New Entrants From Real Estate Fuel Hotel Construction Boom
Traditional hospitality giants and real estate majors such as Taj, Oberoi, ITC, Leela, Rahejas, Lokhandwalas, Lok Group, Hiranandani, Unitech Holdings, Unicorn Holdings etc will now have to make way for the new entrants from the realty sector who are fast making their mark in the Indian hotel sector.
Fueling the on-going hotel construction boom in the country are real estate companies like Delhi-based DLF Group, Uppals, Ansal Properties and Odeon Builders with projects in New Delhi, Mumbai, Gurgaon and Jaipur. The Mumbai-based Oberoi Constructions, Nirmal Lifestyles, Kanakia’s, Runwal Constructions and Magus Estates are also eyeing hotels in the commercial capital as well as Goa, Bangalore and Chennai.
Also in the run are the Bangalore-based realtors Puruvankara Group, Embassy Group, Adarsh Group, Prestige Group, RNS Group, and Sigma Group with projects in Bangalore and Chennai. With a hotel project already in the pipeline in Hyderabad, the Dubai based Emaar Properties has plans to develop more hotel projects in Mumbai and Bangalore.
While the trend ‘realtors to hoteliers’ is certainly not nascent, in the past year the Indian hospitality industry has seen a significant rise in real estate companies towing the hotel rope. This business diversification on part of the realtors, industry analysts ascribe, is on account of the booming tourism and hospitality industry in India and a natural extension to their current profile. According to Vikas Oberoi, managing director, Oberoi Constructions, “The prime element of a hotel is the asset - land and hotel project, these elements to real estate companies are easy to procure and develop due to their huge financial corpus. And all a real estate company needs to do is tie-up with a hotel management company.”