European real estate giant enters India

Global design-focused real estate development company 'Yoo by Starck' has entered India. As its first project, the European company is designing a huge residental condominial worth Rs 1,500 crore with Panchshil Realty in Pune.
Yoo by Starck also plans to expand its presence to Gurgaon, Goa, Bangalore and Mumbai with an investment of approximately Rs 1,800 crore in next four to five years.
Yoo by Starck Chairman John Hitchcox announced this during a press conference on Thursday in Pune. Yoo, a design marketing and branding development firm, has presence in 21 countries. Yoo is presently constructing 41 projects around the globe at Rs 40,000 crore.
"India and China are probably the biggest real estate markets in the world now. As a concept, "branded homes" is fairly unknown in India. Yoo by Strack finds India as an attractive country to design and develop real estate projects," Hitchcox said.
The first project named 'Yoo in Pune' is being developed by Panchshil Realty over 21 acres of land. The first phase of this project will have six 30-storie-towers.
Panchshil Realty Managing Director Atul Chordia said, "Residential service condominial is a new concept worldwide and hardly anyone has thought of replicating it in India. A service condominial offers much more that what a service apartment offers. At "Yoo in Pune", we will have companies like Oakwood Resorts and Mariott Hotels to provide services. The project would be launched in October this year and it would be completed within 30 months there after."
Chordia and Hitchcox jointly said that they would carry on this partnership to other prominent cities in the country. "Although, Yoo does not have direct investments in Pune project, it will act as a joint developer with Panchshil in future projects. It will spend around 25 per cent of the project costs," Hitchcox stated.
Elaborating the expansion plans, Chordia added, "After Pune, we are immediately launching a similar scheme in Gurgaon on an 18-acre piece of land. The design part of it has already started. This will be followed by projects in Goa, Bangalore and Mumbai."
When asked about Yoo by Strack's investment plans in India, Hitchcox denied to reveal any specific amount. "We are planning projects worth Rs 1,500 crore and more in each of the four cities. We will invest 25 per cent of the over all project cost" he stated.

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