Realty firm Sobha Group has chalked out an aggressive expansion plan for its India business and will soon enter the Mumbai luxury housing market with an aim to achieve more than a four-fold jump in annual sale bookings to Rs 30,000 crore in the next 4-5 years, according to its founder PNC Menon.
Sobha Group, which was founded in 1995, has a real estate business in India and Dubai, with plans to soon enter the US property market.
Buoyed by its success in the Dubai real estate market where Sobha Group clocked Rs 35,000 crore worth of sales in 2023, Menon — the richest person in Oman — intends to replicate the same in the Indian market in terms of scale of business and quality standards.
Sobha Group’s Dubai entity named Sobha Realty has developed a large resort-style luxury township here named ‘Sobha Hartland’ with complete backward integration to ensure quality. Another township and a few more projects are being constructed here.
“Our India business Sobha Ltd will enter the Mumbai market. I have a dream, we have to show something which India has not seen. We are going to follow the same methodology that we do here. When you do that, it becomes expensive. The cost will go up. The only place in India which can pay is Mumbai,” Menon said.
Sobha Ltd, which got listed on the Indian stock exchanges in 2006 and is one of the leading players in South India, is looking at all options to acquire land parcels in the Mumbai region, including outright purchases, joint development with land owners and redevelopment of existing housing societies.
“So what we are trying to do is to pick up some land, build beautifully to the highest international standards. Like what you see here. Because Mumbai can afford to pay, that I have seen,” said 76-year-old Menon, Chairman Emeritus of Indian entity Sobha Ltd.
Elaborating on the expansion plan, Ravi Menon, the Chairman of Sobha Ltd, said, “We are looking at entering Mumbai. Because Mumbai, if you look at the market, it has several micro-markets. So we are exploring across. We have no preference as such.”
“I think hopefully by next year, mid of next year, we should be able to break ground,” he said, adding that the company might do a small project to begin with.
