K.P. Singh’s Post-Covid Realty Heights

IT TAKES TWO TO TANGO. And if one of them is a promising scion of India’s top political party scouting for ideas for the country’s future and the other is a U.S.-returned professional, brainstorming on plans to rekindle a dwindling family real estate business back home, history is ought to be made.

As providence would have it, a chance meeting between former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and DLF chairman emeritus K.P. Singh back in 1980 set in motion the revolution of real estate landscape in Gurugram, which at that time was nothing more than a large pastoral patch of land owned by feudal families over generations. DLF — the company set up by Singh’s father-in-law Chaudhary Raghvendra Singh in 1946 — was facing a tough tide after the government banned private urban land development in 1958. The family convinced Singh to come back and take over the business.

More than four decades since then, the company has become a realty behemoth. Net profit rose 34% YoY to ₹2,727 crore in FY24 on the back of a 15.73% growth in total income to ₹6,958 crore. The company boasts of a market capitalisation well over ₹2 lakh crore.

The recent stellar show has been on the back of demand surge in the realty market post Covid, in contrast to a decade-long slowdown in the sector caused by factors such as demonetisation (2016), GST (2017) and the economic slump of 2019. In fact, the pre-Covid ‘Uber-isation’ of the realty market with more thrust on rental demand has given way to value proposition in property ownership post Covid. Going forward, DLF plans to tap new markets such as Mumbai and Goa, targeting 15% annual growth in FY25, on the back of luxury housing project launches.

Back in 1980, a chance meeting between K.P. Singh and Rajiv Gandhi, thanks to the latter’s overheated jeep conking off in close proximity to the Kikar tree under which Singh was sitting on a cot, helped Singh apprise Gandhi about the policy barriers the sector was facing. Singh told Gandhi his vision was to develop a township on the 30 acre land where they were sitting, which land acquisition rules did not permit him to do. Gandhi, in turn, asked Singh to send a proposal by the next day, which the latter promptly did. The Centre impressed upon the Haryana state government to open up the business to the private sector. Singh then worked with land owners and convinced them to provide land on credit. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Under Singh’s stewardship, DLF, which started off by developing 22 urban colonies in Delhi, and forayed into Gurugram in 1985, is now the largest publicly listed real estate company with residential, commercial and retail properties in 15 states.

No wonder Singh’s fortunes, too, have zoomed over the years. His net worth stood at ₹1,59,053 crore, up ₹67,592 crore (the highest in absolute terms among real estate moghuls, according to the Fortune India Rich List), against ₹91,461 crore last year. In 2022, Singh was conferred the lifetime achievement award by EY. “Gurugram became a model to follow. Within a few years, the city attracted over 50% of Fortune 500 companies and now provides homes and business opportunities to over 19 lakh people, which keeps increasing every year,” EY says in a note.

In fact Singh not only build Gurugram as the top destination for MNCs and domestic firms, but showcased it to global investors as well. It was Singh who persuaded Jack Welch, the then chairman of GE to visit India in 1989 and convinced him to invest in the country. GE’s tie-ups with BHEL and Wipro in the late 80s encouraged other global firms to set shop in India, triggering FDI inflows.

Singh, a Padma Bhushan awardee (2010), continues to remain an ardent believer in the India story. He believes the country needs to become an infrastructure powerhouse to become a $5 trillion economy. The DLF patriarch has a suggestion for the government — acquire land and auction it to the private sector for setting up new townships. In 2007, he spearheaded the company’s ₹9,188 crore IPO, still among India’s top public issues.

The company, meanwhile, revels in profitability led by the post-Covid realty boom. For FY25, DLF has a launch pipeline of 12.8 million square feet (msf), with sales potential worth ₹42,000 crore. Out of the total pipeline, 5.4 msf will be in the super-luxury category, and 6.8 in the luxury segment. In the medium term (beyond 2025), the company plans to launch 24 msf, with sales potential of ₹62,500 crore.