Jeevesh Sabharwal — Clearing the air with facts about realty market

When most of the realty developers are in a quandary following the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA), Jeevesh Sabharwal, chairman and managing director at Shivam Realty, was relaxed enough to vacation in Europe and the US, and only returned home a few days ago. Not surprising, as the $2 billion (in market cap) real estate company has always been RERA compliant. In a freewheeling discussion, Jeevesh Sabharwal details how he is sticking to his home market Mumbai and not digressing from the premium segment despite a rush for low-cost housing. Although sitting on a cash pile, Jeevesh does not get carried away when players try to sell their distressed assets and pending projects at throwaway prices. According to him, acquiring a new project and starting from scratch is better than getting hold of pending ones as margins are not lucrative in leveraged and pending projects. Scouting for good land parcels is always on the radar, but Jeevesh has enough on his plate right now and aims to deliver 21.55 million sq. ft in the next four years.