The pandemic has been a period of incredible challenges across sectors, economies, nations and societies. The Real Estate Industry has had to face a lot. Estrade Board Room had the opportunity to speak to Punit Agarwal, CEO of Nirvana Realty, who shed some light on the happenings in his line of business – Holiday Homes segment.Following are excerpts from our interaction with him,
- Tell our readers about Nirvana Realty? Kindly take us through your journey since inception. What have been your major achievements and your major challenges?
Established in 2006, Nirvana Realty since its founding has evolved into one of the fastest-growing real estate companies with a niche of developing Weekend Homes. The growth story of Nirvana Realty is rooted in the perception of our management Mr Pravin Agarwal, Managing Director and Mr Punit Agarwal, CEO. Their enormous affection for nature and the outdoors led to the reasonable intention of owning their weekend Getaways, through which Nirvana Realty came into existence. In the beginning, it started with one primary project that soon grew swiftly and today Nirvana Realty is the single largest player in the second homes segment of real estate Having 7 projects around Mumbai at Khopoli, Wada, Dahanu, Malshej Ghat.
- Kindly share some insights into the Holiday Home Development segment of the real estate industry. What are Nirvana Realty’s major products and services?
The Holiday Home segment is also called the Second home or Weekend Home market, where people buy a secondary home other than their residential home. It is generally outside the city in the nature by the Hills or Waterbody where one can relax and rejuvenate from the daily hustle and bustle. It was earlier a passion of the rich and famous and since the last 20 years it has become more affordable and easy to maintain so even the middle class have started owning Holiday homes. There are mainly 3 types of weekend homes, NA ( non Agricultural) Plots, Apartments and Villas. Nirvana Realty offers all 3 types of weekend homes.
“Market Size is approximately Rs 1000 Crores annually and growing at 20% every year.”
- What is your geographical location, in terms of product offerings?
Nirvana Realty has 7 successful projects, namely
Nirvana Farms – Located in Pinjal, Wada, Nirvana Farms was launched in the year 2009. It was our first venture in weekend home townships with the theme of community farming. The concept revolves around leading a more organic lifestyle, indulging oneself in the art of farming and consuming organically grown produce. We received an overwhelming response to it and soon the project was completely sold out.
Waterfront – Launched in the year 2010, Nirvana Waterfront is located on the banks of the Vaitarna river in Wada. Equipped with all the essential amenities, this township project centers on the pleasure of living by the riverside.
Break the Routine – Launched in 2012, was our first adventure themed township situated in Murbad at the foothills of Malshej Ghats. With the beautiful Murabadi river
bordering the premises and several adventurous activities to indulge in and around the project it truly is a thrill-seekers heaven
Wollywood – Located in Wada, Wollywood is India’s first Bollywood inspired weekend home township. With numerous world class amenities, planned and natural
green landscapes and bollywood inspired infrastructure, the project brings together the best of luxurious bollywood lifestyle and the eternal peace of living close to nature.
City of Music – Launched in the year 2017, this project is India’s first music inspired weekend home township located on Khopoli-Pali Road. With easy accessibility, state of the art amenities and a meticulous plan that innovatively integrates the charms of nature with upscale infrastructure, City of Music brings to our clients a chance to live their love of music in a lavish lifestyle.
Viroha – The Biggest USP of this Project is that it touches Mumbai Ahmedabad Highway. And that is the reason we call it VIROHA, the Highway City. It is 100 Kms from Mumbai and 40 Kms from Vapi, which makes Viroha easily accessible from Mumbai and Gujarat. Viroha is Spread across 27 acres of land amidst nature abundance,
a flowing river and infrastructure development which gives you the best of both worlds. Viroha is a limited edition land with unlimited opportunities. With approved FSI of one, you can build your villa, studio apartment, student housing, AirBnB resort or anything else you want.
Divine Villas – Located in Khandala are luxurious and spacious. It is a place to visit for tranquility, in nature’s lap covering about 5000 sq.ft. construction area including double height living area, spa room, private swimming pool with slide, waterfall and a private lawn. As the villas are located on hill top you get the breathtaking views of the Khandala valley.
- Kindly share more information on your industry of operation – market size, challenges, opportunities, key metrics, etc. How do you see the future growth of this market, along with your company’s growth?
The market Size is approximately Rs 1000 Crores annually and growing at 20% every year. The main challenge is execution of the projects being outside the city, there is lack of skilled labours and technical staff, most small time developers enter this market without experience and end up over promising and under delivering , leading to losses for both customer and developer. There is opportunity for branded developers to enter this market and make it more professional and standardize the operations. There is an immense opportunity for the growth of this industry as more people are able to afford a second home with their growing incomes. Everyone is realizing that they need one home away from home which can give them better ROI than city homes also. For Nirvana Realty being the only branded player in the market the growth potential is great, we are being cautious in launching new projects as we are first priority is to complete the development of all projects in hand and then get into something new.
- Who is your target buyer? How would you pitch Nirvana’s value proposition to firstly the buyers, and secondly, the investor?
Nirvana Weekend Homes are for people who are living in or near Mumbai & already have their first home in the city & looking to invest in a property which can serve as a breather form the fast pace city life or the humdrum of the daily work home routine & when not in use can provide better returns.
“During this pandemic, all the businesses have evolved digitally. Even in the real estate industry where site visits were the trend, virtual tours have replaced that.”
- Which product segment is the most popular and which one the highest revenue earner for Nirvana Realty? – Pre pandemic, during pandemic and planned for post-pandemic.
Nirvana Pool Villas are the most luxurious & most popular innovation of Nirvana Realty that no one other than Nirvana is offering in the market at present. Nirvana has always been about product innovation with a sense of stability & security. Seeing the current situation, Nirvana got feedback from its customers and associates about their problems and needs, and to fulfill that they Introduced Luxury Pool Villas in perfect picturesque locations like Pali-khopoli, Wada & Dahanu. All of their locations are near a perennial river and are surrounded by hills, have lush green gardens throughout the year to take you on a road close to nature, which was the need of the hour!
- How has the business ecosystem and buyer sentiment changed during this pandemic? How do you see these evolve?
During this pandemic, all the businesses have evolved digitally. Even in the real estate industry where site visits were the trend, virtual tours have replaced that. Now buyers do online research before buying & have become more aware about the pros & cons of products and services with reviews & testimonials.
“…Big Data, ML & AL really help in understanding the demographics & the buying patterns of the targeted audience. Nirvana Realty uses the Historical Data and buying patterns… ”
- During this pandemic, many businesses in the real estate sector have closed or are struggling to survive. Your view and comments on this prevailing situation.
Pandemic was the restart button for everything, it has helped many businesses rethink and reinvent themselves and adapt to the current situation. It was a temporary blow to all sectors and now things are coming back to normal. I foresee an even better growth story for India moving forward.
- How upcoming technologies such as Big Data, ML and AI, are augmenting your market reach? How Nirvana Realty is leveraging these?
Technologies such as Big Data, ML & AL really help in understanding the demographics & the buying patterns of the targeted audience. Nirvana Realty uses the Historical Data and buying patterns of all its customers in last 12 to 18 months and retargets its marketing efforts on specific group people to get maximum results and conversions. We have an inhouse team of experts managing this for us.
“The biggest challenge is fly by night developers who make commitments to the buyers but do not really deliver”
- What are your expectations (policy direction) from the Government? On which issues do you feel the industry players should come together?
We have requested the government to all GST INPUT credit in real estate as the input costs have increased more than 25% and not able to claim the GST INPUT CREDIT is making all project more expensive for the customers
- Who are your competition? How do you perceive the threat from your competition? What is the biggest challenge faced currently by your industry?
The biggest challenge is fly by night developers who make commitments to the buyers but do not really deliver the projects on time and affect the market by promising the properties at a price lower than the market standards.
- What is your vision for Nirvana Realty, in terms of, (1) Near term future, over the end of FY 2021, (2) Long term, over a 4 years horizon.
At present, Nirvana Realty is the largest Weekend homes developer in Maharashtra & we envision to scale up our business Pan India over the coming years.
“Businesses have evolved digitally during pandemic” – Punit
