Decoding real estate beyond noise.
Earth
Joined August 2023
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Hearing this for 1st time, but this is from DLF's 2007 RHP stating that Galleria was launched in 1996 and completed in 2000. But yes, I might have mistaken 2000 as the launch year rather than the completion year, as mentioned in the document.
But road facing shops in Qutub Plaza and Shopping Mall still command good rentals and prices. Inside has also been doing fine turned out as daily needs market. Markets on GFX might be gaining traction, but most are still struggling due to oversupply and due to various other reasons.
This is also true but that time mall culture was booming... but DLF learnt the lesson... and now very well know what and when to sell and hold.
Brother, your entire post... from start to finish, is promotional... highlighting from the discount on Camellias and signaling tentative rental yield to sharing photos and videos.
But the most important thing is not mentioned that there is no legal registration to establish the buyer's title to the property in this project. Ye bhi bata dete toh kya chala jata... batao toh pura sach batao...
I usually avoid getting into social media e-lafdas, but this one was hard to ignore.
How can brokers, especially with decent presence on social media followings, openly promote projects, where EWS flats are subject to a 5-year lock-in after delivery under the applicable policy and cannot be resold during that period?
Same project is yet to be delivered and has been stuck since long due to several reasons is another issue here.
But if the registration can't be done and also builder can't do transfers in their records and municipal can't do mutation in the name of new buyer, how exactly will the title be transferred to the buyer?
And if the proposed transaction is based on a GPA+Will as usually offered as a "file" in such transactions, then let me tell you several Supreme Court judgments have already clarified that such instruments do not, by themselves, confer ownership or legally transfer title to immovable property. Plus there are several other issues with GPA too.
So, how exactly are investors supposedly buying 3 or even 5 such units at a time and getting ownership transfer in their names?
Camellias EWS is the headline, 99.75% discount on actual Camellias is promoted and 9% yield is also advertised but forgot to clearly explain whether the new buyer will actually acquire legal title to the property or not before the lock-in period expires?
Whether the ticket size is Rs. 25 lakh or Rs. 2.5 lakhs, whether the promised rental yield is 9% or 18%, the first question should always be.... DO YOU ACTUALLY GET LEGAL TITLE TO THE PROPERTY for which you are paying for?
Meet Camellias (EWS).
If a Camellias apartment is ₹100 Cr, this one is at 99.75% off.
Camellias is for a handful of people. This is what the rest of us can afford, inside the same Golf Course Road compound.
EWS flats are meant for families earning less than ₹1.8 lakh a year, and every developer has to build them in a project like this.
Now see what happens. Some allottees take money upfront from a buyer, a file gets made for that unit, and everybody just waits for the building to come up and the appreciation to come. By then the flat is being quoted at ₹25 lakh.
And who's buying it?
A few buy it for their house helps and drivers, and they actually use it for that.
But almost 90% of these flats are bought by people who can't afford the actual Camellias. They want this address, and they want it so they can rent it out to cabin crew and to young kids who've just got jobs on Golf Course Road. Those kids can't pay ₹50,000 to ₹60,000 a month for a premium 1 BHK here, or even ₹40,000 for a 1 RK.
So EWS flats already standing on this road fetch more than ₹20,000 a month. On ₹25 lakh that's ₹2.4 lakh a year, a 9.6% gross return, which is very good compared to the prices here. That's why investors are picking up 3, 4 or 5 units in one go.
And nobody says this part out loud, but a lot of adjustment happens in this sale and purchase too.
Every premium project in Gurugram has these units, and every time one changes hands at ₹25 lakh, half the people call it a scam and the other half call it the best deal in the city.
Which half are you?
DLF launched shops at Galleria Market, Gurugram, at ~Rs. 4,000/sqft in the early 2000s, and delivered in 2004.
It was conceived as an open-air, more like a neighbourhood retail market because at that time when malls were booming across India, and Gurugram was rapidly gaining popularity for its cluster of malls lined up along MG Road.
That's why perhaps even DLF couldn't have imagined that 2 decades later, prices would appreciate by 100x at around Rs. 4,00,000/sqft commanding rentals of Rs. 1,500-1,800/sqft (prime ground-floor shops), making it one of India's most expensive retail markets.
Maybe that's why this time DLF hasn't sold any in its newer retail destination on similar concept, DLF Summit, located in one of Gurugram's most affluent neighbourhoods.
Time will tell whether Summit can ever match or surpass Galleria's rental values.
But here's something to think about... most people don't have very good view of investing in retail real estate BUT then why one of India's top developer is holding on to it?
Maybe the problem isn't retail real estate itself, but maybe what it's being sold, why it's being sold and how it's being sold and then understanding the underlying fundamentals around it, which makes or breaks it.
After all, maybe DLF knows a thing or two about what to sell, and what to hold on to. Because, in recent years, same developer has sold other retail projects too, but their investors are struggling big time.
Yes, gurgaon developers have scope, but jaldi haar nahi maante... don't know if Gujarati/ Maha people will move to gurgaon just for the kind of housing society... coz they priortise living amongst their community first..
Median home prices in this area are around ₹5.5 crore for single-family homes. You can get a ~1,200 sq yd lakefront house with private beach access for around ₹18 crore (shared below).
And here, top developer is talking about selling 4,000-5,000 sqft flat. that too in super area, with a special Chakarpur view for ₹20-25 crore, while AQI stays above 300 for at least 3-4 months a year.
What a life here... spend tens of crores, even hundreds in some cases, to buy and live in so called "luxury" home, and yet the overall livability standards still sucks...
Gurgaon Real Estate
2024: Demand started weakening. The argument was there can't be a slowdown... the cycle still had 2-3 years to run.
2025: Demand weakened further. Anxiety? None visible... Because another narrative... here's no supply. Cycle is yet to peak.
2026: Demand is now down to around 50% of 2024 levels, possibly much lower. Still, no visible panic... coz 360 North sell out is a Arbour moment. Gurgaon real estate has its own cycle.
Perhaps Mumbai's real estate ecosystem needs to learn something from Gurgaon one that how to keep a straight face while the numbers keep getting worse.
That's why I feel we talk so much about Mumbai's spirit but often underestimate the underdog spirit of Gurgaon's RE ecosystem... coz no sales slowdown seems capable of shaking its conviction.
After all, in real estate, sometimes the last thing to collapse is not the market, but the narrative.
