Track2Realty releases Best Practices Audit Report of Indian real estate

News Point: At a time when the buzzword in the Indian real estate is the compelling need to adopt the best practices, followed globally, Track2Realty has released first-ever best practices report in the Indian real estate. The report highlights which are the companies that are closer to adopting the best practices and which companies are lacking in which areas.

While the Indian real estate companies are projecting to adopt some of the globally recognized best practices, the ground reality indicates the sector has to travel a long way. Only 10 developers across the Indian markets could get A+ (Outlook Positive) rating in Track2Realty Best Practices Report 2017. Many of the large-size and recognized developers could at the best earn B+ (Outlook Stable), while some of the large developers by market size could only stand at the bottom with B Rating (Negative to Stable) or C Rating (Outlook Negative).

Bangalore-based Sobha Limited has been quite outstanding at the top with A+ Rating, followed by Godrej Properties and Prestige Group. As a matter of fact, Sobha Limited stands way ahead of other Indian developers in adopting the best practices. Out of the 10 well-defined metrics Sobha Limited ranks at the top on the six metrics, while Godrej Properties stands at the top on four metrics. But the cumulative ranking of Sobha Limited makes it a case study in the Indian real estate. What has elevated the positioning of Sobha Limited is the fact that they have been way ahead of other developers in a 20-city public perception survey.

Overall, the performance of South Indian developers in general and Bangalore-based developers in particular has been quite decent, compared to the developers in other parts of the country. Other than these, the corporate conglomerates have registered their presence with decent track record of best practices in the business.

What comes out as a significant finding of the study is the fact that size alone does not determine the standing of the developer in adoption of best practices. Mumbai-based Omkar Realtors & Developers or Rustomjee are not that big brands outside their core geographical markets, and yet their track record of best practices is much better than many developers with national footprint.

Similarly, Kolkata-based Srijan Realty with limited projects, Mumbai-based Radius Developers with decent beginning and Central Park project in Gurgaon-Sohna Road could figure way ahead than some of the market front runners in launching very many projects. Prateek Group, a Noida-based developer with only a handful of projects, also stands out as trustworthy developer.

The track record of large-sized developers, like Jaypee Group or Unitech was found to be negative. Similarly, in North India a developer like Supertech with very many projects was nowhere near desirable benchmark of best practices.

A list of 100 top companies was picked up and evaluated in this study. The companies were picked up based on their market size, market impact, market differentiation/contribution, investors’ choice and Public perception. These companies were thereafter evaluated on the defined metrics of: Fiscal Management, Execution, Market Depth, Consumer Connect, Transparent Deals, Functional Professionalism, Care, Employer, Communication & Desirable Practices.

Each of these metrics have 5-7 sub-metrics and the process of evaluation has been in-house research, followed by qualitative survey among the organized segment of investors, HNIs, NRIs and other influential stakeholders of the Indian real estate.

This was further followed with a pan-India public perception survey. A large sample size of 10,000 respondents were interviewed with a set of open-ended and close-ended questions to understand the consumer psychograph and outlook about these real estate companies.