Ex-JLL India head Puri launches investment platform

Industry veteran Anuj Puri has launched a residential brokerage, fund and investment management platform in India.

Anuj Puri, former chairman and country head of property services firm JLL India has launched Anarock Property Consultants, a residential real estate investment platform.

The platform will house JLL India’s residential brokerage business, Jones Lang LaSalle Residential Private (JLLR), which Puri acquired this April. Puri had helped shape the division, which as has a team of 200 residential brokers across eight cities, during his time at JLL.

Additionally, Anarock has announced an initial INR 3 billion ($46.5 million; €41.6 million) investment in residential real estate projects.

Explaining the business model of his new venture, Puri said that Anarock would house multiple real estate verticals.

We will provide our regular residential advisory services which charges zero brokerage from our customers. Additionally, the firm will operate a revolutionary business model of bulk-purchasing residential apartment inventory through a proprietary investment fund. Anarock will also provide debt, equity and mezzanine funding to residential developers,” he explained.

Anarock’s investment and fund platform has been launched with a capitalization target of $500 million by 2020, according to a company statement. Currently, the venture has been seeded with two funds – ROF-1, that raised INR 1.61 billion and has been fully deployed; and ROF-II, which raised INR 3 billion last year and is in the deployment phase.

“We will redefine the way residential real estate is done in India,” Puri added. “The fund’s key focus areas will be underwriting and asset management, since in the current market dynamics and with the introduction of RERA and implementation of GST, delta returns and successful exits can only be achieved through constant monitoring and robust in-house asset management.”

Puri, one of India’s most respected real estate industry professionals, left JLL India in February, after a decade of employment. Ramesh Nair went on to replace Puri as chief executive officer and country head for the consultancy.