Sobha to construct 1,000 houses as part of community home project

Real estate player Sobha has chalked out plans to construct 1,000 houses for BPL families in Palakkad over the next four years, as part of its community home project.

Of this, 100 houses – each costing ₹15 lakh – are being constructed in the first phase under the aegis of its philanthropic wing Sri Kurumba Educational & Charitable Trust, said P.N.C. Menon, Founder, Sobha Group.

Sobha’s community home project is a unique social development initiative that was conceived to build homes for the less fortunate families in Palakkad, he added.

The Trust started a massive project in 2023 to build houses for the most economically disadvantaged families in Kizhakkenchery Panchayat in Palakkad. The scheme will be implemented in different phases with the most deserving homeless 100 women-headed families getting houses in 2023-24, he said.

According to him, the company has spent ₹2,269 million on various welfare projects including education of girls, healthcare, looking after the aged and the needy, women empowerment, and green initiatives with over 17,000 direct beneficiaries.

Positive outlook

Apart from footprint expansion in Kerala- a State that contributes approximately 10 per cent of all-India sales of the company- Sobha has plans to move pan-India to cater to the housing needs of the premium demographic segment. 

Sobha achieved its highest annual sales of ₹51.98 billion, 5.65 million sq ft with an average price realisation of ₹9,200 sq ft in the country in FY23. “We launched nine residential projects with total saleable area of 3.96 million sq ft and started operations in two new cities – Thiruvananthapuram and Hyderabad in FY23”, Menon said 

The Indian real estate sector is forecasted to grow to $1 trillion by 2030 from $200 billion in 2021. The residential real estate market has made rapid progress in 2022, setting new sales records of 68 per cent y-o-y.

Unlike the major global property markets that saw a downturn due to high mortgage rates, un-affordability and the return of Covid, he said India showed resilience and recovered from the decade-old down cycle.