BRANDED PLOT SALES GAIN PACE DESPITE COVID-19

BENGALURU: Branded plots, priced in the range of ₹30-75 lakh each, have found favour with buyers during the lockdown as they see it as an opportunity to buy land at bargain prices and developers use the route to monetise assets quickly.

Given the desire to own land in south India, several Bengaluru-based developers, including Sobha Ltd, Puravankara Ltd, Salarpuria Sattva Group, Shriram Properties Ltd and Century Real Estate Holdings Pvt Ltd, are either venturing into “plotted development” or looking to monetise more land parcels with only plots for sale.

The advantages are many— quick monetisation of land, faster sales pace of plots than apartments, better cash flow generation, and quicker exits from investments compared to longer periods of constructing apartments or villas.

For buyers, affordability is a driving factor, and they can build more spacious homes at a later stage or can just retain them as plots. To be sure, sale of plots is not new and has been traditionally marketed as ‘layout developments’ in cities such as Bengaluru. But as larger, organised developers enter the space, they are being sold as ‘branded’ plots that offer amenities such as clubhouses, gyms, swimming pools, landscaped gardens just like gated communities. Typically, developers either use existing land banks for plot sales, buy the land parcel or strike a development management agreement with the landowner. While home-buying sentiment, in general, has been tepid, mid-income housing priced under ₹60-70 lakh, along with plots, has seen relatively good demand from buyers who have secure jobs and haven’t suffered drastic pay cuts post the pandemic.