Vijay Gwalani

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June 25, 2024

ONGOING PROJECT

I believe that downtown areas of premier cities are broadly isolated from sharp ups & downs of realty sector. Basis that logic, three such premier cities come to my mind in regards sound investment.

  • Mumbai
  • Mumbai
  • Mumbai

Having been born and brought up in Bandra I have seen it transpiring into the queen of suburbs in the yesteryears and currently I want to believe its Mumbai’s new Down Town.

Supply of land parcels has fully exhausted over the last two decades. The limited supply of fresh housing & commercial units comes from raising older structures and creating new ones. More than 50 percent of such supply has also been tapped over the last decade. Hence, supply in the long term will be scarce.

We have age old alliance with developers of Bandra, Khar, Santacruz and Juhu as preferred channel partners, allowing us to showcase the finest this geography has to offer.

Below are all the listings we find worthwhile pondering upon :

NOW SELLING

Maha RERA NO.
P51900050770

Kapil Tirth - Shivaji Park

Kapil Tirth offers premium 2 and 3 BHK apartments facing the magnanimous Shivaji Park on one side and the Arabian Sea on the other.

The location boasts of a two minute walkable access to both the Shivaji Park and the sea front. Standing tall over 5 podiums, the elevation assures to grace the skyline of the city.

With a terrace garden and a gymnasium within the premises, its neighbourhood includes a wide range of prominent schools, hospitals, recreational facilities and restaurants.

Visit
My Testimony
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COMING SOON

Shri Ganesh - Santacruz West

This low rise boutique redevelopment project will start ascending in the first quarter of 2024, assuring to make heads turn both in terms location and price.

A not to be missed option for both, investment and end use, this space needs to be visited soon for further details.

My Testimony

COMPLETED PROJECTS

Jyoti

MAHARERA P51800028489
Locality : Nr. Mumbai University
2 BHK 665 – 702 sq. ft.

My Testimony
YouTube

Krishna

Locality : Linking Road
Commercial Offices / Retail
555 – 1492 sq. ft.

My Testimony
Download Brochure

TBA

MAHARERA P51800028489
Locality : Nr. Mumbai University
2 BHK 665 – 702 sq. ft.

My Testimony
Download Brochure

August 12, 2022

Know Me

How it all started?

Every middle-class business family has a pattern for their heir. He does his 10th grade, followed by the 12th grade, and then he is moved into the business while he pursues further studies. When it all started it looked like this is what it was for me too. But, in all 6 months of working with my father, I realized that walking on beaten paths was not something I was cut for. I wanted to play by my rules, I wanted to beat my own path. In fact, I didn't want to play, I didn't want to be a player. I wanted to be the Game. This journey is about me deciding to be that game.

I landed up going to my dad’s office at the age of 19 years. Perks merely free food, I was told to check bills that a computer had printed. Yes, this is how legacy businesses treat their heir for starters. Obviously, my first dig at correcting my dad, made me realize that the office where I was countering my father’s thoughts, was his and not mine. I was thrown out for being a rebel and in agitation I walked for almost 20 km from Crawford Market, CST, Mumbai to Santacruz West all the way home. You would think I was probably trying to garner sympathy or make a point, but honestly, I did not have money to get back home, nothing else. I branched out at 19.5 from my father's legacy and wanted to build my own, penniless yet ambitious. Every desire, every idea, every thought of mine was countered with the fact that I was nobody and more so I was poor. If you ask me, I am still that nobody at 47 years today, but not everyone around me feels that way. The only difference between then and now is I am RICH today. I have been poor, yes I have. I am considered RICH now. It’s not a bad thing being poor, but trust me RICH is better. You don’t have goals when your stomach is empty. It’s the rich who can afford to talk about milestones and goals. What makes you become aggressive while you are still poor is a PURPOSE!! A strong purpose will automatically define milestones, and will also guide you to achieve them.

At the age of 19, in midst of all the survival stress, I wanted to marry the woman I loved. This beautiful but strange woman was willing to leave a rich father, easy-going lifestyle and her comfort zone just to live with a penniless and directionless man like me. To give her every material happiness then became the only purpose of my life. I wanted to do something of my own but I didn't know what. An underutilized car park belonging to my dad, is where it all began. I took this space from my dad and me being me, I paid him rent so he could never in an argument put me down again. And that is where I started. From a small garage, I started a data entry setup, tabulating data for Registrars handling stock market IPOs and the tabulation of data for Airlines for a mere 10 to 15 paise per entry. All but 19, I had understood there is no better weapon, better power, a better feeling than having money. And marrying Divya being the purpose, the broad goal was set and that was to become RICH. So not every successful journey is a stereotypical journey.

With all the rights, there are wrongs, there are brave steps, there are unpopular decisions and that makes us do what we do and make us eventually what we are. Against the will of the families, at all but 22 and without a penny in my pocket I started my married life. The only thing I remember having is the zeal to make it big for my wife, my parents, and my children to be. As a father at 23, I didn’t know where this was all going, but I always believed that I had to wait for the real opportunity to strike. I think that was the difference between me and conventional thinking. I could have found a job, probably sat as a clerk, and made my way through conventional life and modest living and die unsung, as most do. But I chose to think otherwise. I waited for the loose ball while taking my ones and twos and that’s what changed the game in my favor. While my bread-earning journey made me move from trading in computer spares to retail in the nightwear division, I actually toppled on real estate by accident. Yes, this was not an informed decision. It was an accident. It was a capital-hungry business. The capital was something I did not have, capital was something I had never felt or touched.

Trust me, it is easy, it is very very very easy to make money out of money. Only a fool will not be able to do that. Either you make a lot of money with money or you make modest money with money. But to lose money in the wake of making money, when you already have decent money, is a feat meant for fools. But here I was without any money yet wanting to get into the most capital-centric business in India - Real Estate. I tell you again, it was all but an accident. I think I will want to give credit to one stalwart named Nanaboi Palkhivala whose brief diktat I heard. He was speaking to a gathering about real estate. All of 16 years of age, I heard this great visionary Hon'ble Nanabhoi Palkhivala.

He quoted and I clearly remember just one line that was etched in one part of my brain “If you want to make money in real estate, there were three prudent locations you could invest in, Mumbai … Mumbai … Mumbai.”

I realized that Mumbai was beyond me but Pune was then a city for God knows what joy, underplayed in spite of being very close to Mumbai. And hence decided to buy something in Pune and that's where my journey to riches began. In spite of having zero capital and huge pressure to perform for the family, I took the leap of faith. Finally, I was at the age of 28, where I was ought to be, Real Estate. I managed to drive on a friend’s motorcycle all through Pune city - to the east, to the west, to the south. Being poor comes with an advantage. You have nothing to lose. I clearly had that advantage. Doing research and a conscious one, reasoning with yourself as to what one should start with buying was something that was coming easily because all I had was time. Where should the funds come from was something which was not on my mind at all. I just decided to ponder, I just decided to get into the game, I just decided to identify where and how much should be put. That was not going to cost me any money. For now, all it was going to cost me was a Pune-based friend’s obligation, his time, and most importantly, his motorcycle. I put my hands on Kalyani Nagar and I must say my modest mind, who had little knowledge about real estate then, tried to build logic around the choice of Kalyani Nagar when other real estate locations were actually booming in Pune.

The queen of Pune’s residential suburbs was Koregaon Park. The gap between Kalyani Nagar and Koregaon Park in spite of a mere river separating the two made Kalyani Nagar a step sister and pricing in real estate almost half of Koregoan Park. My bet was that if a mere 300-metre bridge was made, this gap would definitely be marginalized. Real estate is undoubtedly a game of instinct and gut. However, just making a rash decision, based on third-party validation, is not the instinct we are talking about. Most who believe real estate is not meant for them are those who have played blind, just like betting on a roulette table of a gambling den. On a good day, you win, on all the other days you lose. A balanced concoction of deliberate and intuitive thinking is the key to being a winner in real estate. It is very important to gather information. That is when the key ingredient, your instinct/gut will make a prudent call and make your decision a byproduct of information and instinct combined. However, I must warn you, do not deliberate too deeply, it will make your decision-making ability extremely weak.

My first ever real estate deal will explain you more clearly. In 2001, I decided for some godforsaken reason, that I was going to put four lakhs in Pune real estate. After reasoning that Kalyani Nagar was the future, and Lunkad Sky Lounge was the property, the challenge was the property identified was that of 21,00,000. That’s when I told myself, that I was willing to take a dig at destiny with 4 lakhs which I had no idea where I am going to raise it from. Where ever I will raise the 4 lakhs from, that exactly where I will arrange the 21 lakhs. I was like I was told to jump into a pool and I didn’t know how to swim. At one end I had 20 feet of water and the other end had 50 feet. So what difference did it make if I jumped into the 50 feet end. The underdog in me who felt that if failure was what was going to come to us, the size of failure shouldn’t really matter. Either you win or you lose. Scores don’t matter. Here I want to digress from my journey and tell you something important. Those who seek to tell you that negative thoughts should be suppressed and positive thoughts should be upheld, actually fool you. Negative thinking is part of every human’s personality. Negativity in you is nothing but fear of the unknown. What matters is how you harness the negative thoughts to create a positive decision. How I eventually paid this 21,00,000 is a long story I will come to some other day. But this is where it all started. But I would like to share to you, how the first fifty thousand that was paid towards the booking amount, was actually accumulated.

With about RS. 200 in my pocket, I journeyed back to Mumbai. What I was taking back with me from Pune were joy and fear. The joy that I was a proud owner to be of a Rs. 21,00,000 unit in Kalyani Nagar, Pune, and if all things remain constant, it’s my unit for keeps. Fear that if I fail, this unit and my big ass dream of entering real estate markets will fall in front of me. I had given an intercity cheque to the developer, which made it certain that I had around 5 to 7 days to make sure I have all the fifty thousand in the account of Divya Gwalani, whose name the asset was booked. My father always believed in having a modest living, nothing wrong with it. Keeping dignity intact was something he had mastered over years. Taking chances came with the scope of failures and failure was not something my Dad was really in favor of. He had never bounced a single cheque, had never failed a single commitment because he never made one beyond half his paying capacity. But there was no time for a crash course on modesty. While he lectured me on the bad repute of failing payments, an unorthodox thought kept playing in my mind. It wasn’t as complicated as Dad was making it sound.

The cheque would either pass or fail. If it passes it’s great but if it fails the property was not mine anyway. I could cut a sorry figure, say sorry to the developer and move away. What was important was ‘I wanted to take a dig at destiny’. It is only because we dream that we dare. When I came back home like I said, no one wanted to believe in me. They ridiculed me and they were busy pondering upon how we would be able to arrange that 21,00,000 to pay the developer. My argument was, ‘It is a 2-year journey and we have to pay stroke by stroke. My father's stand was every lakh was not a milestone but a goal in itself hence I had just signed up for a 21-goal journey which was seemingly impossible. To begin with, he flatly refused to be of any assistance even for the first cheque of fifty thousand and was happy to believe that at least I thought that if the cheque bounces I will say sorry and move out. A lot of him believed that the cheque will bounce and Vijay will come back to modest ways. My wife believed that too, but I really wanted the property even more badly. I went back into the room and I took my biggest chance, this time with my wife. I requested her to sell the little gold we had collected during our marriage time.

Yes my friend, my first investment was done by “my purpose” herself. We sold the Indian housewife’s gold. I had some convincing to do with my wife before she allowed me to do what I was proposing to do. But what is credible is my wife ‘my purpose’ came into my life when I was a big zero. And to remove your gold for an Indian woman which probably is all but what she wanted to hold on to, especially because of the fact that her husband hadn’t financially arrived, was something that changed our lives. It was that crucial leap of faith, that RS. 38,900 (I still remember the amount) that sheepish and secret sale of gold, that got us into the race called real estate.

The fifty thousand cheque was cleared on the due date. There was a purpose and then there was a will, there was deliberation, then there was gut and then there was belief and above all, there is a GOD who will never ever fail you, if you stand up and stand up for yourself. It is very important that if you need to swim ladies and gentlemen, the first step is to get into the water. You will either drown or you will survive. But if destiny reached you to the sea face, do not show your back to it, be brave and step into the water. And for all practical purposes, you will swim, you will live and you will achieve your goal. Never worry about falling. Falling is never a part of failing, it's a part of learning. Not everything I did was right, I fell but did not fail, I fell not to fail, but to learn. What is important is the realization as to what made you fall and the assurance to yourself that you will never do the mistake again.

August 4, 2022

BLOGS

Blogs

Scarcity Creates Demand

Scarcity Creates Demand Real estate is primarily a tangible asset. Real Estate rightly procured, is either good or very good investment. Today’s man can make

Read More »

Just a Myth

Just a Myth Unlike the stock market, real estate is not a “we win some we lose some” investment. It’s a “Play to win” investment.

Read More »

Perfect Hedge

Perfect Hedge While you were saving for the rainy days, the cost of bread only got dearer than the returns you made on the savings.

Read More »

Purpose

Purpose What makes you aggressive while you are still poor is a PURPOSE!! A strong purpose will automatically define milestones, and will also guide you

Read More »

Just a Myth

Unlike the stock market, real estate is not a “we win some we lose some” investment. It’s a “Play to win” investment.

Read More

Perfect Hedge

While you were saving for the rainy days, the cost of bread only got dearer than the returns you made on the savings.

Read More

Scarcity Creates Demand

Real estate is primarily a tangible asset. Real Estate rightly procured, is either good or very good investment.

Read More

What makes you aggressive while you are still poor is a PURPOSE. A strong purpose defines milestones and helps you achieve them.

Read More

Scarcity Creates Demand
August 4, 2022

Scarcity Creates Demand

Scarcity Creates Demand

Real estate is primarily a tangible asset. Real Estate rightly procured, is either good or very good investment. Today’s man can make anything under the sun, but cannot create more land.

Estate is the only thing that adds psychological value to your portfolio. Pure tangible value. A man is weighed by the estate he owns. Real Estate is the most secure asset class one can own. For time immemorial, the biggest wars have been fought for land. In medieval times, land acquired created kingdoms. The king got his subjects to stay on his lands, cultivate them, and in turn pay him his royalty.

In the modern world, as we have bisected and dissected the planet into countries, we still fight the biggest wars for land. The reason, it is scarce. On the micros, each of us is fighting for his or her share of the estate to create homes and offices which are the essence to livelihood. Once land is acquired, it needs to be cultivated. In Urban Areas, cultivation would mean creating structures with brick and mortar for commerce or housing. What we as middle-class investors need to do is identify our niche, purely basis our financial capabilities. No matter what the size of estate we buy with our limited resources, we must understand that we need to put our monies where there is scarcity, no matter whatever the size.

I shall give you an illustration. Every time an economy is performing, just like the penny stocks in the stock market, most of us get lured into buying properties in developing areas, far from the developed patches. This is only because we are sold futuristic stories with tall promises. But, as much as land is broadly scarce, scarcity for us would mean a shortage of land in a designated suburb, purely because it’s developed. Urbanized and developed infrastructure in your city is where you need to be. This assures you of marginalizing the downside. On the other hand, ambitious and futuristic areas blossom and appreciate when a lot of parameters to urbanize the neighborhood come together. Futuristic development depends upon big business houses/developers acquiring and developing new areas coupled with the government intervention to create huge amount of infrastructure and industry around it, to create opportunity and livelihood.

This theory of growth becoming a reality becomes extremely time consuming, making our ROI (Return on Investment) is unattractive. As a middle-class retail investor, we need to be part of the real estate investment process, but tagging along with

  • The right developer
  • In an urban/developed locale
  • At the right price

This is my modern-age theory of SCARCE for the retail investor. Apply this theory of SCARCITY, and remember land is scarce, buy it.

Just a Myth
August 4, 2022

Just a Myth

Just a Myth

Unlike the stock market, real estate is not a “we win some we lose some” investment. It’s a “Play to win” investment. The “win some lose some” approach is what most first-time buyers adopt while investing in real estate, and end up losing money. Investments are mostly random, through hearsay, and hence erratic and uninformed. This transpires with losing faith in the industry and consoling ourselves with the quote “ Real Estate is not just for me”.

That needs to change. We need a “Play to win” approach when we buy.

What is the difference? Being informed and hence making a prudent choice. So what is the criteria to identify a good investment for the layman?

Price: The most important criteria to survive any type of volatility is a good purchase price. Talk about buying price, on the macros, if the location is good, and the timing is perfect, make sure, on the micros you are in best price band. Buying cheaper than all the others in and around our intended area of purchase, comes with an assurance of early exit. Holding on to your money till you achieve an aggressive price offer now becomes the key. When the markets support the sellers, learn to hold money and await the right price opportunity. If it’s a buyer’s market, squeeze as much as you can, and deal only with the intention of buying tomorrow, until something really exciting comes your way. In both markets, on a negotiation table, always remember, if the deal strikes great. If it doesn’t even better, as tomorrow is another day.

Timing - The right time to enter and exit is another promising criteria, and if you are on the right side of the market, when the market mood is upbeat you will reap ROI beyond comprehension. Remember, WHEN THERE IS FEAR BE GREEDY AND BUY, AND WHEN THERE IS GREED, YOU MUST FEAR, FEED YOUR INVENTORY TO THE GREEDY AND EXIT.

Developer Financials and Project Financials: Developer financial strength plays a very important role in terms completion of the project. It also plays an important role in determining the ability to deliver a quality product. Usually, poor management of cash flow ends up with stalled projects or projects where quality/lifestyle of the project is compromised. Buying is like fishing. It is a game of patience and the one who is the patient gets the best catch. So wait there with your monies and you shall get the right deal. Always remember, it is great if we got the deal we looking for, if not, it never means the end of the world. There is always one waiting around the corner.

KEEP LOOKING !!!