Amit Kumar Sinha is a man in a hurry. A year into his role as the CEO and MD of Mahindra Lifespace Developers, Sinha says he wants the company to be more nimble-footed. The former Bain & Co executive is surely walking the talk.Sample this: Sinha wants to increase the sales bookings of the real estate arm of the Mahindra group by five times and increase project pipeline by 10 times. In FY23, the company’s sales bookings were `1,800 crore and the target by FY28 is more than five times of that to `8,000-10,000 crore. In FY24, it achieved its highest ever bookings of `2,328 crore.
That may be ambitious for Mahindra Lifespace but is still small compared to the top listed developers such as Godrej Properties and Prestige Estates, which had bookings of `10,000-12,000 crore in FY23. In FY24, both crossed sales bookings of `20,000 crore.“When I was asked to take up this role, I asked two questions to the group’s management: How important is the company to the group and how much scale it can acquire. The management said it considers Mahindra Lifespace a growth gem and is ready to put in capital and resources for growth,” Sinha says.Before he took over, Mahindra Lifespace was expanding at a conservative space, unlike its bigger listed peers. But that has changed under his stewardship.
When he took over, the company used to take six months to buy land and another one year to launch a project. “In my first deal, I gave a deadline of 30 days to close the deal and we did it in 20 days, and we launched in four months,” Sinha said, adding that the plan now is to bring both (buying land and launching a project ) within a year.While there is a slowdown in the National Capital Region, it is doubling down in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Pune, the last two being power priced but have less inventory overhang and high absorption. In FY25 or FY26, NCR could have some sparks since it’s an investors market, he said.
The company has a project pipeline of `5,000-6000 crore in FY25, mostly in Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore where projects are in various stages of development. It has a big project in Thane, which has revenue potential of `8,000 crore, which is currently under approval stage.Currently, 80% of its land is bought via outright purchases and rest from joint development and redevelopment of old residential buildings in Mumbai. Going forward, it will do more outright purchase in Pune and Bangalore and joint developments and redevelopment in Mumbai.The company is also launching net zero energy and net zero waste and net zero energy projects. Net zero energy projects are those where whatever energy the property consumes come from renewable sources. The company reduces energy consumption from 1OO% to 67% through CRD (climate responsive design) and 5 to 6% through solar panels and it ties up with distributors to source green power. In net zero energy properties, waste is either recycles or eliminated.
