Press Coverage

Commercial buildings, especially office spaces can be more than just brick and mortar structures. Creative design elements can lend character and charm to an otherwise staid building. Architects typically experiment a lot with the interiors of the buildings but little has been done to enhance the exteriors.

For making the exterior of commercial design attractive, one can try creative facades, green forays and art installations. One such experiment has been done at Vaishnavi Icon, a ground plus six storey commercial building by Vaishnavi group located in the CBD on Richmond Road, just a few meters away from Trinity Circle.

The company has installed a 15-foot sculpture crafted from stainless steel at the entrance of the building premises, which appears as grand and striking as the building itself. The structure that appears to be a wired profile of a human face stands tall as you enter and prompts one to take a deep look at it.

Titled “Exhilaration”, the concept of the sculpture is all about keeping an open mind and letting your imagination run free.The stainless-steel sculpture took 6 months to create and has been conceptualized and executed by well-known sculptor, ArzanKhambatta.

“In the current work scenario where everyone seems to be competing, meeting goals, pushing for deadlines, and in the process losing themselves, this sculpture is about giving the mind a vacation, so the soul can wander,” explains ArzanKhambatta, about his masterpiece.

“In the most stressful of situations, if the mind is open, if you let it breathe, life becomes better and miracles happen. The sculpture aims to bring about a calming, soothing & relaxing feeling to those who view it,” adds ArzanKhambatta.

BENGALURU: While the cash-strapped Karnataka government struggles to control its fiscal deficit, there may be some relief in terms of better revenue mobilization. The department of stamps and registration, the third-highest revenue grosser for the state, has already met over 76 percent of its revenue target for the financial year 2021-2022, which is also indicative of a booming realty sector.

The pandemic seems to have made no dent in the revenue as the department’s coffers continue to swell. Ravindra-PN, inspector general of registration and commissioner of stamps, said they had racked up Rs 9,784 crore as of December 31, 2021, which is higher than the nine-month (April to December) target of Rs 9,500 crore.

“We have achieved around 76 percent of the Rs 12,665 crore target for the 2021-22 financial year and are confident of surpassing it by March this year,” he added. The department had managed to meet only 85 percent of the Rs 12,665 crore target in the 2020-2021 financial year,” a senior official said.

In the past six months alone, the government has netted Rs 7,000 crore, which is twice the revenue earned during pre-Covid times. The number of property registrations has been on the rise after the government eased Covid curbs in June last year even as sub-registrar offices functioned with limited staff strength.

B’luru, Mys contribute 60%

Among the districts, Bengaluru and Mysuru accounted for the lion’s share (60%) of the revenue. The government had not revised the 2020-21 target of Rs 12,665 crore since the real estate market was reeling under the impact of the pandemic’s first wave.

Senior officials are overwhelmed by the response as revenue remained unaffected despite the government not considering their proposal to reduce the guidance value last year. The government had only reduced stamp duty for the first registration of apartments costing between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 45 lakh to 3% from 5%.

Official sources said earning much higher revenue was a possibility since the government has now reduced guidance value by 10% across the state effective from January 1. Prashanth Reddy, chairman, real estate expert committee, Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC), said: “It’s certainly a good move, but it would have been better if they had offered the sops for a year instead of three months.”

Suresh Hari, chairman, Credai Bengaluru, said the cut in guidance value should be extended till December since real estate may be affected again due to spread of new variants of Covid.

CN Govindaraju , chairman and MD, Vaishnavi group, said the change in guidance value is primarily applicable to the available stock of residential and commercial buildings which have already obtained the occupancy certificate. “If the government extends the sops for another nine months, it will motivate other developers to complete projects sooner and obtain OC. This way, it will help the government earn higher revenue in terms of registration fee and stamp duty,” he added.

Large IT companies are leasing properties as they foresee substantial growth going ahead, says CREDAI, Bengaluru

With new COVID-19 cases reducing and more people returning to work, the real estate market is seeing a positive response to office leasing.

According to ANAROCK Property Consultants, the main southern office market has overtaken other regions in terms of new supply, net absorption, and even rental growth, with Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai seeing an increase in their share of total office leasing.

Raghu Cheluvaraju, General Manager- Corporate Leasing, Vaishnavi Group, said Bengaluru continues to see above average vacancy levels through 2021. However, market sentiment has improved and leasing has picked up through Q2 and especially in Q3, he said.

“Leasing has gone up as occupiers that have been looking to come back to office for sometime have found opportunities to lease new spaces or consolidate. Some IT occupiers are announcing back-to-office plans, whereas occupiers that work around teamwork and collaborative approach have already come back to office. The fact that people are going everywhere except offices has been noticed, but companies have been sensitive, considering employees have elderly people or children at home. With the vaccination drive being aggressive and schools reopening now, even these apprehensions are being addressed,” he said, adding that the high vacancy peripheral markets will experience some stress over the next quarter, but the market is poised to recover in Q1 – Q2 of 2022, when most employees are expected to come back to office.

Monica Matthias, Director, Hoysala Projects, said premium office spaces in the MNC technology spaces has seen an absorption increase of over 20% this year despite the second wave of COVID-19.

Errol Fernandes, vice-president, CREDAI Bengaluru, said the sector is currently facing an over supply situation. “Constructing an office space takes around three years. All builders have slowed down construction and new projects are on hold till the situation improves. Large clients (such as IT parks) continue to pay rent as their servers cannot be relocated and are critical to their functioning. However, small clients have surrendered their office space or are not renewing their leases. Current vacancies are in the region of 10%,” he said.

How then is leasing up? Mr. Fernandes explained that they are taken up by large IT companies as they foresee substantial growth going ahead.

Despite a multitude of challenges, the sector is on the growth trajectory and new opportunities are emerging from sub-sectors like warehousing, data centres, and logistics. The growth of this sector is well complemented by the growth in the corporate environment and the demand for office space as well as urban and semi-urban accommodations, said Farook Mahmood, Chairman and Managing Director Silverline Group.

BANGALORE:
Every corporate, be it large, small or mid-sized, wants employees to be productive. Work from home is not possible for all employees in many companies, especially in sectors like real estate, construction, architecture and interiors, where labour force is required to carry out the job at site and even a few senior employees have to be physically present to supervise the work. In such a scenario, it becomes the responsibility of the corporate to provide a safe working environment for its employees, so that they can be physically present at their place of work.

Vaccination camps, reimbursing costs of vaccination:
Several companies in Bengaluru have taken the onus upon themselves to ensure their workplace is safe post the lockdown by making sure their employees get vaccinated.

“We decided to arrange a vaccination camp for all our employees, and various other stakeholders and tied up with Manipal Hospital Group for the same. The vaccination drive was held at three of our project sites – Vaishnavi Serene, Vaishnavi Tech Park and Vaishnavi Tech Square. The vaccine has been administered to 1500 people including Vaishnavi employees and their families, various support staff including security and housekeeping, and construction site workers across all Vaishnavi projects for free,” explains C N Govindaraju, Chairman & Managing Director, Vaishnavi Group, a leading real estate developer.

The company made sure each site was equipped with doctors, nurses, medical personnel and an ambulance to ensure seamless vaccination for all. They adhered to strict covid protocols and avoided overcrowding by allocating time slots for everyone and conducting the activity in large open spaces

“There were rumours about side effects of vaccine in the market. However, we educated our workers and employees that the best way to prevent from getting covid -19 infection is to get vaccinated.All our employees are below 45 years, hence post the government announcement for a vaccination drive of 18+ and above, we have arranged vaccination drive for our employees in different office locations across India with the help of our medical partners. All our employees are vaccinated now,” says Priyadarshi Mishra, CEO & Founder of Design & Construct, a proptech company into end-to-end construction, where assessing the soil to civil work, all have to be carried out physically at site.

Some companies who found it logistically difficult to arrange for a vaccination drive due to employees being spread across the country made sure they reimbursed the cost of vaccination to their employees and workers.

“As we witnessed the second wave of Covid-19 in India, our primary responsibility was to keep our employees safe and motivated. To this end, we have encouraged all our colleagues to get vaccinated. The company has supported by extending reimbursement of the cost of vaccination to them and their immediate family members,” informs Dr Prashanth Reddy, Managing Director of Fundermax India, a company dealing in architectural products for interior & exterior applications where onsite work is crucial.

Educating employees about self-hygiene, sanitising workplaces:
A few other companies went one step ahead and took measures to educate their employees on hygiene and made changes in their office environment.

“Besides holding a vaccination drive, we started holding regular meetings to educate each and every employee on how to maintain self -hygiene and how to protect each other from getting infected by washing hands, using the sanitizer and masking up at all times. Windows in every air-conditioned space were kept open and we set up fans everywhere for a good air circulation. Every visitor was briefed about our protocols and it was the responsibility all employees to take ownership and safe guard each other. We promoted and encouraged additional protocols for our technicians who visited project sites for installation of our fans so that the residents would feel comfortable. We also advised them to carry the message home to their families and yes, we made it a big deal for everyone to take it seriously. After all none of us have ever experienced a pandemic before,” explains Anil Lala, Founder & Managing Director, Fanzart, a luxury fan manufacturer with showrooms across the country.

“At Fundermax, the operations team is functioning at 25% capacity, taking turns in handling the supply chain during this period. The office space and warehouse facility are regularly sanitized to ensure safety of the working staff,” adds Reddy.

The fight with Covid is still on and it is truly encouraging to see corporates do their bit for safeguarding the health of their employees. This will go a long way in not only ensuring productivity at workplace but in retaining talent.

BENGALURU: Four years after the Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority (K-RERA) was established, it has brought about a paradigm shift in the way the realty sector functions and offered some relief to homebuyers. But, it’s still not 100 per cent effective as concerns regarding enforcement of its own orders remain.

“RERA has played a crucial part in changing the fabric of the real estate sector over the past four years. While it has helped enhance governance and discipline, it still has a long way to go,’’ said MS Shankar, who represents homebuyers and heads Fight for RERA’s Karnataka Chapter.

Farook Mahmood, managing director, Silverline Realty, said slow-paced registration of projects and execution of orders released by the Appellate Tribunal continue to be two major challenges for K-RERA even after four years. “Despite several provisions for imposition of penalty, revocation of registration or confiscation of properties available under the Act, none of these has been strictly enforced by the authority. Homebuyers do not have access to some crucial information on K-RERA’s website. While information related to complaints is available, one cannot view online copies of the same. Even judgment copies are not uploaded in real time,” he claimed.

The authority also faces a shortage of technical staff to deal with cases and inspect projects, wherever required. “As the present set-up is making the authority toothless, the government should appoint a retired district judge as an executing officer,” Mahmood added. The positive impact of RERA can be observed in the form of gradual improvement in transparency. It has also boosted the homebuyer’s sentiment.

A lot has changed with regard to project registrations and infor mation is being provided on a timely basis to homebuyers. The introduction of a conciliation forum for facilitating amicable settlement of disputes between developers and buyers has reduced prolonged litigation.
Suresh Hari, chairman, Credai Bangalore, said RERA has not only helped homebuyers but also builders. “It has enabled focused action by developers regarding delivery schedule and also blocked fly-by-night operators from entering the field,’’ he added.

CN Govindaraju, chairman and managing director, Vaishnavi Group, said: “RERA has made developers accountable to customers when it comes to delivering a quality product in the stipulated time period. This has helped reduce deliberations and disputes between customers and developers as the expectations are clear. RERA has also brought in a lot of financial discipline.”

Builders and homebuyers are hoping things will change since the state government has appointed HC Kishore Chandra, a retired DGP-rank officer, as the chairman and another retired DGP, Neelmani Raju, as one of its members. They will take charge from June 1.

“One of the reasons why RERA has failed in its task is because many retired bureaucrats see it as a post-retirement opening, and the government has been playing musical chairs by frequently transferring key officials. The previous secretary of RERA, KS Latha Kumari, had brought about a lot of reforms but she was transferred midway for no reason,’’ alleged Shankar.

With the Covid-19 situation in Bengaluru, like several other parts in the country, worsening, many companies in the city are again opting for work-from-home option.

As the practice of work-from-home has its own pros and cons, Bengaluru-based companies have varied views regarding the productivity and office absorption in the new normal.

Darshan Govindaraju, Director of Vaishnavi Group feels that although the pandemic has adversely impacted many businesses, some of the sectors witnessed major growth around the same time.

“Covid and its continuous impact since early last year has undoubtedly forced businesses across all industries to adapt. The absorption of office spaces today is lower when compared to pre-Covid numbers for a few sectors. Having said that, some sectors such as healthcare, cloud computing, video conferencing, digital content or home entertainment, online educational platforms, payment gateways or any such companies building the digital infrastructure have seen phenomenal growth this past year. Growth in some sectors coupled with de-densification, which has now become a standard Covid safety protocol, we are noticing steady absorption,” he said.

“Today an occupant is looking at more than just the rental costs. An occupant is keen on safe, well ventilated and Grade A buildings with a reputed builder. Given that most developers have slowed down infusing new supply in the market and given the occupants preference, rentals/ leasing of good quality developers has remained the same,” he added.
When asked about if work-from-home has any impact on the overall productivity, Govindaraju said that companies that mostly rely on personal interactions, suffered a hit.

“Work from home has enabled a certain section of the workforce to work at the same efficiency levels as before. For individual contributors and smaller startup companies, the king’s effect has been marginal. However, for companies that need teamwork, collaboration and interpersonal skills such as sales, relationship management etc., it has been detrimental. Building new relationships with new colleagues or clients has been a challenge. Most companies today admit that wherever team effort is required, productivity levels are down substantially,” he said.

Errol Fernandes, Secretary of CREDAI Bengaluru, feels that the second wave of Covid-19 will result in a lot more work being outsourced to India, creating further demand for office space.

“While the absorption of smaller units from the mid-size software companies has stagnated, the absorption of large spaces by the Googles, Amazons and Microsofts of the world has actually increased. This is largely due to India becoming the digital capital of the world and the migration to the cloud is rapidly increasing, which is being facilitated by companies working out of India,” Fernandes said.

Fernandes further said that while the lease rates have remained stable for the mid-size office spaces, rent has increased by 5 per cent for the larger office spaces over the last one year.
Regarding productivity under work-from-home system, Fernandes feels that while productivity and efficiency has improved, it has its own side effects with people being cloistered together not just for hours but for days, weeks and months on end.

Prashanth Reddy, Managing Director of Fundermax India said that his company foresees at least 20 per cent drop in office absorption. He also feels that it is difficult to carry out certain activities from home.

“March ending quarter 2021, demand side and supply side is stable for office absorption. With the increase in Covid cases, we foresee at least 20% drop in office absorption. All the functions can’t be conducted from home as some functions require reporting to office to ensure smooth operation of the organisation. There are challenges like internet connectivity, privacy, online classes of children, etc. This set up is a temporary situation and offices are going to stay. By Q3, we expect at least 75% of the workforce to comeback to offices,” Reddy said.

This method of construction ensures greater efficiency and faster completion of projects, says C.N. Govindaraju

Not too long ago, a large-scale construction project site would be milling with workers, working arduously with a host of materials for completion of the project. Cut to the present and what one is beginning to witnessis a smaller labour force and what is more, large developments being completed on schedule or ahead of time. The game changer: precast construction.

However, this can be taken to the next level where the concrete elements are fabricated offsite using state-of-the art technology, saving not only time and labour on site, but also improving the quality of construction manifold while ensuring timely completion of projects.

Technology-driven offsite companies are currently implementing the integrated offsite manufacturing technology, where the concept of DFMA (Design For Manufacturing and Assembly) is introduced. This ensures 50 per cent faster completion time while reducing pollution on site by over 60 per cent.

Since the elements are manufactured in an assembly-line fashion in a dedicated factory, there is significant saving in the input material, as well as in use of water used since the curing process is done through steam. The design efficiency and precision of the product is also far superior given the controlled planning and machine manufacturing, while ensuring the quantum of material usage at the construction site is reduced.

The factory-finished concrete elements have all the mechanical, electrical and plumbing conduits built into them, not only guaranteeing quality, but also an unmatched finish of the final product. In a few projects are incorporated bathroom pods which are completed in totality offsite (including internal finishes) and merely plugged into the designated slots on a floor plate.

These pods have wall and floor tiling, taps, basin, commode, shower cubicle, exhaust and even a mirror, with each merely requiring to be plugged into the utility lines. The toilet pods also ensure that there are no leakages in the bathrooms, which addresses a major pain point for the customers.

The adoption of the integrated offsite manufacturing technology not only results in unmatched quality of the finished apartment units but also completion of the project way ahead of schedule.

Higher efficiency of space

A point to note about the use of precast elements is the increased efficiency in the interior spaces. A conventional solid block internal wall comes with a standard thickness of 150 mm while the precast load bearing internal wall comes at 120 mm thickness. This results in larger carpet area for the square feet of residence or commercial space. The precast internal walls also serve as load bearing walls, adding to the strength of the built-up space as a higher load factor can be integrated.

Moreover, being a factory-manufactured product, the life of the precast structure is up to 100 years. There is also a 60-70 per cent decrease in the requirement of project site managers and engineers while the hiring of unskilled construction workers is virtually eliminated after the erection of the building foundation. There is no scope for human error in the factory-fitted precast concrete elements.

While the precast technique augurs well for the construction industry, the use of onsite precast is possible only when the construction site is very large as it requires a specific area to be assigned for it. This is where offsite factory-fitted technology aids in meeting the needs.

(The author is former President, CREDAI Bengaluru)

Vaishnavi Group has successfully completed their 896 unit apartment project, Vaishnavi Serene in Yelahanka, way ahead of the scheduled time, 20 months ahead to be precise. This astounding achievement comes in the wake of habitual delays that the construction industry has been dogged with for the last decade.

In 2019, Vaishnavi Group had joined hands with Katerra, a technology-driven offsite precast Construction Company, to introduce the next generation construction technology in their project Vaishnavi Serene. Katerra, which adopts the integrated offsite manufacturing technology and the concept of DFMA (Designor For Manufacturing and Assembly), ensured 50 per cent faster completion time, besides reducing pollution on site by over 40 per cent.

C.N Govindaraju, Chairman & Managing Director, Vaishnavi Group, says, “This achievement stands as a testimony to what new age technology can do to construction. Our collaboration with Katerra was in keeping with our aim of ‘Building from the Heart’ where we have created homes that offer the best functional use of the living spaces.

Our meticulously planned spaces offer the homeowner in Vaishnavi Serene the experience and efficiency of a 1400 Sq ft residence for a given space of 1118 Sq ft 3-bedroom unit. Besides, the project has not only been completed way ahead of schedule but the build quality and finish of the spaces come with an unmatched standard, thanks to the technology opted coupled with our ethos. Additionally, the technology is in line with our green thinking as the impact on the environment in the form of construction debris, water consumption, wastage and noise is substantially reduced.”

The project also comes with 100 percent offsite manufactured bathroom pods that merely have to be plugged into the designated area on a floor plate. Because of the offsite manufacturing of the precast elements, there has also been a substantial saving on material used, besides the conservation of water given the steam curing adopted in the factory. The factory finished precast concrete slabs come with all the built in mechanical, electrical and plumbing conduits.