Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Tariq Ahmed, CEO of Prestige Group’s West India division, emphasised the vital role of trust in the real estate sector. “Someone’s putting their life savings into their home… for Prestige, that execution trust—the fact that you will have a home—is the cornerstone and what we relentlessly believe in,” said Ahmed.
Prestige’s entry into Mumbai in 2022 was fuelled by both emotion and strategy. Chairman Irfan Razack’s longstanding vision of expanding into Mumbai, combined with the city’s position as a vibrant and competitive real estate market, made the move inevitable. Ahmed explained, “We entered at a time when the group was financially robust, allowing us to capitalise on strategic opportunities in the market. This aligns with our vision to scale and make Prestige a dominant player in the West.”
One of Prestige’s flagship projects in Mumbai is Prestige City in Mulund, a 36-acre integrated township nestled at the foothills of Yogi Hills. The development includes residential towers, a school in partnership with DPS, a hospital, retail spaces, and an office building. “It’s a walk-to-everything lifestyle,” Ahmed said.
The first phase of the project, Siesta, is set for delivery in 2025, marking yet another milestone in Prestige’s commitment to timely execution. “We’re offering a unique oasis in the city, with stunning views and world-class amenities,” Ahmed added.
Edited Excerpt:
Q: The Mumbai real estate market has been absolutely booming over the past few years. It’s, of course, very mature, very competitive. Prestige is very strong down south; that’s a stronghold. And then you enter the Mumbai market in 2022. So, tell me a little bit about your strategy coming into the market. What were some of the insights that were shaping your plans for Mumbai?
Ahmed: The answer to how Prestige entered the Mumbai western region has two parts. I think one is emotion, and the other one is also fact. The emotion part, I think, talks more to the chairman’s vision. So, if you go back in media and pick up some stories, he always had this article going around about Mumbai dreams. So, as he set up the platform of prestige in the South in the 80s and it grew, in around 2012-2014, there was an article out where he talked about Bombay dreams and being there, which then connects to the objective fact, because the western region Mumbai market is one of the largest, most vibrant markets of real estate in India. And for a leading player like ourselves, not being present here and, frankly, not being present in other larger markets we’ve entered, like the North, probably was not sensible as we were looking to scale. So, the journey to the West and Mumbai happened in that sense, where there was always a vision and a desire for the chairman to enter, and it was a very large market. And it so happened at the time of our entry that we were, as a group, capital-rich, having sold several assets to a private equity firm. Around the time we entered we formally entered the market in 2022, but the work behind it started around 2018 and 2019, when several players that had stretched balance sheets approached us. So, it was a combination of strategy, being in the largest market, the emotion behind the chairman wanting to be here and facts, which allowed us to actually enter three or four very large transactions at a time when we had balance sheet strength. The final part of all of this is a vision for the group to be of a certain scale that you couldn’t really achieve without either being here in the West or Delhi. So, I think it’s a combination of all these factors that came into play. And that’s how sort of we entered the market.
Q: You’ve lived in Mumbai for 20 years now. What’s that emotion for you then? You spoke about the chairman’s emotions and the city of dreams. You came from Bangalore, you made Mumbai your home. You’ve seen the city change in front of your eyes. The skyline is dramatically different from what it was 20 years ago. Now, of course, leading this development in the West, starting with Bombay. What’s that emotion for you, perhaps?
Ahmed: So it’s interesting because I always say this. I’m sort of accidentally coming into real estate. I’ve been here for 20 years in Bombay, and I’ve been someone on the finance side of it. I lived overseas while I was in college and studying there. And there’s a brand there called the Related Group. So, I’ve seen real estate in the manner we see today in India. So, when I look at the emotion, I think Mumbai has the most amazing historical architecture. It’s got the immense pulse of a New York City and is now seeing the verticality. So, when you think of the emotion around it and the passion for real estate, I think it’s blending what Prestige brings. And I think prestige stands for tremendous trust and execution, phenomenal product quality. And then when you put it into Mumbai, it’s the ability to provide that in terms of very high-quality execution products and bringing that sort of falcon life to Mumbai. And from my sense, what excited me about that is starting a brand new platform, having seen developments overseas, the sort of calibre of developments you could do, the amenities you could bring to bear, and marrying that with a base in Bombay, which has immense purchasing power. We have products ranging from ₹2-3 crore to ₹30 crore plus. We have a wide variety of products for everyone. But bringing that quality of living and that sort of product, and bringing that brand of Prestige into Mumbai. And I think that was sort of the excitement to get started over here.
Q: In a space like real estate, for instance, in the residential category, that trust, that emotion there is critical for the brand, for the business. Any thoughts on that? Any thoughts on how that has evolved with your customer with your consumer?
Ahmed: I would say that’s the cornerstone. I think it’s a cornerstone for any consumer product, the trust factor as a consumer. You gravitate to a brand that stands for that. There’s the appeal, the sort of luxury around it, etc, for any consumer brand. But I think for real estate, someone’s putting their life savings into their home. They’re either going to a bank and mortgaging 30 years of their earnings into a home. So, what is your duty as a real estate developer to them? And I think for Prestige, that trust, that execution trust, the fact that you will have a home is, I think, the cornerstone and what we relentlessly believe in.
If you look at the 40 years we’ve been in business, we’ve done over 300 projects delivered to the consumer across good times and challenging times. And we’ve somehow managed to make sure we get that delivered. And I think we are very proud of that we’re trying to finish projects on the residential side between three and five years.
So, if you look at the examples of the group in the South, primarily where we’ve delivered, large-scale projects have gone through their challenges. Still, an example of Jindal City in Bangalore, through COVID-19, we delivered a project of 3,500 homes in three years to the consumer. I think that’s something we’ve been very, very cautious about in terms of delivery and making sure that the brand prestige is equivalent to trust. I think that’s very important to us.
Q: Prestige City is an integrated mixed-use development, which has done exceptionally well in Bangalore and Hyderabad as well, now in Bombay. Tell us a little bit more about that. What are your plans there? What are you doing differently, perhaps?
Ahmed: The Prestige City brand is a brand of Prestige that signifies an integrated township development at its broadest level. If you take that to Bombay over here, we were fortunate to get a phenomenal parcel of land in Mulund at the foothills of Yogi Hills near the park. So, the views from the entire development are fantastic. Looking at the forest, it’s a 36-acre parcel of land in which we have three phases of development. We’ve launched all three. Alongside that, we’ve got a school, we’ve got a hospital, we’ve actually announced an association with the DPS brand. We’re developing some retail and also an office building. Now, we’re not the first developer to have done that. The person that’s mastered the art here is Hiranandani on a much larger scale. But I think when we found this land parcel, and when we looked at the micro-market of Mulund, I think we’re very unique and very fortunate to have found this, and offering a consumer effectively a walk to work, walk to school, and a very large development which is very much an oasis from the city at the foothills over there.
Going back to the point of trust, the first phase, called Siesta, will be delivered to customers in 2025. So, from 2022 to now- within three years, we’ve begun to complete and hand over their first set of homes to customers so people can start experiencing the whole city. So, I think that’s the whole USP of the project regarding the land parcel’s location and the amenities we’re offering there.
Watch the accompanying video for the entire conversation.
