We earn from our existing project and invest in the next one

- Dinesh Jain, Managing Director, Exotica Housing Noida-based Exotica operates upon a simple belief: People buy a home to fulfill the greatest desire of a lifetime and they should not only get a house but a complete and fulfilled life for their family. Impelled by this vision, the company aims to create edifices of magnificence through the art of architecture and science of construction, complementing a modern and convenient lifestyle. The focus is on the latest innovations, enhanced technology and upgraded materials to create the best. Dinesh Jain, Managing Director, Exotica Housing, shares more on the company´s upcoming projects and his outlook on the industry with CW PROPERTY TODAY. How do you ensure quality in your projects? Offering the best construction quality is our prime concern, for which we have an in-house team of the finest architects, contractors, designers, skilled labour, a material testing facility and an open attitude to adopting modern technology. Our team understands extreme weather conditions and soil variations and we adopt the latest construction material and techniques to ensure superb quality in all projects. Whether it is our current project Exotica Dreamville, the newly delivered Exotica Fresco or our earlier projects, we have always focused on skilled manpower at site. Initiatives to this end include opening schools for kids of labourers, blanket distribution and our Skill Development Centre, which we have created with the help of CREDAI NCR. Here, we focus on sharpening the skills of our labour to ensure the best efforts in construction and give them the opportunity to earn more in future. There are some more initiatives in the pipeline that we will unveil in time. For a real-estate developer, what are the challenges involved in sourcing funds? How does Exotica source funds for its projects? Creating fund for a project is quite challenging because real-estate still lacks industry status. Higher interest rate is affecting the growth of the industry adversely. Although PE and many other are open for investment, funding is a big concern for small and medium-size companies. Our source of funding is our current project and banks. We earn from our existing project and invest in the next one. What is the emphasis laid on R&D to understand buyer preference? Exotica Housing has a clear policy to use the best of the best materials in construction. Rather than compromising, the group is open to spending extra to create a landmark for residents. Home buyers have always been fond of living in a spacious home amid greenery, and having open space, state-of-the-art amenities, ease of transportation and, most important, quality construction without any delays! Hence, we create spacious and green housing projects; our intention has been ´creating space for life´. The company is primarily involved in the development of residential projects. Any plans to expand to other segments? To date, we have delivered four residential projects in NCR. We believe in offering quality space for living, for which developing residential projects is fruitful. It all depends on time and opportunity, but right now we are happy and don´t have any plans for the commercial or any other segment. With your operations focused on Noida, do you have plans to expand to nearby regions? Currently, we are concentrating on the Noida and Greater Noida market as it is still the most affordable housing destination for people looking at value-for-money property. What execution-related challenges do you face in project development? Our biggest challenge is approval of documents at the beginning of a project. Apart from this, managing raw material, machinery and manpower are challenges faced on ground level during construction. For this, we have created our own team that includes all type of experts who understand our ideology and work module. Better coordination and management never let us down on time and quality. What strategies do you apply to ensure on-time completion of projects within budgets? Better management of resources, fair diversion of fund, advance planning, in-house team for all fronts, a self-sufficient approach in funding, machinery and skilled manpower, strong networking with allied industries for timely support and commitment to provide excellent quality and amenities are some key elements that ensure on-time delivery of projects. Timely construction and development at site works as word-of-mouth promotion for us, and once you have sold 80 per cent of the project, nothing can stop you. Also, rather than launching multiple projects, we believe in working on limited projects at one time and finishing them in phases to avoid delays and losses. Exotica Fresco is our fourth project completed within deadline and Dreamville is under-construction as per the proposed deadline. How do you envision Noida emerging among the top realty destinations in NCR? What are the factors driving this growth? Noida and Greater Noida have unique propositions of cost, location and connectivity with the national capital that makes them among the most lucrative destinations for property buyers. The whole of NCR, Noida and Greater Noida has options for home buyers, from affordable to luxury. This is a rare combination of properties that is driving the growth of the region. Central Noida and Noida Expressway are offering properties in the premium category, and Greater Noida and Greater Noida West have property for budget home buyers. How initiatives such as Housing For All, RERA and FDI in real estate impact the company and real-estate sector on the whole? Allowing FDI and REIT is creating a healthy and competitive market for foreign players, whether they want to develop property or invest. India needs a huge change in real estate and foreign players can play an important role in this. Further, RERA is the need of the hour, where the industry will only have serious players in the market and restrict defaulters as well as short-term-based companies. It will make the market more secure as well as answerable. RERA will not only bring transparency but credibility among home buyers and other industries. Last, Housing for All is a good move but people need to be educated and made more aware about this initiative. Also, the government has to be more liberal on the single-window system front, assign real estate industry status, and look at lower taxation and interest rates for loans for both developers and home buyers. How has the company grown over the past three years and what are your plans in coming months? We entered the group housing market in 2005 and have delivered four projects in our portfolio to date along with one ongoing project. The company will soon offer possession of its fifth project, Exotica Dreamville. FACT SHEET Year of Establishment: 1996 Top Management: Dinesh Jain Turnover: Rs.500 crore No of Employees: 150 Centre of Operation: Noida and Greater Noida Ongoing projects: Exotica Dreamville Upcoming Projects: North Ville Completed Projects: Exotica Fresco, Exotica Elegance, Exotica East Square, Exotica Eastern Court To share your building experience, write in at feedback@ASAPPmedia.com