Date:14/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/14/stories/2008081452411800.htm

Business

Puravankara plans affordable housing

Special Correspondent

Floats subsidiary for this segment
To develop plotted townships

MUMBAI: Puravankara Projects, a leading real estate player has announced its foray into the affordable premium housing segment by announcing the launch of its 100 per cent owned subsidiary, Provident Housing and Infrastructure. Jayakar Jerome will be the Managing Director of Provident Housing and Infrastructure while the Puravankara Group head, Ravi Puravankara, will be the Chairman of the company.

Phase I to cover 5 cities

According to a company statement, in the first phase, the affordable housing project will cover Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Coimbatore and Mysore where 64,500 homes with a total built-up area of 59.8 million sq. ft. will be constructed over the next five years at a cost of Rs. 8,000 crore.

Funding

The funding for the Phase-I projects will be through construction debt and customer advances amounting to Rs. 6,500 crore with internal accruals and equity sourcing accounting for the balance Rs. 1,500 crore which will be used for land acquisitions.

Price range

In the second phase, Provident’s footprint will cover cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Kochi, Jaipur, Pune and Nagpur. The prices of the Provident homes, which are to be developed, are now priced at Rs. 10 lakh, Rs. 15 lakh and Rs. 20 lakh and comprise one, two and three-bedroom homes. The first three projects of Provident in Bangalore and Mysore of over 19,000 homes covering an area of 17.1 million sq. ft. are in an advanced stage of plan sanction with the first one in North Bangalore of 4.5 million sq. ft. comprising some 5,100 homes ready for launch in the next two months.

Apart from homes, Provident will also develop and sell large plotted development townships for affordable housing supported by facilities such as hospitals, schools and playgrounds.