Affordable housing company Planet Smart City is building 1000 smart affordable apartments fitted with IoT technology in a township in Pune, India.
 
The London-based firm is working with BSE-listed Indian real estate developer Kolte Patil Developers Limited to build the affordable apartments over an area of 21,000m² in the Life Republic township.
 
The smart homes will integrate modern functional design with environmental and IoT technology. Residents will have access to a wide range of shared services designed to improve quality of life and strengthen the community.
 
These services will be powered by the free Planet app, through which residents can also control services in their smart homes, interact with the sharing economy and engage with each other to coordinate community activities. Work is expected to begin in the third quarter of this year.
 
This is the first real estate project in India by Planet Smart City following its recent expansion into the country through the launch of its smart advisory services. The move, announced at the World Urban Forum in Abu Dhabi, will see Planet work with third party real estate developers and government agencies to provide its unique offer for integrating smart technology into urban environments.
 
“We are delighted to launch, in partnership with Kolte Patil Developers, a very innovative project, building the first smart development accessible for the aspirational housing market, in Pune,” said Giovanni Savio, global CEO of Planet Smart City. “Thanks to our digital platform, we will integrate an array of services, offering superior quality for our residents. The relevance and the volumes of the Indian market are key for Planet Smart City’s mission. Kolte Patil Developers immediately understood our multi-disciplinary approach and our investment with them represents the best possible way to launch our real estate operations in India.”
 
With a growing population, India has one of the top-five most pronounced housing shortages in the world and will need to build 25 million additional affordable housing units by 2030. The expansion into the Indian market supports Planet’s ambitious plans to develop 30 large-scale residential projects by the end of 2023, tackling one of the most pressing global issues.
 
“This is quite a unique deal which earns us land monetisation benefits as well as profit sharing cash flows from the incremental planned development, resulting in strong returns,” said Gopal Sarda, group CEO at Kolte Patil Developers. “We have visibility from a business development and existing portfolio launch perspective in our Mumbai operations. Further, another tie-up with a global brand allows us to benchmark our governance, operational excellence and product innovation standards.”
 
This transaction highlights the brand equity of Kolte Patil as well as the value creation prospects of Life Republic as a project. Life Republic, being the firm’s flagship integrated township project in Pune, continues to witness strong demand both in launch as well as sustenance phase.
 
“The performance of the project benefits from contemporary product offerings and best-in-class physical as well as social infrastructure,” said Sarda.