Four Telugus who made it big in realty

Real estate is a challenging, complex and controversial business. That’s reason why many people who venture into this segment fail to make a mark. But four people from Hyderabad have made remarkable progress in this sector and enter the coveted GROHE Hurun India Real Estate Rich List 2018. Here are the brief profiles of these Hyderabad-based realty tycoons.

A homeopathy doctor by education, Dr Jupally Rameswar Rao was among the first group of people to see growth opportunity in Hyderabad’s real estate sector. He established My Home Constructions in 1981.   

From seizing the first opportunity to develop a residential colony to taking up large real estate projects, Dr Rameshwar Rao has achieved the unthinkable with My Home Group. The company has executed a large number of residential and commercial real estate projects in Hyderabad.

“My Home Constructions has been in operations over three decades and always strive to be leaders in the Hyderabad real-estate market meeting the expectations of our customers. Quality, Reliability and Integrity are the three mantras we always preach and practice,” he says. 

Dr Rao secured 14th place in the GROHE Hurun India Real Estate Rich List 2018, thereby becoming richest real estate tycoon with a total wealth of Rs 3,370 crore. 

Besides, My Home Construction also topped in the affordable category followed by the New Delhi-based Omaxe. “The affordable apartment segment will be the star of the real estate market in the coming years as the demand for this type of apartment is growing high," says the report. Lifestyle or premium housing remains sluggish while affordable housing, as a segment, is increasingly gaining traction, it adds.   

The My Home founder also made it to the list of Top 10 self-made individuals. He stands at seventh place in this list led by Mangal Prabhat Lodha of Lodha Group. Rao also led the list of top 10 tycoons who debuted in this list for first time in self-made category.

S Subramanyam Reddy, popular as SS Reddy, and Chennuru Venkateswara Reddy, well-known as CV Reddy, established Aparna Constructions & Estates on a modest scale more than two decades ago in 1996. Hailing from Nellore district in Andhra Pradesh, the two classmates and friends never looked back since then. 

Known for his business acumen and razor-sharp memory, SS Reddy, the Chairman and Managing Director of Aparna Group, started his career in late 1980s in tile retail and door-to-door sales before venture into real estate business with CV Reddy. He is responsible for the overall management of the company.

CV Reddy is financial wizard with more than 30 years of experience in real estate, finance, trading and building activities. As Promoter-Director of the group, he has been playing pivotal role in Aparna's success story. The two visionary businessmen, who prefer to maintain lower profile, built the company brick by brick and transformed it into a real estate giant, with operations in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Andhra Pradesh's capital Amaravati. Till date, the real estate major has completed 38 projects and seven more are currently under construction. On the business front, the realty major closed last financial year with Rs 900 crore top line. It is looking at Rs 1,000 crore milestone this fiscal, with an ambitious target to hit Rs 2,000 crore mark in next five years. 

Interestingly, CV Reddy and SS Reddy, friends and business partners, shared 66th rank in GROHE Hurun India Real Estate Rich List 2018 with individual wealth of Rs 560 crore each. Inseparable partners indeed!   

"It’s with deep pride and a sense of honour and privilege to have seen them build the company and achieve many successes along the way," C Rakesh Reddy, Director of Aparna Constructions & Estates, and son of C V Reddy, told The Hans India, while expressing his delight over the founders of Aparna Group figuring in the coveted list.   

For them the focus has always been on setting benchmarks and creating value for customers and everything else was incidental and a corollary to those two ideals, he added. 

Gunupati Venkata Krishna Reddy, known as GVK Reddy, embarked on his acclaimed entrepreneurial journey with the construction of Right Canal of Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, the world’s largest masonry stone dam, which was completed in 1969.  

Known for his dexterity in handling large infrastructure projects, Reddy ventured into hospitality segment by acquiring majority shareholding in Hotel Banjara and completed the project in 1976-77. Though GVK Group is present in diverse sectors like power, airports, malls, mining, etc, the Group has carved a niche for itself in hospitality sector. 

TAJGVK Hotels & Resorts Limited (TAJGVK), a joint venture between the Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL), has built some of the finest luxury hotels in Hyderabad, Mumbai Chandigarh and Chennai. It currently owns seven 5-star hotels.

GVK Reddy has been recognized for his dynamism, outstanding brilliance and invaluable contribution to the field of entrepreneurship and social upliftment in the country. He was conferred with one of the highest civilian honours of Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2011 and has been bestowed with the honorary title, “Doctor of Philosophy” by Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, India. He also heads GVK EMRI which provides emergency response services across 15 states and two UTs catering to over 800 million people and saving lakhs of lives.

GVK Reddy and family ranked fourth place among Top Property Developers in Hospitality Segment with a net worth in this key space of Rs 590 crore. Prithvi Raj Singh Oberoi of New Delhi-based East India Hotels leads this list with Rs 3,390 crore.