Tag: Mr. Kaushal Agarwal

THE GUARDIANS REAL ESTATE ADVISORY’S REVENUE JUMPS TWO FOLD TO RS. 65.35 CRORES, TARGETS OVER RS. 100 CRORE BY END OF FISCAL!
Business World

THE GUARDIANS REAL ESTATE ADVISORY’S REVENUE JUMPS TWO FOLD TO RS. 65.35 CRORES, TARGETS OVER RS. 100 CRORE BY END OF FISCAL!

Jan 4, 2021 by Rekha Nair 0 Comments #Chairman, #Mr. Agarwal, #Mr. Kaushal Agarwal, #The Guardians Real Estate Advisory

Leading, non-broking,real estate consulting firm, The Guardians Real Estate Advisory which solely focuses on the mandated broking business has posted its highest ever revenue growth of 146%, Y-o-Y, at Rs.65.35 crores for the first three quarters of FY21. The Mumbai based firm has reported sales of 2113 homes and 117 offices with a cumulative value of Rs.3687 crores across it’s mandated projects, in the same duration. A 114% growth in sales Y-o-Y, The Guardians Real Estate Advisory also witnessed a 29.5% growth in sales and a 118% growth in its revenue Q-o-Q.

The residential team of the firm booked sales of Rs.3511 crores between Apr-Dec 2020. The residential arm had previously locked revenue of Rs.19.66 crores and sales of Rs.1378 crores for the corresponding nine months of FY19-20.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Kaushal Agarwal, Chairman, The Guardians Real Estate Advisory said, “We have successfully transformed ourselves from being an entity that was primarily known for its work in the mid-income housing segment to an unrivalled player in the luxury home segment, too. Over the past 9 months, 48% of our sales and corresponding income has come from homes that cost upwards of Rs.2 crores. The temporary reduction in stamp duty charges in the MMR has helped us improve our turnaround time. At a luxury residential project with a minimum buy-in price of Rs.3 crores, called BeauMonte, developed by Sheth Creators and located in the SoBo-Central region of Mumbai, we have been able to lock sales worth Rs.328 crores within a fortnight.”

For the last quarter of FY21, The Guardians Real Estate Advisory has a pipeline of 11 residential and 2 commercial projects with a cumulative sales value of Rs.3150 crores. The firm intends to sell a minimum of 75-80% of inventory at these projects, as has more or less been the unrivalled and unchanged performance of the entity since it began operations in the year 2016. The firm has since its inception, followed a low cost remuneration structure with increased focus on incentives linked to sales. It is this approach that helped the firm break even from the very first year. With a sales forecast of Rs.2362-2520 crores for Q4, the firm is on its way to report an unprecedented growth of 154% Y-o-Y for Fiscal year 20-21.

Mr. Agarwal added, “Our commitment to sell 80% of all inventory that is opened-for-sale in the market, for a given project, differentiates us in the marketplace. It is this commitment and commensurate performance that has helped us retain 99% of our clientele.”

The commercial arm of the company has separately bagged projects worth Rs.1176 crores, which it intends to launch over the next 12 months. The commercial arm has managed sales of Rs. 175 crores over the past three quarters with receivable income of Rs.3.8 crores. The same in the corresponding period for FY20 was Rs. 342 crores and Rs.7.54 crores respectively.

The firm has successfully closed upwards of 80% sales at some of the luxury and mid-income projects it launched post the lockdown. This includes Sunteck Signia High, Sheth BeauMonte, Auris Serenity by Sheth-Transcon, 34 PARK ESTATE being developed by Chandak Group, Dynamix Avanya and Paradigm Antalya.

“While ready-to-move-in luxury homes were doing well in the period between Jun-Sep, the demand grew drastically across all residential segments in Q3. The same included the under-construction luxury homes segment too as a result of the reduction in stamp duty charges announced by the state government of Maharashtra, reversal of salary-cuts by organisations and reduction in lending rates by commercial banks. In the year 2021, we foresee the affordable housing segment bouncing back to the pre-Covid levels once the local train service is resumed in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. This segment should cover-up for all the volumes that will be lost in the luxury residential segment going forward.” he added.

The firm plans to expand into regions like Pune and Bengaluru by the end of FY 22. The Guardians Real Estate Advisory that started with a team of just 6 people four years back currently employs 487 professionals in the MMR and consults many luxury projects across the length and breadth of the region. Its clientele includes the likes of The Wadhwa Group, Sunteck, Kanakia, Sheth Creators, Chandak Group, Avighna, MICL, etc. The advisory is known to offer end-to-end services to its clients, from product planning to final customer registrations.

Yearly Round-up & Outlook for 2021 for the real estate sector
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Yearly Round-up & Outlook for 2021 for the real estate sector

Dec 14, 2020 by Rekha Nair 0 Comments #Chairman, #Mr. Kaushal Agarwal, #The Guardians Real Estate Advisory

Mr. Kaushal Agarwal

Chairman, The Guardians Real Estate Advisory

While the world will remember the year of 2020 for the coronavirus and the subsequent lockdowns, the real estate sector of India and especially that of MMR will remember it for the economic turnaround and demand revival in the category. While it was being extensively predicted, immediately after the announcement of the nationwide lockdown, that this year for the Indian real estate sector will be the year of it’s greatest fall, the outcome was quite the opposite with the month of November 2020 recording the highest number of residential registrations in almost a decade. The two most crucial reasons for such an unprecedented and unimaginable recovery has been the RBI’s decision to drastically reduce the repo rates that prompted the banks to reduce their lending rates for homebuyers and second was the decision of various state governments to temporarily reduce the stamp duty charges. The reduction of borrowing cost and transaction cost had the highest impact on developments that were ready-to-move-in as such homes anyways do not attract GST and the reduction in stamp duty charges ensured negligible tax cost for homebuyers.

Going forward, we have a cautious outlook. We believe post April 2021 there will be a period of slowdown, after this phase of panic buying until March 2021. We recommend the stamp duty charges be restricted to 3% for another 12 months post the date defined by the state government of Maharashtra. We would also urge states across the country to consider reducing stamp duty charges temporarily to make buying real estate lucrative. On the other hand, we sense the government at the centre is wanting to bring lending rates closer to levels at which the west lends and it is that the Modi-led government believes that the next leg of growth will emerge from. We would also like recommending the government at the centre to announce the 10% deviation in circle rates for all categories of homes and not restrict it to just homes until Rs.2 crores. The same will help further reduce the unsold inventory levels that exist in the luxury home segment till date. We expect the GDP growth to turn positive in Q4 this financial year. With steady decline in the number of COVID-19 infections across the country and the vaccine around the corner, we expect far better days for the economy going forward.

As an organisation we have been able to drive unprecedented volumes post the lockdown. We thought the lockdowns would ruin our dream run as an organisation as we’ve been able to almost grow 110-120% y-o-y. But, while it is difficult to believe, 2020 has been our best year since existence, with us being able to drive business worth 2380 crores since April this year.’

Business World

The return of migrant workers will be the key in reviving real estate

Oct 10, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #migrant workers, #Mr. Bhushan Nemlekar -, #Mr. Kaushal Agarwal, #Mr. Rajan Bandelkar, #real estate

The return of migrant labourers to their hometowns due to Covid-19 pandemic had created a vacuum in India’s real estate and construction sector. Several projects in the metro cities were held back owing to the exodus. States that have been hit the hardest by the exodus are Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala and Delhi. There has been a massive labour shortage plaguing the construction sector and there is tremendous uncertainty on when these migrant labourers will return.

According to Mr. Rajan Bandelkar – President, NAREDCO West and Convener, Housingforall.com, “Around 30-35% of the migrants never left MMR. Of the rest, 15-20% has already returned. Many construction workers are cyclical migrants and return to their villages before the monsoon to help sow the rabi crop. We estimate that the remaining construction workers will return by Dussehra or Diwali.”

This is a tough time for the industry, but on the ground, several developers are trying to do their bit. Many branded developers and industry bodies are stepping forward with plans and policies to deal with this unforeseen situation. “The developers and contractors are trying to give as many incentives as they can to the migrant workers such as flight tickets, arranging private buses, boarding facilities and medical insurance, in addition to weekly medical check-ups at the site,” says Mr. Bandelkar.

With the economy now rebooting, the industry along with the Government need to find ways to meet pent-up demand due to an acute shortage of workers.

Expecting a steady return of the migrant workers, Mr. Bhushan Nemlekar – Director, Sumit Woods Limited said “Reports of migrants returning to their work cities gradually suggest that economic activity may return to normal sooner than we might have initially feared. The skilled work or businesses that these workers have been engaged in for many years in cities give them much higher incomes against what is available in villages. In addition, fear of loss of jobs, especially for those who have worked in a particular organization for many years, will prompt many to return back.”

Mr. Kaushal Agarwal, Chairman, The Guardians Real Estate Advisory said “If the construction activity begins in full swing as migrant workers return back, it will have multiple advantages as it brings wages to labourers, cash flow to developers, much need credit growth for banks and resumption of economic activity in the country. The government needs to now look at targeted relief measures for the real estate sector to ensure the industry continues to remain a leading employment generator and the effect of the lockdown do not further hamper the prospects of this sector,”.

The real estate sector, heavily dependent upon migrant labour from other States, sees their return to work as a major factor for its revival.

rbi rate
Business World

Comment on RBI Policy by Dr. Niranjan Hiranandani, President (National) NAREDCO and Assocham, Mr. Dinanath Dubhashi, MD & CEO, L&T Financial Services & Mr. Kaushal Agarwal – Chairman, The Guardians Real Estate Advisory

Oct 10, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #(National) NAREDCO, #ASSOCHAM, #Dr Niranjan Hiranandani, #L&T Financial Services, #MD & CEO, #Mr. Dinanath Dubhashi, #Mr. Kaushal Agarwal, #The Guardians Real Estate Advisory

RBI’s 9.5 percent contraction forecast was much anticipated: Dr Hiranandani President (National) NAREDCO and Assocham

The decision to rejig home loan rules will provide a boost to the real estate sector
The Reserve Bank of India’s Governor Shaktikanta Das announcement of keeping the repo rates unchanged while forecasting a 9.5 per cent contraction in FY21 was on expected lines stated ASSOCHAM president, Dr. Niranjan Hiranandani.

“It affirms our beliefs that the worst is over for the Indian economy. The RBI governor also confirmed that the contraction in economic growth witnessed in the April-June quarter with 23.9 per cent is behind us. He also accepts that growth is likely to pick up in the second half of the fiscal and enter into the positive zone in the January-March quarter,” He pointed out.

According to Dr. Hiranandani, the RBI’s decision to keep key rates unchanged was also much anticipated. “Further reduction in key interest rates was not a possibility at this juncture. The RBI’s decision to extend the scheme for co-lending to all NBFCs, HFC in respect of all eligible priority sector loans will allow greater operational flexibility to the lending institutions and is much welcomed,” he said.

Since February last year, the monetary policy committee has cut the repo rate by 250 basis points.

RBI’s decision to rationalise the risk weights on home loans and link them to Loan to value ratios only will give a boost to the real estate sector as well, he said. “Particularly this step would benefit borrowers of higher value loans. It would ensure that more credit is available to borrowers. This move is a much appreciated step recognising the role of the real estate sector in generating employment and economic activity,” he added.

Dr. Hiranandani explained that the industry welcomes the Reserve Bank of India’s announcement to undertake further measures as necessary to assure market participants of access to liquidity and easy finance conditions. “The RBI has through its proactive measures taken honest efforts to provide access to easier credit to smaller businesses. However, we believe further steps would be needed to revive the economy,” he said.

Dr. Kaushal AgarwalMr. Kaushal Agarwal, Chairman, The Guardians Real Estate Advisory

“The status quo was on expected lines. The steep reduction in the rates over the past several months are slowly beginning to show impact on the ground. The move by RBI to link risks to loan to value will help banks shred the cautious lending approach. The move is bound to offer a much-needed jump start to lending and liquidity cycle in the marketplace. The move is quite differentiated and going to be effective.”

 

MD&CEO_Dinanath Dubhash

Mr. Dinanath Dubhashi, MD & CEO, L&T Financial Services

‘The current announcements by RBI underline its seriousness in pushing for collaborative efforts of banks and NBFCs in reaching out to the unserved as well as the underserved sectors of the economy.

Along with operational efficiency, this move augurs well for the sector. Extension of the co-origination scheme will give greater operational flexibility to the lending institutions. The introduction of round the clock RTGS facility is encouraging and supportive of growth. Measures like on-tap TLTRO will help build further confidence in the sector and we will await the details on specific sectors applicable for TLTRO as well as the terms and conditions to be met for availing the benefits. Having said that, we are hopeful that a broad spectrum of sectors, including NBFCs, will be considered.’