Haven't reduced prices despite less demand: Omaxe

Excerpts from India Business Hour on CNBC-TV18 Watch the full show » RELATED NEWS Omaxe attractively priced, may see Rs 450 on listing Subscribe to Omaxe IPO: Prabhudas Lilladher Omaxe attractively priced, may see Rs 450 on listing Nifty BSE | NSE 25/05/12 Are Mutual Funds betting on Nifty?

Real estate developer Omaxe said that the company's current land bank stood at 3,255 acres. And 82% of the company's land bank is concentrated in four states.

According to Arvind Parekh , CEO & Director of Omaxe, North India has seen softening in demand on account of interest rate tightening. But Omaxe has not reduced prices, he added.

Excerpts from CNBC-TV18's exclusive interview with Arvind Parekh:

Q: What are your subscription numbers and from which buckets you saw maximum interest for your stock?

A: I think you would have seen the numbers that have emerged out. The issue, which was approximately at the top end at about Rs 600 crore, equivalent to about USD 150 million, got oversubscribed to the extent of almost 68 times and the major bucket was from the QIBs, which was almost 95 times, while HNI was about 81 times, retail was 13.4. So, effectively the entire bucket, be it QIBs, be it HNI or retail, responded to the entire Omaxe issue, which shows the confidence in Omaxe. We are really heartened to see, the stupendous response that we got - the entire situation as it has emerged, post closing of the issue.

Q: What is your land bank at? What are the current valuations for it?

A: The valuation of the land bank is a big question mark, because I cannot talk about it, as per Sebi guidelines. We have 3,255 acres of land bank, which is spread out in 30 cities and nine states. Almost approximately four states constitute a major portion - 82% of our land bank. They are in the fastest growing regions in Northern India. I am sorry, but valuations, are outside the purview of the whole thing. So, it is difficult for me at this stage to talk about valuations.

Q: Can you update us on your Omaxe Forest project?

A: Yes, the Forest has been a great success. In fact, we were one of the pioneers in Northern India to launch the luxury apartments. We launched the theme malls in commercial space, be it Wedding Mall, which is a big business in India, be it House 2 Home mall, which is again coming out as a big concept. Now, we have launched the project by the name of Forest; we have launched almost three, because the first Forest was launched and delivered, second is under process in Faridabad and we are in the process of launching the third one. And these are basically upmarket, high, super-luxury apartments, which are basically because of the location; they are all overlooking dedicated forests, declared 250-300 acres, depending on which location I am talking about. You are talking about declared forest. So, if you are staying in a city like Faridabad, just on the outskirts of Delhi, you have over 200 acres of declared forest; the ambience is very different and we got good response from our people. Most of these schemes have been a big sell-out.

Q: How much does residential comprise of your entire project list? And in the years to come or even in fact in the next one year, do you see this shifting more in favour of commercial?

A: Presently, India is still short in terms of housing. The entire real estate market is more skewed towards residential; so, obviously our numbers also reflect the same thing. Of our current portfolio, 80-85% represents housing, which includes apartments and condominiums and group housing, while the balance is commercial. But going forward, things could change because what we feel is that in India, even the commercial segment is expected to grow pretty fast; so, we have to be in line - in trend with the entire portfolio, and we will be further diversifying our portfolio to that extent.

Q: In the first quarter, in fact in the first four months, there was a buzz in the real estate market that prices had started slipping because of high interest rates. With interest rates, either plateauing or even perhaps softening, are you already seeing a pick-up in real estate prices? Do you see an uptick in several pockets in terms of real estate prices by end 2007?

A: Over the last three to six months, because of interest rates, which play a very major role, the RBI has been able to control the  price increases. So that has had a major impact. The sentiments have been to some extent got punctured. Therefore, especially in Northern India, in some pockets we have seen softening taking place; more so the softening is also in certain pockets only. I would not say the softening is across the entire sector, be it the whole of India. Some places like Gurgaon, maybe Punjab, some sectors may have seen softening. But the underlying factor is that people are playing a wait-and-watch policy. Most of the developers have not reduced their prices, and the underlying economy growing is going to keep demand high. It is only a question of wait and watch. We expect things to be much robust going forward.