Bhutani Infra to invest Rs 5,000 crore in commercial projects over next three years

Delhi-NCR-based commercial real estate firm Bhutani Infra is planning to invest Rs 5,000 crore over the next three years for developing three commercial real estate projects in Noida and Greater Noida and deliver close to 16 mn sq ft.

The company plans to sell 75 percent of the area and give 25 percent space on lease.

Bhutani Infra is currently developing three commercial projects -- Bhutani Alphathum, Bhutani Grandthum and Bhutani Cyberthum in Noida and Greater Noida.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every industry including the real estate. However, there has been no impact on the Grade-A office market in Noida and Greater Noida. Demand has increased in these two cities because of cost advantage compared to Gurugram,” said Ashish Bhutani, CEO, Bhutani Infra.

The company also has plans to expand into luxury retail as well as high-end residential segments.

This festive season, the company is offering a scheme wherein buyers can get the annual return in advance after making the down payment. It is a 50:25:25 plan and will be available on the company’s commercial projects in Noida. The group is expecting a revenue of Rs 1,000 crore during the festival season.

“The down payment is 50 percent of the total amount, and the customer has to pay the next 25 percent after three years. The buyer can deduct the annual return of three years from the down payment amount or else we will give them a cheque of three years’ annual return after the realisation of their down payment cheque,” he said.

Located at Sector 90, Noida Bhutani Alphathum is a commercial project offering 35 lakh sq ft of office spaces and a shopping mall spread across 7 lakh sq ft. The project also offers 500 studio apartments.

The group is also developing Bhutani Grandthum, a high street retail destination. Spread across an area of 23 acres, it offers close to 6,00,000 sq ft for high street retail.

Bhutani Cyberthum is spread across 27 acres and is located in Sector 140, Noida. It offers both retail and office space options.

According to a report released by Knight Frank, the impact of the pandemic has been so drastic that Gurugram was pushed to second place for the first time in seven years in office leasing activity in the first half of this year.

According to the report, more office space was leased in Noida in January-June as supply was available at much lower rentals in the satellite city.

According to the report, 0.92 million sq ft office space was leased in Gurugram in the first six months of 2020 compared with 1.08 million sq ft in Noida. Noida outperformed Gurugram in terms of overall transactions and became the highest contributor to gross leasing in the National Capital Region market, posting a year-on-year increase of 86 percent. This came on the heels of a 45-percent decline in gross leasing by area in the NCR in the first six months of 2020.

“Demand for office spaces has been growing in Noida mainly due to relatively high rentals in Gurugram’s established office space locations such as DLF Cyber City, Golf Course Road, MG Road and Udyog Vihar,” the Knight Frank report had said.