How Pirojsha Godrej changed India’s real estate business
Godrej Properties Ltd, in 2009, Pirojsha Godrej, who was then its executive director, met up with the executives of a prominent Mumbai-based investment banking firm. The investment bank’s feedback wasn’t that encouraging. Godrej’s property business, executives from the bank said, wasn’t ready for an IPO yet; the developer needed to build scale.
In 2009-2010, Godrej Properties had reported revenue of ₹242.7 crore, as per a company presentation. In comparison, DLF Ltd, one of India’s largest developers, was many times its size with revenue of ₹7,422.9 crore that year. Godrej Properties ignored the investment bank’s advice and went ahead with the IPO in December 2009.
It raised around ₹469 crore in a public listing that was subscribed four times. The IPO was the first listing by any realty firm in at least two years, and came after the economic meltdown of 2008, which began after the Lehman Brothers collapse. The overwhelming response to the IPO, in a gloomy economic climate, was due to the Godrej Group’s good corporate governance record, analysts had commented back then.
India’s residential real estate sector subsequently witnessed a massive shake-up among developers. Many real estate companies went bust and the sector suffered from a nearly eight-year-long slump until 2020. The turnaround, since then, has been quick.
Larger, listed developers consolidated the market and grabbed higher market share. A close battle emerged between the top four: DLF, Prestige Group, Macrotech Developers and Godrej Properties. In 2023-24, Godrej Properties clocked ₹22,527 crore in sales bookings, an 84% jump from the previous year.
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