JLL India sells residential brokerage firm to Anuj Puri
Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) has announced the sale of its India residential brokerage arm to its former India head Anuj Puri for an unspecified amount. An announcement is being made shortly. Mr Puri, who left JLL India as Chairman on 28 February, has worked closely with the JLL India and Asia Pacific leadership teams to complete the acquisition of Jones Lang LaSalle Residential Private Ltd (JLLR) and will lead a team of 200 residential brokers across eight Indian cities. Besides the cost of acquisition, Mr Puri will bring in fresh investment of Rs 100 crore which will mostly be invested in technology. Mr Puri will mobilize the resource through internal sources and from family and friends, he said. “With his impeccable track record in Indian real estate and his passion for the residential sector, Anuj is exactly the right person to continue to build this business and we wish him every success in his future endeavours,” Ramesh Nair, CEO & Country Head, JLL India said. “This has been a smooth and well-planned process as Anuj transitions to his new ventures. For JLL, it is a strategic move that will allow us to focus on new growth areas for our India business and continue to offer best-in-class real estate advice and services to our clients,” he said. It was Mr Puri who incubated this business in 2010-11 which has been making profits for the last four years. Mr Puri will now lead the new organisation as Chairman – Jones Lang LaSalle Residential (JLLR). "After 10 incredible years with JLL, it’s now time to build something new and I am very much looking forward to focusing on the exciting opportunities in India’s residential sector. Initially, the business will retain the existing brand name, JLLR, operating through its unique business model of online property marketing coupled with complete offline brokerage support. Going forward, it will be renamed to reflect the new ownership structure,” Mr Puri said. Ashwinder Raj Singh will continue in his role as CEO of JLLR and he will report to Mr Puri. Mr Puri said there has been no national level player offering residential brokerage services in India and this business would grow exponentially. “There will be huge amount of technology play in this business and we will be investing in this brokerage platform. We have seen that people enquiring for houses through the internet but preferring to close the deal offline. While dealers are even closing online in the US, it would take time in India to get to that stage. We will be investing in technology to get the leads and fulfilment will be done offline through our well educated brokers,” he said. “It is already a profitable business and there is no other residential broker who has pan India presence. With RERA coming in the residential brokerage business will head for consolidation as the neighbourhood brokers will have to close shop as they are under the ambit of RERA,” Mr Puri added.
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