Sternon Group Into Mumbai Real Estate Market

Sternon Group, Dubai-based real estate developers, builders and promoters, has entered Mumbai's booming real estate market with a Rs. 1,200 crore mega-project on the Mumbai-Pune Express Highway near the proposed New Mumbai International Airport in Panvel.

Spread across 400 acres, the project named 'Magic Hills' is a residential cum commercial township, of which the 250-acre residential portion offers row-houses and individual and twin bungalows, with world-class amenities as well as recreational, retail and educational facilities designed to meet the sophisticated tastes of NRIs worldwide. Sternon Group, which has customers in 28 countries, is marketing the project in international markets, including the Gulf, following an exclusive global marketing tie-up with Garnet Construction Ltd, a public listed Indian real estate developer. 'New Mumbai is a red-hot area for real estate investors for two reasons,' said Hussaini F. Nalwalla, Managing Director, Sternon Group. 'Firstly, New Mumbai has been hailed as one of the world's best master-planned cities, and secondly, the green-field New Mumbai International Airport is set to give a major boost to the area.' Sternon, which has developed and marketed high-end properties in different parts of the world, including the United States, the United Kingdom and the UAE, is working closely with Garnet Construction to offer investors homes with large airy rooms, good lighting and amenities that are standard in projects of this kind in other parts of the world. Sternon also anticipates high appreciation in the short-term and high rental values in view of the rising mortgage rates in India. 'Considering the robust real estate growth in New Mumbai in recent times, investors and home owners can expect appreciation of upto 70 per cent in two years. The area is already humming with construction activity as work on the New Mumbai International Airport has already begun,' Nalwalla added. Sternon Group has announced that it will invest upto US$ 3-4 million in the project. The Group is marketing the project for investors, holiday-seekers and Non-Resident Indian families through its offices in the United States (U.S.), the United Kingdom (U.K.), the Middle East and India. Garnet Construction, which is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, is to raise US$ 60 million by way of foreign currency convertible bonds or through preferential basis or through private placement among qualified institutional buyers to finance its new projects, including Magic Hills. The new international airport for Navi Mumbai is being built through public-private partnership, with the private sector partner holding 74% equity, while Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Maharashtra government (through City and Industrial Development Corporation or CIDCO) holding 13% each. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has already given techno-feasibility clearance to the airport.