Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) India has announced the sale of its India residential brokerage arm to its former India head Anuj Puri for an unspecified amount.
Mr. Puri, who left JLL India as chairman on February 28 has acquired has worked closely with the JLL India and Asia-Pacific leadership teams to complete the acquisition of Jones Lang LaSalle Residential Private Ltd. (JLLR) and will lead a team of 200 residential brokers across eight Indian cities.
Besides the cost of acquisition, of which details are not available, Mr. Puri will bring in fresh investment of ₹100 crore. This would be routed mostly be invested in to develop a technology infrastructure. Mr. Puri will mobilise the funds through internal sources and from family & friends, he said.
“With his impeccable track record in Indian real estate and his passion for the residential sector, Anuj is the right person to continue to build this business,” Ramesh Nair, CEO & country head, JLL India said.
“This has been a smooth and well-planned process as Anuj transitions to his new ventures. For JLL, it is a strategic move that will allow us to focus on new growth areas for our India business,” he said.
It was Mr. Puri who incubated this business in 2010-11 and which has been making profits for the last four years.
Mr. Puri will now lead the new organisation as Chairman – Jones Lang LaSalle Residential (JLLR).
‘Building anew’
“After 10 incredible years with JLL, it’s now time to build something new,” Mr. Puri said. “Initially, the business will retain the existing brand name, JLLR, operating through its unique business model of online property marketing coupled with complete offline brokerage support,” he added. The business will be renamed shortly, he said.
Ashwinder Raj Singh will continue in his role as CEO of JLLR and will report to Mr. Puri. Mr. Puri said there had been no national level player offering residential brokerage services in India and this business would grow exponentially.
“There will be a huge amount of technology play in this business and we will be investing in this brokerage platform. We have seen that people enquire for houses through the Internet but prefer to close the deal offline. While dealers are even closing online in the U.S., it would take time in India to get to that stage We will be investing in technology to get the leads and fulfilment will be done offline through our well educated brokers,” he said.
“It is already a profitable business and there is no other residential broker who has pan-India presence. With RERA coming in, the residential brokerage business will head for consolidation as the neighbourhood brokers will have to close down shop as they are under the ambit of RERA,” Mr. Puri added.
The Mr Puri’s team will be closely working with reputed developers to sell their inventory as well as to cater to the requirement of individual buyers by charging 2% commission
Mr. Puri has approval to continue with the JLLR name till September. He has alreadyassigned a brand consulting form to suggest a new name, to be which will be finalised in 4-5 weeks.
