence to the buyers, even in sub-80 lakhs apartment. Secondly, our buildings are not cluttered because we are not going for the maximization of the FSI. We don’t want our projects to look like a modified Chawl, but it should be like premium housing even in the budget category. And hence, the customers’ livability index is the highest with us,” says Rastogi.
Provident Housing is taking customer feedback to make community of buyers around the brand. They have taken customer feedback at the planning stage of the projects, for example the customer feedback goaded the company to make design changes with clubhouse at their Pune project. The developer has also taken feedback to make projects more sustainable. As a matter of fact, the company commits to make all its projects IGBC gold rated across the west zone.
Affordable housing in MMR has more often than not hit the headlines for land and litigation around it. How is Provident Housing planning to deal with it? Rastogi firmly says that the company won’t ever touch a land that is in litigation. That is part of the best practices that the company has adopted as a matter of principle.
“We don’t even try to jump into it like the local developers with the mindset of trying to solve the problem. We are open to do JVs and JDs. We are doing two projects on JDAs. If the land is good then only we work with the landlords and try to maximize the land. So, we take pride in telling our customers that there is zero litigation on land. This is mandate from our board that do not even go for a land where you foresee any future challenge over the land. That is the reason none of our projects are stuck,” he adds.
Today, Provident Housing projects command premium in the MMR region because customers know there is no litigation.
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