1. How has FY22 been for Smartworld Developers? Please elaborate.
The real estate sector is undergoing a paradigm shift and is expected to transform further. Despite the multitude of challenges posed by the pandemic in 2021, we took a big leap to launch our new brand and introduce a one-of-its-kind concept on the residential scape. We understand that loyalty doesn’t come from giving customers the status quo, but by using innovation to surpass their expectations. Smartworld Developers, a debutant real estate company, reported record sales worth INR 4000 Cr in the FY 2021-22. The sales in Q4 FY22 were around INR 1200 Cr. This translated into Smartworld continuing to record outstanding growth in the first year of its inception. As the Indian real estate industry exhibited high resilience to the foreboding global economy, the ubiquitous impression that Smartworld created in FY22, established us as the brand that has become synonymous with trust for our customers.
As an organisation, we believe in agility, speed, and bringing customer-centric solutions to the market. As the incomes of the millennials continue to rise, we are confident that the sales momentum that Smartworld generated will cascade into the next year as well. We always want to drive towards the next great thing by constantly challenging ourselves to improve and break new ground. To achieve that, our teams are well aligned and we are collectively working to deliver the highest standards of construction in record-breaking time through the use of innovation and technology.
2. What is the status of your two inaugural projects? What has been the response to those projects?
Smartworld launched two projects — Smartworld Orchard and Smartworld Gems. We aimed to serve the immediate demands of low-rise homes that deliver a maximum value proposition in terms of price, location, amenities, safety, and lifestyle that millennials aspire for. Thus, our inaugural projects were developed with a clear and conscious plan to cater to the needs and wants of the next generation of aspirational homebuyers.
Both our flagship projects are ideally located, Smartworld GEMS in sector 89 is well connected with major roads like NH8 & Dwarka Expressway, bringing it in close proximity to Delhi as well as Manesar. Smartworld Orchard in Sector 61, is amongst the most coveted and ideal residential choices of the city, the reason being its proximity to all three major roads viz. NH8, Sohna Road, and Golf Course Road, along with its nearness to Delhi as well as Faridabad via wide roads of Southern Peripheral Road and the Delhi-Faridabad highway respectively.
Both the projects have received a phenomenal response as we aced the market by offering a much premium residential society at a very sweet price point. It helped in disrupting the market by being able to offer a compelling value proposition. Both the projects boast themselves to be the first and only low–rise residential society, offering the amenities and facilities at par with other luxury and higher-priced properties in their respective vicinity.
3. What are the plans for FY23, and any new launches?
The year 2022 started on a high note for the real estate industry as major excitement has been witnessed on both sides of developers and buyers. The pandemic recovery is enhancing buyers’ affordability day by day as their finances are recovering. In addition, the industry will continue to benefit from the infrastructural initiative taken by the government. We expect the capital value of apartments across key metros to appreciate anything between 5% and 12%, owing to the increase in the input cost of key materials like cement, steel, and other critical raw materials. At Smartworld, we were quick to gauge that the life and expectations of homebuyers’ in the wake of the pandemic have radically transformed.
We firmly believe in bringing a transformation to the real estate scenario by setting industry benchmarks through modern designs and advanced technological practice. Thus, at Smartworld our constant endeavour has been to provide our patrons with the best service in every aspect. Smartworld is looking at launching 3 new projects in Gurugram this year, with about 77 acres of the project area and 10 Mn sq ft of saleable area with a construction outlay of more than 3800 Cr plus and revenue projection of appx INR 10,000 crore. With a rising demand for premium housing, we are confident that our offerings will be strategic drivers of the Indian real estate sector in the perceivable future.
4. The new-age millennials and the first-time buyers are your major target group. What has been your product philosophy to attract this target group?
With the purchasing power of the people increasing incrementally coupled with the unifying effects of globalization, the millennial demographic is now more aware than ever before. Now, a house is not categorized as a commodity but rather as an indulgent investment. As such, we have seen how millennials with high disposable incomes now believe in investing in real estate as owners rather than renting it as tenants. A generation that didn’t always see owning a house as a necessity now constitutes more than 50% of all home loans approved each year. Market analysts are unanimous in their assessment that this figure is going to increase exponentially in the next decade.
Millennials are looking for work-from-home spaces, wide balcony areas opening up to expansive green open spaces, and culturally vibrant entertainment zones with versatile outdoor facilities as well as secure CCTV surveillance for families. They are keen to invest in the comforts of community living. A house is not just a place of residence but is now expected to provide a host of associated amenities like engaging clubhouses, children-friendly pool decks, multi-purpose gymnasiums, diverse fitness studios, state-of-art libraries, spacious community halls, and integrated sports complexes.
At Smartworld, we have taken care of all these needs by ensuring that every configuration comes with additional office space, dedicated My Space at the basement level that can be customized to a home gym, office, kids play area, or library, and access to a dedicated space on the terrace. Catering specially to the expectations of our millennial customer demographic, current as well as future projects are designed to optimize space utilization.
5. Technology has almost disrupted every business, how are you leveraging technology at Smartworld Developers?
It is imperative to underscore that technological disruption is the engine of innovation. We have always been a pioneer in incorporating and deploying the most cutting-edge technological innovations in our modus operandi. Smartworld leverages technology to bring about a quintessential transformation to the business with our constant adoption of contemporary digital technologies and business methods. By incorporating emerging technological disruptions, we aim to harness asset utilization efficiencies while controlling the development and operational costs. With a quantum leap in automation processes, we are now able to provide sustainable solutions and drive higher profitability throughout the real estate lifecycle.
At Smartworld, disruptions are not only encouraged but also cherished in every shape and form. One of our myriad initiatives in recent years has been Construction Progress Monitoring, wherein we deploy drone-enabled construction and quality progress monitoring systems. This has been pioneering innovation in the real estate sector and garnered much appreciation from our customers.
Furthermore, we have deployed SAP S/4 Hana ERP to streamline our financial projections. Our entire supply chain management, starting from procurement to materials management, has been part of our integrated project systems (PS) and governed at the backend by a robust enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. We incorporate SAP as a unified system to manage all project resources, budgets, materials, and procurement through our ERP system.
Last but not least, we pride ourselves on our services and acclaimed customer relations. With a dedicated customer relationship management (CRM) application working to support our customers 24×7, we have assured that we handle customer requests and queries with clinical precision and accuracy. Our CRM system including but not limited to the latest CRM tools like Salesforce further compliments our business analytics and helps us derive actionable and sustainable insights that help in improving our services and also driving innovations for our future projects.
Source : outlook india
