Ashok Singh Jaunapuria, MD & CEO of SS Group, a company with a legacy and delivery of 20 projects in Gurugram, feels that inflation would not significantly impact demand for homes.
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00:00 Hello and welcome to Outlook Business. I am your host, Shanakshi Chakraborty and today
00:18 we are joined and in conversation with Mr. Ashok Singh Janapuria, the MD, CEO of SS Group.
00:24 We will be talking to him about what it is like to be in the real estate market in today's
00:29 India and how it adds to India's GDP story. Thank you very much Mr. Janapuria for speaking
00:35 with us and giving us your time. Let me begin by asking you the story and the journey of
00:40 SS Group and at what point did you think that you wanted to join this company?
00:44 Basically, first of all, the company was started by my father, not me. I just joined him. And
00:52 if you say early 90s, he used to accommodate land and to sell it to big giants like DLF,
00:57 Unitec, Ansell. But while in 2000, I thought an idea with my father like we do entire job
01:06 work, the entire purchase land which is a tough job. Accommodating land is a tough job.
01:11 So why can't we become a developer instead of just selling and accommodating land for
01:15 others. So he thought like it's a big job, we can't do. I said let's try. So we started
01:20 with the south end with low budgeted floors with a starting of 6 lakh rupees in 2000.
01:28 And from there, we became as a developer before that but we are not developers now, we were
01:33 developers. And like my father was the main brain behind it because he started. So I thought
01:41 to be a developer not to be always an accommodation or like a broker doing just land accommodation
01:45 for others. That was the start of journey of SS Group basically.
01:49 So if I was to ask you at what point did you think that you really wanted to become the
01:53 entrepreneur and be part of this SS Group? At what point did you decide this for yourself?
01:58 Basically, I used to see my father like he used to deal with so many people like on different
02:03 different segments like farmers, brokers, associates, even the developers also. So from
02:10 there, I thought like, yeah, this is a good field. Because if you're a kid, what you see,
02:15 you thought to become the same thing. And it was never been fitted to me that you have
02:20 to become a developer or entrepreneur. But seeing my father and seeing the movement,
02:23 what he do, how he meets, from there, I thought to become an entrepreneur, basically a developer.
02:30 We all know that the real estate market is one thing, but to be a part of the real estate
02:35 market is another. It is extremely stressful, the pressure runs, it's a high pressure environment
02:43 all the time 24/7. So why don't you help us understand what does your daily routine look
02:48 like? How do you stay motivated to be able to pursue your ambitions and to be able to
02:55 ace this game in the real estate market in today's time?
02:58 Alright, you've asked me two questions basically in one question. First you asked about my
03:03 life and the second being in real estate is stressful. Like I'll tell you, no business
03:10 is stressful. It's a thought process, it's your thinking. And the best part is like if
03:16 you have a good staff, good employees, you can't get stressed easily. So most of them
03:22 like I've heard like MD is busy, CEO is busy. So I say the way MD CEO is busy, it means
03:28 he doesn't have a good staff. Because MD CEO or chairman just leads, not run. Organizations
03:35 run by staff. So if you have a good staff, you won't feel or you don't get into stress.
03:41 You live an easy life because you have to do your strategy. Later on the entire thing
03:46 is being pushed on to them. They do. And if you have a good staff, then the stress is
03:51 not in real estate, it's into your daily life also. And my daily life is so easy because
03:58 I have a good staff, good company and best part is my entire employees, like they are
04:02 family to me. They are from last 16 to 17 years with me. So like so I go my so easy
04:09 way, like I wake up at 3, 3.30, 4 in the morning. I make my tea myself that I got to from my
04:17 father, this hobby or say this way of life. Then go for a walk, feed dogs, street dogs,
04:26 pigeons also. Then yoga and gym and I'm back to my home. Get ready to my sites. I visit
04:34 my site. Like I love to be on sites because basically a real estate backbone is your site
04:40 because you are into a field where developer means developing a house or a residential
04:45 or a commercial, anything in developing and giving to that. So if you don't know what
04:49 is happening, how your customers are getting in problem, the customer gets problem two
04:54 way. Either you are not giving quality or it is not on time. For these things we have
04:58 to visit our sites. So my like hobby you can say, a learning also because my background
05:04 is in, I'm a marketing guy, not an engineer or like B. Tech something like that. But I've
05:08 learnt what I've learnt, I've learnt from father to visit site, look at sites and just
05:13 see the problem where the company is going down. Because never company going from HO,
05:18 from corporate office. It goes down from your sites because real estate is based on sites
05:23 only. I'm back to my head office. Then by 6, 6.15 I leave my office, go play with my
05:30 kids and by 9, 9.30 I'm on my bed. That's my daily routine.
05:35 That's interesting. Which brings me to the question that SS Group of course is very popular
05:40 in Gurgaon and Gurgaon in itself has been one of the most former, most earlier players
05:45 in the real estate market. Now what are some of the trends that you have seen over the
05:50 years that have shaped Gurgaon's real estate and if you can just share with us what it
05:55 used to be earlier and what it has become now. If you can just take us through that
05:59 change.
06:00 Alright like I can tell Gurgaon from 2000 when I started as a business with my father.
06:06 Like not as MDCO or AD, as an employer of a company because I've worked in every sector
06:11 of my company like finance and everything. So in 2000 there were 3 to 4 developers in
06:16 Gurgaon which we can put on my fingers and name them. But later on the trend changes,
06:22 they became 80, 90 because everybody think like developing and becoming a real estate
06:27 and a developer is a very easy job. They don't know it's not an easy job. It's a service
06:31 industry. You have to give service to the customers, you have to give service to the
06:35 public, to the infrastructure, everything. So from 2000 till 2022 I've seen so many
06:42 trends like 2 or 3 up and downs I've seen in Gurgaon where like so many developers vanished,
06:51 so many new came and Gurgaon is always like a market where like it never give you loss.
06:59 If you say like I've invested in Gurgaon, no because Gurgaon isn't near to your Delhi,
07:04 it's a capital. Then it's in the neckline of the India and it's straight from which start
07:07 from JNK to Kanyakumari. Plus if you see in Gurgaon there are 2 major hubs like Maruti
07:13 Suzuki and Hero Honda. Now there are so many Honda also, there are so many came. But major
07:18 was Maruti Suzuki and Honda which basically Hero Honda which make Gurgaon. And now if
07:23 you see there are I think maximum MNCs what I've got like more than 10,000 MNCs are in
07:29 Gurgaon. So there's a change always like they do reshuffle. The person who is coming,
07:36 they need home. Due to which Gurgaon is always in demand if it is a residential or commercial.
07:41 So Gurgaon like if I say as an investment also Gurgaon is the best opportunity to invest
07:46 in entire India. And just generally in terms of the real estate market in the country,
07:51 especially in the national capital, where do you see the Dwarka Expressway in your opinion,
07:56 where does it stand in terms of price and demand in the real estate segment, how do
08:00 you view its project? Not from today, even when the master plan was done, so I've seen
08:06 the entire master plan and our strategy is to do a job or to develop an area which have
08:11 a future. Like if you take extension road or an SVR, because like if we leave our house
08:17 we see how many exit points are there. Fine. If we take an example of other, if there is
08:23 a fire in a condominium or a tower, we see how many exit points are. Because that is
08:29 a saving thing. Same in today's rush hours, like so many traffic is on there, so many
08:34 public is coming. So we see like if I want to move out from my house, how many exit points
08:38 we do have. Like in Dwarka road we have four. One is an NH8, Dwarka Expressway, one is a
08:44 multi road which is connecting Manesar and the fourth is Manesar. If we take here, it
08:49 is only just either you go on Golf Course Road which is touching to NH8 or you come
08:53 to Sona Road. That's it. Plus this side has been exhausted completely. I think there
09:00 is a limit to everything. Toh karte hai na, aata har cheez ki hoti hai. Toh here, price
09:05 has gone exhausted. You can't take an advantage that you are earning something. Even I'll
09:12 say most of the people give like we have end users. Fine. If you have an end user, even
09:18 end user taking a house for their last to live there. But if there is an increment,
09:23 if there is an increase or if there is a beneficial price, they feel happy. It doesn't mean I
09:28 have to live in this house. There is no appreciation. It doesn't look good. In new Dwarka road or
09:33 new Gurgaon, we can say there is a huge scope of development. There is a huge scope of price
09:39 increasement. There is a huge scope for better infrastructure.
09:44 We all understand that inflation is a very important concern for the common man on a
09:49 daily basis. We all understand that inflation is not just a problem in India but globally
09:54 it is a rising concern. So take us through in your opinion, how do you see inflation
10:00 playing out and its impact on the real estate market, especially for the common man where
10:05 he has to either buy a house or rent out a house and what are the trends that has been
10:11 impacted because of inflation in the country?
10:15 Inflation is a big question and we hype this one too much. In India, I think it is more
10:22 than 300 crore population. If 10,000 people or 20,000 people have been sacked from their
10:28 job, that doesn't mean there is inflation. In every second, there is a new baby born.
10:38 Every second, they get married. Every second, the wife which is coming, they love to be
10:41 in a nuclear family, they need a home. So it is a necessity like we need food to live.
10:48 We need clothes to wear. So it is a need to have a house nowadays. If you see, there was
10:53 a trend, people used to live in a joint family. Now, maximum is on nuclear families. So there
11:00 is a huge demand of residential or commercial. So if you say inflation, I don't think so
11:05 in Gurgaon. Ever Gurgaon has hit an inflation. I have never seen because I am into this from
11:10 like 2000, it is all 22 years. I have never seen a drop down in my sale. There is always
11:17 demand. We can say like it is like where we are doing 100 numbers, it is 99. It is not
11:23 like 100 to 40 or 130. So 100 to 99 is not an inflation. It is like we can say a weekend
11:31 off. It is taking an off like giving 10 to 20 amount come. So that is a different thing
11:37 in inflation. I have never seen in Gurgaon inflation.
11:39 Right. We all know that the budget is upcoming. It is on its way. And a lot of questions will
11:45 be asked when it comes to the real estate sector in the country. Now, a couple of questions
11:52 in this would be that A, in your opinion and in your experience, has the government given
11:58 any kind of support in terms of policy perspective? If I have to ask you a question from the sense
12:04 of a policy perspective, has the government given any kind of support to the real estate
12:09 market A and B? What in your opinion as a real estate businessman and an entrepreneur
12:14 yourself are you expecting from the budget that is coming up?
12:18 Basically, like if you see there is a Swamy Fund which was a government opportunity which
12:24 is given to developers who like whose project was been holding due to the non-payment of
12:29 from the customers. So there was a, it was the ROI was also too good. It was a 9 percent.
12:35 So like from budget, even thanks to Mr. Honorable our Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi who
12:42 thought first time a Prime Minister thought for the real estate developers. Otherwise,
12:46 every politician, every developer is like that chaur, they are thief. They are like
12:50 Mahabalis, they do whatever they want to do. But first time a Prime Minister I have seen
12:55 in my life, he has given something to real estate like Swamy Fund. It was a good fund
13:00 which was like the scheme was too good. It was not a harsh on a developer that you have
13:05 to return the AMIs on time. But it was a system which was made and like in budget also I think
13:10 if the government gave again a new scheme like this and plus if they decrease the rate
13:16 of return on the bank loans plus on the home loans also because like if you increase the
13:22 home loans but so the buyer think twice to buy or not to buy. Then they look for the
13:29 schemes where we can do EMI after the position or something like that where the again the
13:33 developers come to in a problem like what they should do. They either go for a loan,
13:37 bank loan or if they get a customer payment then they can build. So I think if in budget
13:44 if they give a real estate again the same thing, same scheme like Swamy Fund plus if
13:51 they give a good rate of return on loans to construct the buildings like not to go for
13:57 8 to 9 percent or 12 percent if they go like 6 percent. If they are giving a charge on
14:02 every 6 to 6.75, 6.25 they should compare the same thing into real estate also. They
14:08 should give on the same that the developer can make it on time. If they can make on time
14:12 they can give to the customers also. Right. So those are some interesting insights
14:18 given by you of course to us and it has been really nice speaking to you because you have
14:23 given some very interesting talking points for our viewers as well to understand the
14:27 real estate market. Thank you very much Mr. Ashok Singh Jaunapuriya. That was Mr. Ashok
14:32 Singh Jaunapuriya, the MD, CEO of SS Group in Gurugram here in the National Capital who
14:38 has given us a deep insight into the real estate market and what it is like and how
14:43 it adds to India's GDP story. Thanks for watching Outlook Business.
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