The demand for housing post-Covid has increased and people have realised during this time the importance of living in one’s own home, Raymond Chairman and Managing Director Gautam Hari Singhania told News18.com in an exclusive interview. He said the timing is good for Raymond Realty to be in the Indian markets, where the housing sector is growing manifold.
Talking to News18.com, Singhania said, “Realty is a sector, which we got into, because we had the land and we wanted to monetise. I think the demand for housing, especially post-Covid, people have realised the importance of having their own home (sic). What pain people have been through, living with two or three or four families in one unit.”
“India is growing, India’s housing sector is growing and I think it is good time for us to be in the realty space,” he added.
Raymond Realty is currently in the last leg of finishing its Thane residential project, with the apartments to be handed over to residents by December this year. This is ahead of the promised time that the company had initially announced. Singhania, when asked about Raymond Realty’s future plans, told News18 that at the moment there are no plans of Raymond Realty foraying into other cities with the project.
Raymond’s real estate and development of property segment was over two-fold at Rs 286.46 crore as against Rs 130.04 crore in the June quarter of FY22. Singhania during that time had said that the company’s real estate project was progressing well with sales velocity and construction pace of both the projects at Thane. “This helps us to deliver strong performance for our real estate business,” he had said in June.
However, Singhania also expected the other arms of Raymond Ltd. to grow at a quick pace. He said all four sectors, including textile, auto, realty and FMCG, continue to do well for the company. “While the western countries have their own problems in terms of inflation, prices etc, I think India continues to grow. As long as India continues to do well, our companies will do well,” he said.
Talking about Raymond’s position in the retail space, Singhania said, “Raymond is in the forefront of retail and fashion. In CY2025 it will be a 100-year-old company. It is a very solid brand that people associate with.”
While the company aims to be debt-free by 2025, its chairman said he did not want to out any time frame on it. “As for the financial performance of the company, we can see that the debt has come down. It is expected that soon we will be debt-free but I don’t want to put any time frame on it.”
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