Trump Tower debuts in NCR with Gurugram project

The Trump Organization has launched its fourth and last residential project for building 275 luxury homes in Gurugram with an outlay of Rs1,000 to 1,500 crore.

Five years after its entry into the Indian real estate market, The Trump Organization, the New York-based business venture of US president Donald Trump, on Wednesday launched its fourth and last residential project in India.

Launched in Gurugram, the latest Trump Tower entails a total development cost of around Rs1,000-1,500 crore and would comprise around 275 luxury homes, Kalpesh Mehta, founder of Tribeca Developers said in an interview.

The project is being developed by a joint venture between real estate firm M3M India Pvt Ltd and Tribeca Developers, the official representative of The Trump Organization in India.

In India, The Trump Organization works with local developers via brand licensing agreements and has not made any equity investments. The Trump-branded residences sold in India have been priced in the Rs3.5-15 crore segment.

“For the foreseeable future this is the last residential project in India. The plan right now is to focus on completing sales and deliveries of the other existing projects,” Mehta said.

Apart from the four residential projects, The Trump Organization has an upcoming commercial project in India, which is expected to be launched soon. In 2016, it signed its first commercial office deal with Gurugram-based private equity and real estate firm Ireo.

“No project has been signed after he took over as president (in January 2017),” Mehta said.

Trump adviser Sheri Dillon had said that The Trump Organization would not enter into any new overseas deals while Trump is president, according to a Reuters report published on 11 January, 2017. Trump had also announced that he would “resign from all positions overseeing his hotels, golf courses and hundreds of other businesses and move his assets into a trust..”, the Reuters report said.

Trump has signed five projects with different partners so far, including one in Mumbai with Lodha Developers Pvt. Ltd, one with Panchshil Realty in Pune, a residential project in Gurgaon with M3M, an office project with M3M (also in Gurgaon) and Unimark Group in Gurugram.

The total revenue potential of Trump Towers in India stand at around $1.5 billion, making India one of the largest markets for The Trump Organization

“India is the largest market for Trump outside of North America both in terms of sales and number of projects,” Mehta said.

Demand for high-end homes in India’s real estate market, primarily concentrated in the larger property markets such as Mumbai, the National Capital Region (NCR) centred on Delhi, Bengaluru and Pune, has been tepid for the last three-four years.

According to a December report by Cushman & Wakefield, launches of luxury projects fell by 70% to 331 units in 2017.

“The end user consumers for these categories (high end) have remained restrained, not willing to take long term commitments. For investors, other asset classes such as the equity markets and gold have produced return on investment from real estate in the short term,” the report said.

 

source: livemint