Making NCR housing healthier, easier, and futuristic: Know the story of T&T group’s CEO Ankush Tyagi

It was an incident when I went to Jordan for advanced training. During that period, I had an American captain and was with him for 10 days. He once said, “Indians have the best mind I have ever seen.” I still remember the way he said this. Then I started observing it and found out, there are certain things that we make as Indian and promote other countries. That was something that always pinched me. I used to always think, is there anything possible to build in India which people will set as an example before the world. That was the driving force behind coming up with the idea of digital housing.

What is digital housing?

Digital housing is a part of what we call digital society. Estonia in Europe is an example of digital society, where every possible thing is done on a digital mode, from i-Voting, e-Tax Board, e-Business, e-Banking, e-Ticket, e-School, University via the internet, the e-Governance Academy and more. Everything is controlled by one card. When you confine it into housing, it becomes digital housing — it includes IOT, automation and many other facilities. With digital housing, we are trying to make lifestyle easier, healthier and conserve energy. Energy conservation is our main motto. One needs to understand that IOT and smart home are just a part of digital housing. Hence, I can say, our project is first-of-its-kind in India.

By definition, a ‘Digital home’ is a home equipped with lighting, heating, and electronic devices that can be controlled remotely by either a smartphone or a computer. A huge step towards the future, these homes have been taking the world by storm — providing people with different features at their fingertips with an unparalleled control and convenience.

In the modern day and age, everyone is becoming more and more focused on having a better control over their lifestyle. A digital home offers you the best possible way to ‘live better’ by keeping tabs on different things around the house, getting help in tasks, getting a secure environment and eliminating a lot of stress from your life. Features like heating, ventilation and air conditioning control, lighting control system, air and water quality control, home security system helps the resident with absolute peace of mind. Made with futuristic technology and innovative architecture, digital societies will revolutionise the way we live our lives by providing us with an unprecedented control, comfort, convenience and cost effectiveness.

Control over homes from anywhere in the world, safety notification if someone sneaks in the home, safety alert on phone in case of any hazard, wireless charging ports in common areas, air quality meters in common area to increase awareness about health can offer a comprehensive approach to living.

How will you make the concept of digital housing acceptable by people?

Market experts believe that digital housing in India is set to increase exponentially as housing service providers and suppliers are developing state of the art digital strategies which are in line with the requirements of service users and technology being used is amongst the best globally. Digital inclusion across the housing sector has proved to be beneficial, enhancing the ability to communicate and coordinate within a digitally equipped environment, easing the way people live in their homes. It is so well designed that everything around the house is programmed where homeowners can set timers for the house to ‘wake up’, heat water and food for you, ‘welcome you’, set the perfect ambience for the home surroundings, provide security protocols and calibrate numerous features and assist with things that one requires at home. Digital housing provides full automation and makes one’s life easier, comfortable and hassle-free.

Any new thing needs time for acceptability. Let me give you an example. Right now video doorbell is trending in the US. Ours is an advanced version of that. But we don’t know its value. For this, we need a certain amount of education. People will understand the worth after its usage. Digital housing is not a fancy thing. It is a need and people will understand it a few years down the line.

A simple philosophy is, someone who has visited any other country will be fascinated with our flats. And that has been in our case. They know the value. People who know the value will appreciate it because it has still not become a daily habit of a person. Our customer base is increasing like anything. In two months, we have crossed more than 100 bookings. Eventually, by December, we will be sold out with our first project. This is not natural for this market.

We started booking the apartments at an initial rate of Rs 3,850 per sq ft and revised our rate to Rs 4,150 per sq ft on October 18, 2018, as we started the construction. People who showed faith in us have witnessed almost 10 per cent appreciation within 40 days.

What were your thoughts behind choosing Siddharth Vihar as location?

Talking about location, luxury in places like Gurgaon is not new. There have been veteran players who have been working there. The units there start at 10 to 18 crore. The challenge comes when you provide luxury at a mid-level price. It is hence affordable luxury. Comparing to any other unit in Gurgaon, it’s going to cost at around 5 to 8 crore. My project hence could not have grabbed the eyeballs in Gurgaon.

This location in Siddharth Vihar is a very limited chunk. There is a maximum of four to five developers. Being on NH24, it takes 20 to 25 minutes to reach the centre of Delhi. We are the best option for those millennials (between 28 to 40), who work in a good company with a package of 20 to 25 lakhs (both husband and wife), have high aspirations, but can’t afford the budget. That is why our buyers’ average age is 35.

What were your thoughts behind launching the company when the market is shrinking?

I am a bit fond of corporate history. I have seen whichever company sustained, in the long run, they came in a hard time. This is because you are working very hard during that time as everything is against you. So when there is good time, you can keep flowing. When everyone is shrinking, you are the only one visible. That is what we did. We started our marketing in June, when there was no real estate ad in the market. Hence we were easily visible. Everyone was shrinking and we were expanding. We were able to get the eyeballs. People welcomed us.

Why do you think people will trust a newbie like T&T?

We knew that people don’t trust anything new in the market. But we are not new, we are just fresh. The good thing about it is that we don’t have any bad track record. We have used our weakness as our strength. We are the only company who had approval one year before our launch. We are the only company who didn’t take a single booking prior to our launch. We are the only company who is bringing this project during this time in this part of the region. We knew, there will be a certain percentage that would believe in us. 20% believed in us. And we were sorted with that. And for the rest of the 80%, our work will grab their attention and faith.

We don’t need to change the mindset. We just need to include it. For a person, there are needs and wants. We catered to the needs first. The need is getting the house on time, with a good ambience to live in. We didn’t compromise on the quality and ambience of the houses. Then we came to the ‘want’ factor. It just followed by. We made optimum utilisation of space- with least circulation area. The houses are architecturally well designed.

You have been a pilot. How did you understand a customer’s need in the real estate business?

To start with, I did a thorough one year research as a customer. Then I understood the needs of a customer. I understood how a customer feels when he pays for the house. These are the insecurities that a person sitting on the top never understands. This industry is beautiful by itself as a house is one of the basic needs of a person. Houses will always be sold, just that, there is a gap between the basic needs of the customer and what is sold. There is a psychological gap between the buyer and the seller as the seller thinks from a numbers point of view.

I get into the buyer’s shoes to understand their needs and deliver accordingly. This is one of the core reasons for our success. Though the building is yet to come, we call it a success because we have maintained the financial discipline. Even if we don’t sell more units, we are sorted.

Where do you see yourself in the future amidst the existing big players in the market?

We have five projects in the pipeline in Siddharth Vihar. We don’t need to go anywhere. Secondly, I don’t look up to someone; I believe in working on myself to attain a certain position. Some months earlier, T&T was nothing. But today, we are one of the top five-six developers in this region.

My belief is that if someone shows faith in you, you have an additional responsibility, not only for yourself or the customer but also for the industry.

Message for the readers

Come and visit our sample flats. If you want to experience 2050s living in 2019, you should come and visit us, because some things are better experienced, not told.