Current real estate cycle still has 3–4 years left: Raymond Realty CEO

Overall, I don't see any stress or even difficulty building up. Forget the stress. My hypothesis is that we are somewhere in mid-cycle. We have a good three, four years left in this cycle," Sahni said during the interaction.

The Raymond Group's real estate arm reported a topline of around Rs 2,300 crore in FY25, a growth of more than 40 percent year-on-year, while its profit before tax for the year was around Rs 372 crore. Going ahead, Raymond Realty's management has projected annual growth of around 20 percent in pre-sales bookings and a similar increase in topline over the next few years.

The real estate segment was demerged from Raymond Ltd starting May, as part of the group's strategy towards pure-play companies in order to unlock more shareholder value. Raymond Ltd has already demerged its apparel business under Raymond Lifestyle Ltd.

Thane development

Raymond Realty markets its inventory under three distinct brands in order of ticket sizes — TenX, Address By GS, and Invictus, with the latter being the most expensive. Sahni noted that much of the company's inventory is in the Address By GS segment, also its highest selling brand, which has projects across Bandra, Thane, and elsewhere.

In Thane, now a fiercely competitive market, with multiple large and listed developers across all ticket sizes, Raymond Realty has been focused on monetising its large, legacy 100-acre land parcel at JK Gram on Pokhran Road, where current per-square-foot rates are trending between Rs 20,000 and Rs 23,000, according to Sahni.

Of the 11.5 million square feet of development potential available to monetise, the company has brought to the market around 4.5 million square feet, with Sahni expecting the rest of the inventory, worth around Rs 16,000 crore, to be released over the next seven years.

Other than Thane, many of the company's projects have been through the redevelopment route, as it has signed six projects with a combined development potential of nearly Rs 15,000 crore.

BKC plans

Raymond Realty's micro-market play has been focused on the city's major employment centre, Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), with the company interested in all micro markets where prices trend above Rs 25,000 per square foot, while not entering the luxury segments.

"The magnet for employment in Mumbai now is BKC. We have covered all directions around BKC. We have not covered the north of BKC, that is, Chembur. But otherwise, we have got one in Sion, one in Wadala, which is east of BKC; we've got two in Bandra East, which is west of BKC; and we have got two in Mahim, which is south of BKC. The idea is to address all kinds of ticket sizes," Sahni said.

He added, "The pipeline looks pretty good, because there is a renewal which the city needs and we have to look at redevelopment. Markets are already developed... We have only moved up the value chain wherever we have expanded, but we are not getting into luxury or uber-luxury. We clearly want to stay in the mid-market to premium segment."