Birla Estates To Invest Rs 5500 Crore To Build Housing Proj in Mumbai; Eyes Rs 10,500 Cr Sales Bookings

Realty firm Birla Estates Pvt Ltd will invest around Rs 5,500 crore to develop a luxury housing project in South Mumbai as part of its expansion plan amid rising demand for residential properties, its CEO K T Jithendran said.

Birla Estates, which is a 100 per cent wholly-owned subsidiary of B K Birla group's Century Textiles and Industries Ltd (CTIL), has started the development of a luxury housing project, having a total of around 1,200 housing units, in its 14-acre project Birla Niyaara, at Worli in South Mumbai.

In an interview with PTI, Birla Estate Chief Executive Officer (CEO) K T Jithendran said: "We have around 30 acre of land parcel in Worli where we plan an integrated development.

We are launching our flagship project Birla Niyaara on a 14-acre land parcel which will be developed over the next 7-8 years." The company plans to develop 2.5 million square feet of housing, one million square feet of office buildings and 1,00,000 square feet of high street retail in various phases of this 14-acre project.

Asked about the investment, Jithendran said: "The total project cost, excluding land, is estimated at Rs 5,500 crore for the development of residential towers and around 50,000 square feet of high street retail attached to it". The investment will be funded through advances from customers against sales and internal accruals.

The apartments in the first residential tower will be sold in price range of Rs 4 crore to around Rs 60-70 crore. "We expect a sales booking of around Rs 10,500 crore from this 14-acre project," Jithendran said. The one million square feet building and around 50,000 square feet retail will be constructed at a later stage. Office spaces will be leased.

For the overall 30 acres of development, Jithendran said the potential sales booking value has been estimated at Rs 20,000 crore. "Century Mills has been one of Mumbai's iconic landmarks and an important part of the Birla group's history.

Our intent is to create a new landmark in the Mumbai skyline with Birla Niyaara. While it is our flagship and maiden project in Mumbai, it has the potential to catapult Birla Estates into the top developers' league," he said.

The entire project has been underpinned on sound principles of sustainable living which also cater to the evolving consumer needs, he added. "As a company our focus has always been on customer centricity, design, technology, and execution excellence and with these at the core we have curated an aspirational and urban lifestyle for our customers," Jithendran said.

The project has been conceptualized and designed by Foster and Partners and it is a LEED pre-certified platinum residential project. Asked about the ongoing projects, Jithendran said the company is developing three housing projects in Gurugram, Mumbai and Bengaluru. He said the sales in these three projects have been exceptionally well as housing demand recovered strongly post the second wave of the COVID pandemic.

Birla Estates had announced an investment of Rs 1,350 crore to develop three ongoing housing complexes. The company plans to add 3-4 projects every year as it seeks to be among top builders over the next five years, Jithendran had said last year.

Birla Estates will use a capital efficient, asset light model to source Joint Venture, ideally in Mumbai, MMR, Pune, Bangalore and NCR - which account for around 70 per cent of the Pan India residential market - and develop the brand. It has a commercial portfolio with two grade-A buildings located in Worli with around 6 lakh square feet of leasable area.

(PTI)