alpana

The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive. The anecdote couldn’t have been more spot on for real estate developers in India. For, real estate majors such as Parsvnath, Ansal API and others may be building housing and commercial projects for others but they themselves are struggling to find office space in the city.

Real estate major Parsvnath Developers that at present operates out of a office in Barakhamba road in the capital, has been looking for a space for the past two years without much success. “It couldn’t have been more ironical. We may have succeeded in extending our footprint pan-India in the last two years but have failed to find a suitable space of 1 lakh sq ft, matching our requirements.

Though now we have zeroed in on two-three locations, we’re still in dilemma where to move. The identified locations include a property in Gurgaon and their mall projects which are coming up at Delhi Metro Rail Corporation stations.

Ansal API is not far behind. The company has been jostling for about six months to find a place in Noida. “The negotiations are presently on. We don’t have enough space in our present office in Connaught Place. Hence, we have been exploring options. Our corporate office, in all probability, will come up in two years in Noida".

Smaller players such as SNG Developers have also been trying to address the problem of office space since the past six months but it has met without any concrete result. “Limited supply of properties which match our requirements and unrealistic commercial terms has been the primary reasons for not being able to find a suitable place till now. We prefer the Central Business District (CBD). But then availability of a large area with all facilities such as parking, approachability etc is a problem in CBD. Hence we are now looking at Jasola, Noida and Okhla Phase II as alternative locations”.

Uppal Housing and Omaxe may be ready to shift to their new office spaces in Jasola but not before exhaustive effort. Uppal Housing, which has its present office in Panchsheel Enclave in Delhi, has developed an office space in Jasola in an area of 25,000 sq ft and is expected to move there in October. Omaxe is also expected to move most of its staff to the new Jasola office in the next one and a half years.