After building a sizeable residential portfolio, India’s largest realty firm in terms of sales, Lodha Developers Pvt. Ltd, is looking at commercial real estate for its next level of growth. The firm is planning to build around 9 million sq. ft of office space, 1 million sq. ft of retail space and a warehousing and logistics park in Mumbai on 150 acres with an investment of nearly Rs 2,500 crore in the next five years.
With these plans, the Mumbai-based real estate firm is also shifting its commercial real estate business model for the first time to “build and lease” rather than outright sale of the properties as it looks to develop a substantial commercial lease portfolio that could later be monetized either through a REIT (real estate investment trust) listing or sales to investors.
“We will now aggressively ramp up our commercial asset business. Our plan is to have nine million square ft of office space under our management… This is part of our larger aspiration of creating a (commercial) business valuation of $1 billion by 2021,” Shaishav Dharia, regional chief executive officer, Lodha Group told Mint.
Read more:LiveMint
