Piramal Group pushes affordable housing projects

The real estate arm of Piramal Group, Piramal Realty, is contemplating to construct new affordable housing projects thereby doubling its real estate portfolio and residential development to 30 million sq ft in the near future, said president (sales and marketing), Gaurav Sawhney, reiterating that the move is to explore opportunities in the segment comes at a time when its top competitors are struggling to remain afloat in the sector. There is clearly a growth that it sees in the affordable housing segment as it is one of the areas that it would like to explore. If this is important to the customer, then the company thinks it would like to participate and play a key role in the segment as a large chunk of deals in the residential segment is happening in affordable housing, which offers a huge opportunity for developers. Apartments costing less than ₹50 lakh comprised 57% of total sales in the September quarter across 35 cities, according to property advisory firm Liases Foras. The highest number of new launches were in the ₹30-50 lakh bracket, contributing almost one-third (31%) of launches in the quarter.