024 March-April 2015 > Construction & Architecture Update > www.constructionarchitectureupdate.com

Chairman, Sobha LimitedRavi Menon

Ravi Menon, Sobha Limited

What makes South India an ideal destination for business and real estate investment in particular?

Southern cities such as Bangalore,

Chennai, Coimbatore, Kochi and Mysore

have emerged as key investment

destinations. A large number of young

working population hailing from southern

states are working abroad and aspire to

own a property back home. More and more

multinational organisations are expanding

their footprints in prime southern states

and offering lucrative jobs. This is evident

by the increase in the transaction of luxury

products such as cars, electronic goods

and residential properties in these areas.

Commercial development has gained

pace with the increase in the employment

opportunities. Infrastructure development

and the budding start-ups have also

contributed a great deal to the real estate

development in South India.

‘Sobha Home Truths’ is a unique initiative that we have introduced to educate the various construction

processes and quality aspects pioneered by SOBHA in our international quality products.

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025www.constructionarchitectureupdate.com < Construction & Architecture Update < March-April 2015

How has Sobha Limited’s communication evolved over the years?

When my father Mr. P.N.C. Menon

founded SOBHA in 1995, he did

so with a vision to change the way

people perceive quality. At SOBHA,

we work incessantly towards building

international quality products with

precision and delivering it as per

promised timelines. All our processes

are streamlined and focused towards

customer satisfaction and building

trust amongst our stakeholders. Our

communication is simple and customer

centric with the aim of building trust and

credibility for the brand. A significant

number of our customers are repeat

customers who appreciate the benefits

of our unique backward integration

model, using which we deliver best-

in-class products. Our customers are

our greatest brand advocates, having

experienced the Sobha way of living. A

high percentage of customer referrals

come through word-of-mouth.

‘Sobha Home Truths’ is a unique

initiative that we have introduced

to educate the various construction

processes and quality aspects pioneered

by SOBHA in our international quality

products. This has been received well

by all our customers and we hope

to continue developing effective

communication strategies to deliver

key industry messages to all our

stakeholders.

Infrastructure development and the budding start-ups have also

contributed a great deal to the real estate development in South India.

Ravi MenonSobha Limited

Sobha Indraprastha

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Ravi Menon, Sobha Limited

026 March-April 2015 > Construction & Architecture Update > www.constructionarchitectureupdate.com

How challenging has formalising these CSR activities been for you to do, and what is your advice for other companies who are gearing up to meet this requirement?

SOBHA has been committed to the cause

of social empowerment and community

development since its inception. We

believe that for the overall well-being

of the society, a comprehensive and

sustainable development of rural

India is a must. It is in this context that

we initiated Graamasobha, a unique

social developmental programme in

2006. Our CSR activities are carried

out under the aegis of ‘Sri Kurumba

Educational and Charitable Trust’.

Under this unique social development

initiative, we adopted two grama

panchayats in Palakkad - Vadakkenchery

and Kizhakkenchery. Unlike the

quintessential CSR programmes followed

by corporates that focus on a single

aspect of development, Graamasobha

encompasses activities in the areas

of education, health, livelihood, and

women empowerment – a more holistic

approach to improve the quality of life

of the rural masses and to enable the

beneficiaries to become self-sufficient.

There has been a lot of talk about the need to hike income-tax benefit on home loan interest payments. Do you think a higher figure will help the sector?

Enhanced income-tax benefits

on home loan interest payments

will certainly drive the demand for

residential properties. Despite the

measures being taken to control inflation

and the gradual reduction in the repo

rates, the home loan rates are yet to

accrue benefits for the home buyers.

Incentives such as interest waivers for

first time home buyers and increased

income-tax benefits will augur well for

the real estate sector.

How do you increase the supply of affordable housing in the country? What are the other measures that you strongly recommend; and your message to the industry?

Affordable housing is gaining

prominence and is being encouraged

by the Government. The ‘Housing for

all by 2022’ is a step in this direction.

In order for affordable housing to gain

momentum, it is important that land

is made available at reasonable cost.

We believe that for the overall well-

being of the society, a comprehensive and sustainable

development of rural India is a must.

Ravi MenonSobha Limited

Infosys Global Education Centre II, Mysore built by Sobha Limited

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Land cost, which constitutes a majority

of the overall cost, still remains very

high. The lengthy approval processes

mean we are not able to put the land to

use and begin construction. Therefore,

in order for affordable housing to take

off, besides addressing the land cost,

we should focus on making a single-

clearance window available as also the

availability of working capital loans

that will enable the purchase of land at

reasonable rates.

Will the Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Bill help the sector?

The real estate sector in India has been

largely unorganised and unregulated.

The Real Estate (Regulation and

Development) bill is the need of the

hour. It will provide standardisation

and transparency and will encourage

corporate governance practices

within the industry. The proposed bill

shall bring in regulations that ensure

crucial information is shared

proactively by developers. This would

include land titles, amenities and

features included in the project, carpet

area of the property and the approvals

received for the project. This apart,

the bill ensures that the project is

delivered on time and aims to promote

affordable housing.

It will help the real estate sector

in more ways than one. It will instil

confidence in the minds of buyers,

enabling them to make informed

choices with the information provided.

It will further help the sector

attract greater foreign investments,

both FDIs and FIIs and boost the

market sentiments.

In the next two years, what are the two trends that will define the future of the industry?

Smart technologies integrated with

green building concepts will define

the future of the real estate industry.

Over the last few years, pre-cast

technology has become increasingly

popular and is one major step in

the sustainable initiatives of the

developers. Smart home solutions

are evolving by the hour and have

addressed the security concerns of the

home buyers.

Can you shed some light on Sobha Limited’s digital strategy?

Sobha has a very clear and focused

digital strategy. Over 60% of our

business gets generated online. Our

informative and vibrant website drives

majority sales online. We are one of

the most engaged real estate entities

on social media with an overall social

audience of over 216,000 (organic)

spanning Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,

Google+ & YouTube.

027www.constructionarchitectureupdate.com < Construction & Architecture Update < March-April 2015

Smart technologies integrated with green building

concepts will define the future of the

real estate industry. Over the last few years, pre-cast technology has

become increasingly popular and is

one major step in the sustainable initiatives of the

developers.

Sobha Corporate Office - Bangalore

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028 March-April 2014 > Construction & Architecture Update > www.erafamemedia.com

Ravi Menon, Sobha Limited

How do you take Green Building concept in India; overall your comments?

Today, builders are becoming

increasingly conscious of the changing

environmental conditions and are doing

everything in their capacity to reduce

the carbon footprint at every stage

of construction. Green initiatives are

given utmost precedence at SOBHA.

By default, all our projects qualify for

the Gold rating by IGBC. We employ

environment-friendly initiatives such as

rain-water harvesting systems, sewage

treatment plants and organic waste

converters in all our projects. While

Sobha Turquoise, Coimbatore has

recently been certified with IGBC Green

Homes Platinum rating, Sobha

Forest View, Bangalore has a Pre-

certified Gold rating by IGBC. Sobha

Lifestyle in Bangalore has the largest

rain-water harvesting facility (15 million

litre unit) in a gated community. We

have planted over 13,000 trees in Sobha

Lifestyle that welcomes its residents to

this heavenly abode.

Share us about your recent completed projects, ongoing projects and upcoming projects?

Since inception, we have completed 98

real estate projects and 258 contractual

projects covering about 67.97 million

square feet of area. The Company

currently has 49 ongoing residential

projects aggregating to 31.24 million

square feet of developable area and

22.45 million square feet of saleable

area, and 28 ongoing contractual

projects aggregating to 8.62 million

square feet under various stages of

construction.

In this financial year, we have

completed and handed over 6 projects

in real estate having total developable

area of 2.85 million square feet. Some of

the recently completed projects include

Sobha City – Aristos and Paradiso in

Bangalore and Sobha City – Sapphire in

Thrissur. Sobha Halcyon, Sobha Lifestyle

Legacy and Sobha Arena in Bangalore;

Sobha International City, Gurgaon;

Sobha Elanza and Orion in Pune; Sobha

Serene and Meritta in Chennai are few

of our ongoing projects.

We have about 15 million square

feet of new project launches planned

in the next few quarters in our existing

real estate geographies. Our upcoming

project, Sobha Aspirational Homes

in Balagere, Bangalore will be our

maiden project in its segment that will

cater to the residential aspirations of

quality conscious and value discerning

customers. It is a 10.26 million

square feet development that will be

executed with state-of-the-art precast

machinery being imported from

Germany and Italy.

We have planted over 13,000 trees in Sobha Lifestyle that welcomes its residents to this heavenly abode.

Ravi MenonSobha Limited

Sobha Lifestyle - Phase I, Bangalore

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