Landcraft Developers - Golf Links
Garg Group is into steel distribution, education, and development of infrastructure projects. The real estate arm of the group, Landcraft Developers, has come up with two residential projects at Ghaziabad.
Director of Landcraft Developers, Manu Garg in an interview with Our correspondent informed that comparatively lower prices and connectivity dividend are the factors that make their projects more attractive destinations to invest in. Excerpts:
What are your company’s current projects?
We have two projects running at Ghaziabad—River Heights and Golf Links. In River Heights, there would be 1,000 apartments of which 450 will be built in the first phase. Spread on a 20-acre plot, it offers accommodation to the mid-segment buyers in the category of Rs 20-30 lakh. There aren’t many options available in this range, within a 5 km radius of a proposed Metro station.
The second project is Golf Links, a golf-centric integrated township spread over 120 acres. Out of this we have a license over 92 acres. Apartments here are priced in the bracket of Rs 26 to Rs 50 lakh. Apart from this, there are 50 villas around the golf course.
When are these projects likely to be completed?
Phase I of River Heights is expected to be complete by March 2009 and Golf Links by 2010.
What is basic rate of apartments at these projects?
By the down payment scheme, for River Heights it is Rs 1,815 per sq ft while for Golf Links it is Rs 2,024 per sq ft.
There is one more project called La Residency, a joint venture with Ashiana, where we are developing around 650 units. The land is owned by us. Under the down payment scheme it costs Rs 2,050 per sq ft.
What is your reaction to Union Budget?
I think it was more poll-centric. They maintained the status quo on everything. The focus of the budget should have been on providing low-cost housing. Affordability should be the primary concern. Also, the interest rates should come down. Government rules deter us from developing low-cost housing projects.
What according to you is affordable housing?
For such houses the buyers should be charged a price somewhere between Rs 5 to Rs 10 lakh.
Most of your projects are in Ghaziabad. Do you have projects outside Ghaziabad?
We have diverse businesses. We already had land in Ghaziabad. So starting here was a natural choice. We saw an opportunity here because floors in Ghaziabad are not fully approved. In areas like Rajnagar, which have poor infrastructure, the rates are around Rs 3,000 per sq ft; our rates are far lower. And we promise better civic infrastructure.
Ghaziabad being in the National Capital Region, is an important destination for investment. Which are some of the important investment areas here?
There are only two arterial roads in Ghaziabad. One is National Highway 58 and the other is National Highway 24. These are the two stretches with a lot of development and investment potential. Secondly, the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) is bullish on infrastructure development of the city. Indirapuram is one such example, where GDA is taking up more development work.
According to the Master Plan 2021, GDA has to provide a total of 2.6 lakh houses for a population of 23 lakh. Do you think GDA will invite private developers to achieve this target?
GDA is inviting private developers. It has enough land for new developments. Ghaziabad has a natural connectivity advantage. In the next five years the city will have the best infrastructure in the NCR. I feel that development centres keep on changing. For example, Navi Mumbai has now become the development centre in place of Mumbai Central.
Talking about Ghaziabad, the city has become an educational hub. The city will create a big pool of talent. So in the coming years, there will be many companies here and a huge number of young professionals, who will look for affordable accommodation. Only Ghaziabad will have affordable dwelling units.
A new trend is now seen in realty that the developers take complete charge of their projects. They do not outsource. How does it help the developer?
A developer looks at two aspects: quality monitoring and timely construction of the project. If given a chance, the developer will try to control these two things on his own. This will ensure a great quality product and no delays. We also give contracts for various sections and construction. But we keep a check on the quality. For example, we buy steel from top companies in India and the world, but even then every batch which comes to the site is tested.
How much land bank do you have? What are your plans?
We have some 100 acres of land. We also plan to build an IT SEZ and a multi-purpose SEZ. We are consolidating on the land and are looking at cities like Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Mumbai.
How much are you going to invest over the next year?
We are going to invest around Rs 1,000 crore in the two projects over two to four years from now.