Getting closer home

Rizwan Sajan, founder and chairman of the Danube Group, chats about how his affordable housing projects are making realty a reality for the middle-class

I've been personally grappling with a situation where my "dream home's" completion dates have been bouncing from year to year. Last heard, the "concept" of possession of my Noida apartment - promised at the beginning of this year - will be translated into brick-and-mortar reality only three to four years down the line. It's all up in the air. So, my biggest takeaway after a short meeting with Rizwan Sajan, founder and chairman of the Danube Group - that has made affordable housing in Dubai a reality in realty - was what he said about working to a plan when it came to housing. "Our delivery has always been as per commitment. In fact, it's five to six months ahead of schedule."
Sajan is seated behind his desk at the Danube offices in Jebel Ali, and he talks passionately about projects that seek to address living needs for the salaried class. Dubai is the city for the well-heeled, the 'aspirational' bunch - those with the Midas touch; on the ground, however, there are always those who are struggling with savings, and shying away from the most important 'investment' of their lives: the immovable asset - a home to call their own.
Danube entered the property sector fairly late - in 2014. In 2005-07, when the real estate bug had really bitten Dubai and everyone wanted a piece of the pie, Sajan says he "deliberately stayed away from it". The market was booming but "I felt there was something coming by way of a correction - a downturn in housing". Spot on. Post the recovery, he launched his first project, Dreamz, "two and three-bedroom townhouses"; on sale, were properties for Dh2.5 million, when other similar properties elsewhere were going for Dh4 to 5 million. "I kept profit margins low and since I already operated a building materials company, I could pass on the benefits of economies to the end-consumer."
Soon after, he launched a series of other projects that catered specifically to those on the lookout for affordable housing ("I realised that Dh2.5 million was too high a benchmark for this segment"). "Somehow, Dubai housing was perceived to be premium - as far as the price point was concerned."
He is quick to add there's nothing "non-premium" about the value of the affordability tag (the names speak for themselves: Glamz, Glitz, Ritz) - other than the actual cost of purchase. For instance, a fully-furnished, top-of-the-line studio apartment at Ritz, started at Dh430,000. Add to that the payment option: down payment of 25 per cent, and the rest of it paid to the company @ 1per cent per month.
Isn't there a defaulting scare? Not really, Sajan says. The 25 per cent paid upfront stands as a surety of intent. "And we all know a home is a home - that's what we all want at the end of the day." A home to come back home to.
It's a need Sajan knows as well as he knows his next housing blueprint. Having started out as a struggler - his success story has been well-documented in the media - he remembers the times when he and his family lived in a sharing accommodation. As he moved up the value chain, so did his housing habits. From sharing, it went up to a one-bedroom, then a two-bedroom, then a villa. From rentals to ownership.
Today, he says, he hasn't quite forgotten the pattern. Take the middle class family. The combined household income would be in the range of Dh20,000 to Dh25,000. Of this, approximately Dh7,000 to Dh10,000 are earmarked as rent (even I've always heard that rents constitute about one-third of your salary).
Why not convert cost of rents to ownership? And if you want to exit the country as an expat, Sajan is confident affordable housing is one segment that will always have takers.
Danube's brand ambassadors have included cricketing legend Sunil Gavaskar and Bollywood actresses Juhi Chawla and Shilpa Shetty. "I have one simple rule when it comes to handpicking the good people who are endorsing my housing dream: 'credibility', 'stability', 'here for good'."
Good home truths, all three.
sushmita@khaleejtimes.com