PBEL Property Development, a city-based real estate company, is betting big on the southern market, investing Rs 1,200 crore in its ongoing residential project in Hyderabad and another Rs 250 crore in a planned residential-cum-commercial project near Chennai. In addition, it plans to begin work in January on its 10-acre site in Mysore, to be developed by Coromandel Engineering.
PBEL is a three-way 45:45:10 joint venture among two Israel-based firms PBC and Electra Real Estate and the city-based Incor Infrastructure.
With sectors like IT, retail, pharma and real estate back in growth phase, the company was focusing on Hyderabad, said Anand Reddy, executive director, PBEL, in a media interaction. Its ongoing residential project, PBEL City, with 1,600 apartments in 13 towers of 20 floors each, is expected to be completed in four to five years, he said.
Except for a loan from SBI amounting to 10 percent of its current construction cost, financing for all projects was internal, he said. The apartments are in the price range of Rs 40 - 45 lakh.
He said 85 percent of their customers were from the IT sector, and with new recruitments and salary hikes in the sector, the company would mainly cater to their needs. “We are trying to bridge the disconnect between world class work places of IT employees and their residences,” he said.
Meir Bourkis, director, PBEL, said the company had another 32-acre site located 12 km away from the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, where it was looking to build some airport-linked project like logistics infrastructure or convention centre.
After a completely quiet market over the last two years buyers were now steady at Rs 2,700 - Rs 2,800 per sft, Bourkis said, adding that real estate prices were expected to reach 2007 levels in a year.
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Apart from Hyderabad, the company was finalising master plan for its 42-acre site on Old Mahabalipuram road near Chennai. For Mysore project, it acquired land parcel for Rs 24 crore.