Reimagining Space: The Convergence of Hospitality and Work with Mr. Vivek Narain, Founder of Quorum Club and District 150

Amongst emerging trends within the last 5 years, Fractional Ownership has become a popular concept to democratize Real Estate ownership for investors in India. According to a recent report from Knight Frank, the market for fractional ownership in India is projected to grow from $5.4 billion in 2020 to $8.9 billion in 2025.

As this space grows, SEBI has recently approved the framework for Medium, Small and Micro REITs, with the aim of formalising this sector to protect investors and standardise best practices across the Fractional Ownership Space. 

To talk to us about these regulations, the fractional investment process and the future of such MSM REITs, we have with us today the Founder and CEO of the fractional ownership platform hBits, Mr. Shiv Parekh.

After a BS in Engineering Physics from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, Mr Parekh is no stranger to real estate entrepreneurship, having founded WorkLoft in 2015, then one of India’s first few Coworking players. In 2018 he founded HBits, as one of the first players in the fractional ownership space in India. Today, hBits has AUM of approximately 310 crore INR from their 10 existing properties, and more than 90,000 registered users on their platform.

Have questions about Real Estate? Or topic you would love to hear more about on the Podcast?
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One of the biggest decision drivers of a real estate project is its financing. For developers, raising capital from the right sources is critical to enabling the project to be completed. Over the years sources of capital for Indian real estate have evolved from the traditional Institutional Banking, to include NBFCs and Institutional Private Equity. 

Recently, we have seen a significant rise in Real Estate focused Alternative Investment Funds, or AIFs, which fall under the umbrella of Real Estate Private Equity investments. The AIF space has also shown the sharpest growth in the Indian investments industry over the past 5 years, with a CAGR of over 50% 

To talk to us about the rise of AIFs and the options the Alternatives Investments Space offers to both investors and developers, we have with us today Mr. Ramashrya Yadav, Founder & CEO of Intergrow Asset Management.

An industry veteran, Mr. Yadav started his career at Shapoorji Pallonji & Co. before becoming the CEO-Real Estate Practice at Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd. 

Mr. Yadav founded Intergrow in 2021, to contribute to the democratization of real estate ownership and through financial assets.

So get ready to explore the rise of real estate alternative investments in India!

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Joining us today is Mr. Vijeth Reddy, the Co-Founder and CEO of Kots a pioneering residential leasing company operating in East Bangalore, that caters to the needs of both tenants and Landlords.

Renting an apartment in a metro city is fraught with challenges for both the tenant and the landlord. 

If you’re a tenant you have several criteria you’re juggling: price, location, quality of the apartment, proximity to shops, restaurants, ease of connectivity or commute to your office or college, and of course a Landlord who is attentive and responsive in the event something goes wrong or needs to be fixed in the apartment. 

If you’re a landlord your main concerns are probably a tenant who pays their rent on time, who respects the property and doesn’t cause any damage, who respects the buildings common areas, and of course there is a target rental yield you would like to achieve.

For both parties there is an asymmetry of criteria and a lack of benchmarks for their expectations.

To bridge this gap, Mr Vijeth Reddy and his wife Mrs. Sageetha Reddy, founded Kots in 2019. Kots is a pioneering residential leasing company operating in East Bangalore, that caters to the needs of both tenants and Landlords. An engineer by education, Mr. Reddy is a serial entrepreneur with a history of building startups in varying sectors.

Kots is one of the few Indian companies in the residential sector that partners with developers to operate on a Build-to-Rent model. The company maximizes returns to the landlord, while also catering to 11-month rental contracts for India’s young professionals, with their primary tenant demographic being 24-35 years of age. Kots also solves for the upkeep and turnover of the properties they manage. 

Kots has already grown a foundation in East Bangalore having served over 900 tennants and 50 different Landlords, in the last 4 years. The company’s plans for the next two years include a tenant base of 3000, working with 100 different Landlords, and perhaps hoping to expand to other markets in India soon.

So without further ado, let's get started.

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Joining us today is Mr. Saurabh Garg, the Co-Founder and CBO of India’s first Proptech Unicorn, NoBroker.

During the last decade, one of the fastest growing sub-sectors within Indian Real Estate has been Proptech, as an increasing number of real estate transactions have been happening online. This surge is reflected in the investor market as well, with a total of $4 Billion in funding being poured into Indian proptech ventures since 2009.

However, no progress comes without it’s fair share of challenges. One such challenge being the disparity of information and transparency between the supply side (traditionally developers and brokers) and the demand side (traditionally real estate buyers and investors).

Today, Mr. Garg talks to us about his prop-tech solution to address this challenge, amongst several others faced by tenants and homebuyers.

With a history of successful entrepreneurship with his first venture, The Four Fountains Spa, Mr. Garg decided to start NoBroker in 2014, to address the pain points he had personally faced as a prospective tenant.

Over time, NoBroker has become a full stack service provider, with an array of property services, catering to them achieving a company value at over $1B in their most recent funding round.

Mr. Garg takes us through his journey with NoBroker, their expansion into complimentary verticals, and the application of data and algorithms to understand consumer behaviour, and improve the consumer experience within real estate.

So without further ado, let’s get started!

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Welcome to Season 3 of Concrete Conversations, the Indian Real Estate Podcast!
(now in Video format too on YouTube!)

In the past couple of years, the lines between hospitality and commercial workspaces have started to blur, as the demand for premium amenities in grade A commercial spaces rises, and members clubs and collaborative spaces proliferate across India.

There are efforts to reposition the traditional office building, by rewriting how people work and engage, while increasing the utilization of these spaces as well.

To navigate this evolving landscape, we have with us today Mr. Vivek Narain, Founder of The Quorum Club and district150. Mr. Narain began his career in banking and transitioned into hospitality through a groundbreaking financial transaction in 2006, as a part of the sponsor team behind India Hospitality Corp (IHC), the first India-focused SPAC.

In 2018, Mr. Narain co-founded The Quorum, a members' club business in India, aiming to reinvent this traditional landscape with a contemporary perspective. His latest venture, District150, is a 'hospitality-powered' meetings and events' hub, bridging the gap between a hotel and the future office / hospitality and the workspace.

Today, we'll dive into the world of multi-purpose spaces, discussing how these concepts could reshape our work lives, especially in a post-COVID world. 

So without further ado, let’s get started!

Have questions about Real Estate? Or topic you would love to hear more about on the Podcast?
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Joining us today Jonathan Schneider, Senior Director of JLL Capital Markets across the New England region, and Professor Keith Munsell, Master Lecturer of Strategy & Innovation and Head of the Real Estate Concentration at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business.

The world’s of real estate and finance may not always seem like they share a symbiotic relationship but they do. 

Capital management is the start of every real estate project. The capital structure and the deals therein can make or break the viability of a project. It is no surprise that for this reason large Property Consultants offer a Capital Markets vertical that connects developers with lenders and investors.

But how is the finance for large real estate projects structured? 
What is the difference between debt and equity exposure in real estate? 
How does the changing interest rate environment in the US and across the world affect the deployment of capital in real estate?

Today Mr. Schnider and Professor Munsell talk about this and more,  breaking down the fundamentals of project finance and structuring,  and giving us an insight into this underlying and vital relationship between marquee projects and the capital that makes them possible.

So get ready to capitalize on some unique insights about Capital Markets.

Have questions about Real Estate? Or topic you would love to hear more about on the Podcast?
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Joining us today is Mr. Ramesh Ranganathan, CEO of K Raheja Corp Homes.

The increased standardisation in regulation and practices in Indian Real Estate in recent years has opened new horizons for developers. For example, the implementation of RERA, or the introduction of unified development regulations in Maharashtra both of which have allowed established developers to extend their presence across different verticals and markets.

K Raheja Corp is one of Mumbai’s oldest developers. They started with residential projects in the Mumbai market and were early innovators in the luxury residential segment through projects such as Raheja Vivarea. 
Over decades, they have diversified across verticals and markets to have a nationwide presence through ventures such as Mindspace Business Parks, Chalet hotels and more.

Mr.  Ranganathan, is an industry veteran, with over 2 decades of experience in residential real estate. With prior stints with developers such as Lokhandwala Infastructure  and Mahindra Lifespaces, he joined K Raheja Corp in 2019 to spearhead the group's residential business.

Today he talks to us about the impact of standardization on developers business, how developers cater to consumers across different markets, the impact of new infrastructure on Mumbai Real Estate and more!

Have questions about Real Estate? Or topic you would love to hear more about on the Podcast?
Connect with Concrete Conversations - The Indian Real Estate Podcast through the links below!

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Joining us today is Mr. Amit Ramani, CEO of Awfis, one of India's largest coworking and full-stack office solutions provider.

The coworking and flexible workspace market in India has been through many ups and downs, with their explosive introduction and growth, spearheaded by international firms, followed by a period of peril and reorganization post Covid and the changes to the nature of work that came with it.

Today, flexible workspaces are seeing a revival in India, with hybrid and distributed workspaces looking like a trend that is here to stay, driving a new wave of growth in this sector, and changing the way in which tenants and developers look at commercial real estate.

Amit talks to us about this resurgence in the flexible workspace market in India, the growing trend of managed office spaces and full-stack office solutions, and the future prospects of this industry in India.

Amit is an architect by education, with a Masters in Real Estate and Workspace Strategy from Cornell University. He worked with the design and build firm Nelson Global, and even set up their India operations. Amit founded Awfis in 2015 as one of  one of India’s first co-working operators, and today, Awfis operates over 150 locations with 90,000 seats, across 17 cities and is one of the largest operators in this sector. 

Have questions about Real Estate? Or topic you would love to hear more about on the Podcast?
Connect with Concrete Conversations - The Indian Real Estate Podcast through the links below!

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Joining us today is Mr. Nitin Govila, the Chief Sales & Marketing Officer for APAC and MEA at Serge Ferrari, a producer and global supplier of technical fabrics.

When it comes to design, architects and engineers are always looking to incorporate innovative construction materials to bring their visions to reality, and create an iconic structure that is associated with them.

But selecting innovative materials is often more than just a design consideration. Apart from being aesthetically pleasing, these materials can can often have other benefits as well, and can have an impact when it comes to heat and light management, acoustics, fireproofing and more.

One such material is “technical fabrics” or “membranes”, which is widely used across the world in stadiums, airports, building facades and even interiors.

Nitin completed his MBA from HEC in Paris and has close to 15 years experience working in international strategy and sales of building materials. Today he talks to us through structural quality, benefits, versatility and increasing applications of these technical fabrics across various  projects, including marquee projects of Serge Ferrari such as football stadiums at the Qatar world cup, and the iconic Burj-Al-Arab in Dubai.

So Get Ready to Unravel the Yarns of Technical Fabric Applications in Real Estate!

Have questions about Real Estate? Or topic you would love to hear more about on the Podcast?
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Joining us today is Mr. Nikhil Rathi, the Founder and CEO of Web Werks, one of India's leading Data Centers.

As technology and the internet become more ubiquitous in our lives and society, the backbone and infrastructure that enables this will have to expand as well.

The connected world of today, along with all its comforts, on some level relies on data centers, the physical locations and servers that enable the storage, processing and transfer of data between our devices and the internet. India’s rapidly growing data consumption, and new internet users has lead to substantial growth in this sector, as new data centers are built to cater to this demand.

Nikhil talks us through this transformation of the industry,  from the time began his entrepreneurial journey in the technology sector with ventures for selling web hosting, to setting up entire data centers. Nikhil was also involved with setting up one of India’s first private internet exchanges, and partnered with Iron Mountain Data Centers in 2021, recently launching their first Greenfield Data Center in Navi Mumbai, as they look to set up more hyper scale data centers across India.

In this episode, Nikhil takes us through the setup and functioning of these data centers, the drivers behind the growth of this sector, and more!  

So get ready to HyperScale your knowledge, about Data Centres in Indian Real Estate!

Have questions about Real Estate? Or topic you would love to hear more about on the Podcast?
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