CEO Insights India

Digital era has made everything feasible with one click. As the real estate industry also perched on new heights with enhanced technologies like Machine learning and other powerful tools, a sea change in the industry practices also started coming in. For Elemental Realty, catering end-to-end capabilities right from inception to handover is done meticulously. Since its establishment in 2017, the company has marked over 80 percent CAGR top-line and healthy margins. Elemental Realty bears in-house experts in various aspects including design, project management, marketing, procurement, and finance. Arun, the CEO, states that sustainable development is at the core of Elemental’s vision. A B.Arch graduate from IIT Kharagpur, he has worked with many companies in the real estate industry like Nexus Malls. CEO Insights interviews him to hear the exciting story of Elemental Realty.

Tell us about Elemental Realty. How is the company trying to create an impact on the market?
We believe that real estate is not just buildings, but is about interactions between the users and the spaces. Elemental Realty is driven by its vision that is to create top quality real estate that all our customers love to interact with. In line with the same, all our decisions embody our core values- Customer Centricity, sustainability, superior design, and innovation at its core. Bringing in greater transparency and faster decision-making capabilities, I firmly believe that we are progressing in our endeavour to carve a niche in the real estate space.

Elemental Realty is a company that strongly believes in sustainable development. We leverage on a

digital tool for end to end construction management including aspects of budgeting, timeline management, quality adherence & safety. We are evaluating construction technologies like Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction (PPVC) for our future developments

How did your professional background and experience help in creating business modules for Elemental Reality?
I am a B.Arch graduate from IIT Kharagpur. College years have been a life-changing experience for me. It was during this time that I met some of the best minds and best friends. Elemental Realty was set up by two of my friends. An MBA (IIM Ahmedabad) helped me get well rounded view of business functioning. Previously, I have worked with Nexus Malls, second largest retail real estate company in India where I worked directly with Dalip, the CEO, who is an industry veteran with 25 years of experience across FMCG & real estate. Value creation to customers is a great learning from him. Moreover, Nexus is a portfolio of Blackstone and I was fortunate to work with their India real estate team where I learnt value creation to investors. My other previous experiences include an internship with JLL & working at Welspun

In this pandemic situation, how is Elemental Realty devising new techniques to stay relevant in the market? Also, tell us about some of your projects.
Covid-19 has brought many challenges both on the demand & supply side. It has not only affected the real estate industry but the economy in general. At Elemental Realty, we perceived this particular period as an opportunity to build people capability both in terms of making the current team robust as well as getting project execution capabilities in house. Moreover, we saw it as the right time to move

towards more efficient working capital management and cost structure like reducing the inventory days, renegotiation of credit periods, better accounts receivable management, and bringing down the overheads. The first step to risk mitigation is the ability to foresee the risks, likely impacts, and the probability of occurrence. Most of the risks can be mitigated through training the people for same, creating right standard operating procedures, and use of right technology.

Through our project Elemental Earthwoods, we have completed eighty sustainable homes in one of the prime locations in Hyderabad. Our commercial project in centre of Financial district #337 is our other key active project. We have retail project in a prime location in Hyderabad. We are launching 238 villas coupled with affordable housing under our upcoming project Elemental Village in an upcoming location in the next quarter. Hence, when combined, it is a 2 million square foot of active portfolio with us.

In its journey to new heights, what have you planned for Elemental Reality?
We intend to create a strong delivery track record. Moreover, the next three quarters is a significant milestone for us to launch the construction of villas and shopping mall. We are on course to achieve at least 50 percent growth in the top line despite the market impact created by Covid. With a plan to build a good portfolio mix between sale (value housing) & income generating assets (retail & warehousing), I believe the business is expected to grow threefold at top-line in the next three years post that to reach Rs. 500 Cr by 2024.

Arun Kumar Aleti, CEO, Elemental Realty
A Bachelor of Architecture graduate from the IIT Kharagpur and a PGDM from IIMAhmedabad, Arun was born and brought up in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. He started his professional journey in 2012.

Specialties: Real Estate Development (Residential, Commercial, Retail)Sustainable Design, BIM Technology, and LivBIM Technology