NEW DELHI: Salarpuria Sattva, a leading player in Indian commercial real estate, is expanding its residential portfolio in and will start development of three new projects in Bengaluru at an investment of around Rs 600 crore. In an interview with , Salarpuria Sattva group Managing Director Bijay Agarwal said housing sales and construction activities were adversely affected during April-May, but from June onwards the situation is gradually improving.

He said the company targets to sell its ready-to-move-in residential units worth around Rs 1,300 crore across various projects over the next one and half year.

Asked about new launches, Agarwal said: “We are planning to launch three new housing projects in September in Bengaluru.”

These three projects, put together, will have around 1,200 units, including 500 plots. One of the project will be in the affordable housing category.

Asked about investment, Agarwal said it will be around Rs 600 crore, with an expected revenue of about Rs 700-750 crore.

“Housing demand is not as bad as it was feared. The need for home onwership and larger flats has increased because of work from home and online classes,” Agarwal said.

Last year, Salarpuria Sattva group entered into affordable housing segment, which is being promoted by the central government with various tax incentives and GST rate of only one per cent.

On commercial portfolio, Agarwal said the construction work is going on in projects having 12 million sq ft area and the company plans to start construction on another 8 million sq ft next year.

Bengaluru-based Salarpuria Sattva in partnership with global investment firm Blackstone, has developed many commercial projects in South India. Last year, they jointly bought ”Global Village Tech Park” in Bengaluru from Coffee Day Enterprises for Rs 2,700 crore.

Asked about labour problem, he said at present the company is operating with about 40 per cent labour force but the numbers are likely to reach 70 per cent in the next few months.

Salarpuria Sattva has completed more than 115 projects across seven cities in India in about three decades. It has completed about 54 million sq ft area and around 32 million sq ft development is in progress. The development of 32 million sq ft is in planning stage.

Besides Bengaluru, the group has presence in Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, Coimbatore, Jaipur and Goa.

The group also has interests in education and hospitality businesses, among others. It has forayed into two major growing segments — co-working and co-living — through partnership with Co-live and Simpliwork.