Interview with Shekhar G Patel, MD of GHCL

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An Opportunity for Growth

Shekhar G Patel, Managing Director, Ganesh Housing Corporation Limited (GHCL) is a qualified civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience in construction and real estate development business. He is also the treasurer in CREDAI National Executive Committee.Speaking to Realty Plus, Patel describes the Gujarat realty scenario.

The current real estate situation in Gujarat and investor sentiments

Gujarat has seen great transformations in its urban landscape with new futuristic projects of international standards. The development of other basic infrastructure, growth of Gujarat as a commercial and industrial hub, good governance, policies and leadership; all of this has lead to increased investments in the real estate. The rising interest of investors in fresh projects over the span of previous few years shows that they have embraced the new changes. However, owing to a huge number of unsold inventories in major cities, including Ahmedabad, the industry has not seen a price increase since last two to three years .this is now leading to upswing in sales up to 10 to 12% almost in all segments.

We expect that the Real Estate Regulatory Bill will definitely bring a positive change in realty industry by bringing greater transparency in project-marketing and execution while prohibiting the entry of unaccounted money into the Industry.

The design trends and buyer’s behavior

Environment has been a major concern for all of us, therefore steps like adopting green designs and seeking green certifications has become a trend for constructions across Gujarat. This trend is gaining momentum with more developers showing interest in offering eco-friendly options in residential as well as commercial segments.

The trend calls for eco-friendly spacious building designs that facilitate multilevel vehicle parking, sports and fitness and recreation amenities along with shopping arcades. Nowadays the buyers are looking for a residential construction that offers the choicest of amenities for an enriched lifestyle and which is value for money.

The government incentive for affordable housing

It is heartening to see that the issue of housing is finally finding national resonance and becoming a major priority of the administration. This will push developers to redeploy money into building more affordable housing .The time has come to streamline the affordable housing policy framework and achieve the promise of a decent housing facility for every Indian.One can be hopeful that the vision of a “Slum Free India” will be achieved in the near future. We, at Ganesh, have always been part of this process from the time of my father, Late Shri Govindbhai to current date with schemes like Malabar County-1 & 2 which cater to customer needs with greatly enriched value proposition.

In Gujarat, along with increasing development and urbanization, demand for affordable housing development has also increased. The policies that have been framed to meet the housing needs of Low income groups as well as the Middle income groups is a promising step to transform the infrastructure philosophy of Gujarat.

Is Indian real estate sector adopting latest technologies?

The real estate sector in India is not far behind in achieving global standards of construction technology and smarter building materials. Building information modeling (BIM) has aided engineers and fabricators to produce high end results, more accurately and in lesser time.‘Jump Form’ is another technique which is gaining popularity in construction of complex high rise buildings. We, at GHCL, too are exploring the possibility of bringing 3D construction to India. This will reduce construction costs as well as labour costs in a big way and we aim to pass on these benefits directly to the end customer.

To read more: http://realtyplusmag.com/an-oppurtunity-for-growth/