Interview with Rishi Jain, Executive Director, Jain Group

“Affordable rate and better ROI is one of the major points that Kolkata enjoys in comparison to other metro cities.” Rishi Jain, Executive Director, Jain Group. Kolkata real estate market has an influx of affordable projects by various developers as these developments always enjoy good ROI and huge level of interest from the end users as well as the investors. For example, Jain Group is developing a project called ‘Dream World City’ near IIM Kolkata which is the first integrated themed township project of the city. The complex comprises 5000 apartments and state of the art amenities and yet, we have managed the keep the base price 14 lakhs for a 2-BHK apartment. Every city has its own unique challenges, irrespective of the industry and the sector. In Kolkata, the initial challenge was about the mindset of people and convincing them about a home in a gated community rather than a standalone building. Also, over a period of time, people are showing inclination towards buying their property from reputed developers only, which, we feel is a very important development. In the last few years there have been some phenomenal changes in the psychology of the people. Previously, the buyer interest was in smaller size properties within their budget but, now the buyers are evaluating the ROI of a specific project over the next few years. This, we believe, is a very big catalyst for them in selecting a project. Getting a home loan has become easier these days and with the help of visionary changes like PradhanMantriAwasYajna – people have become more interested about having a home of their own. The potential of Kolkata realty market The past few years showed immense potential in the overall housing scenario of West Bengal.  As a part of some new rules, the work process has started taking lesser time and because of the growth that the state is forecasting, in terms of infrastructure and developments, we can safely say that affordable housing segment is going to be the most potential segment of the state. The introduction of FDI, REID will bring the much needed liquidity and systematic processes in the sector which would, in return bring investments for the sector in a much steady way.Also, RERA and GST will both serve the twin purpose of bringing transparency to the sector and discouraging the ‘fly by the night’ operators from the sector. Kolkata is witnessing many changes in terms of infrastructure and awareness and has seen some encouraging developments lately. The people are more conscious of the facilities that they want for the investment that they are making. We have introduced the first intelligent homes of the city, which are fully integrated with home automation technology and have received encouraging feedback from the people of Kolkata. The company has also been promoting new technologies and means of development in the project management. We regularly adept various measures like rapid strides, mass adoption of eco-friendly procedures in the project management. Undoubtedly, the Kolkata realty market is one of the fastest growing markets of the country. With the never-seen- before developments in the infrastructure and implementation of some ground breaking policies by the Government, the city is forecasting a growth that is highly encouraging and the real-estate developers are also playing a very important role at each step.