max: Max Estates to develop 2 million sq ft of residential
In the last six months the company completed three land transactions, acquiring around 22 acres for Rs 850 crore.
One of these land lots will be used for residential development, while the rest will be used for commercial buildings.
Max is in talks for another land acquisition on the Dwarka Expressway in Gurgaon for residential development.
“We are definitely going to scale up. Our objective was to develop a million square feet of office space and a million square feet of residential space. We are confident in maintaining our current momentum and will continue to expand. We want to do very high-quality development focused on the end customer experience,” said Vachani.
MaxVIL will launch its first residential project by mid-2023.
“We are positioning our first residential project in Noida Sector 128 as a very unique development that will establish us in the residential world through our philosophy of living well, just as we have done with the concept of working well in the office space segment. We are thinking a total of not more than 250 units, with more focus on the green area,” Vachani said.
Max Estates acquired 10 acres of land on the Noida Expressway in Sector 128 through the acquisition of 100% equity in Accord Hotels and Resorts Private Limited, which holds this land as its only asset.
This mixed-use, residential-led project will have an estimated saleable area of one million square feet.
The project is planned to be developed as a boutique luxury residential development with a total sales potential in excess of Rs 1,300 crore.
“We have a stated strategy that was to grow in the NCR and within the NCR across two verticals, which are commercial and residential. Our third project in commercial is Max Square, which is in Sector 129 on the expressway. So now, with an aspiration to scale further, we have acquired two land parcels in Sector 129 that are contiguous to the existing Max Square, which will give us an integrated campus of 2 million square feet,” Vachani said.
In Gurgaon, Max acquired 7.15 acres of land on the Gold Course Extension, which enables the company to have a total development potential of 1.6-1.7 million square feet.
“If we look at just the commercial bucket, there have been two additional acquisitions, which will give us a total of around 3 million square feet. And if we add on to what we already have, we will have a commercial footprint in the National Capital Region of 5 million square feet of office space, all of which will be paid to lease,” Vachani said.
According to Vachani, there has been a significant change in the way offices are being designed since covid.
“We believe that the nature of office space has changed a lot post covid. With the advent of hybrid working, offices now have a different role,” said Vachani.
He said that they were recording almost 75–80% of workforce back in office in the past few months. “At the same time, there is a little bit of an overhang in tech, and the economic slowdown is an area of concern for some of the technology majors. But all in all, we remain very optimistic.”
The company’s consolidated revenue is up 47% year-on-year to Rs 273 million in Q1 FY23, while total lease rental income (Max Towers and Max House) is up 45% to Rs 120 million in Q1 FY23.
New York Life Insurance Co, a US-based mutual life insurance company, has proposed to invest Rs 196 crore for a 49% equity stake in a commercial project of Max Estates’ SPV in Noida.
The land spread across 4 acres in Sector 129, Noida, was acquired by Max Estates, the real estate arm of Max Group, from Axis Bank for Rs 220 crore in August.
Max Estates will oversee finishing the project, for which it will get a development fee.