Xrbia, which describes itself as one of India’s fastest growing residential property developers, is to launch in the UK in a bid to help tackle the housing crisis.
It has already built over 15,000 homes, has a pipeline of 100,000 and aims to deliver 100 future ready cities in India by 2030 and says it will bring its scale efficiencies and expertise in affordable house building to the UK.
The firm, founded by 41 year old entrepreneur Rahul Nahar in 2012, is seeking joint venture opportunities with UK property developers with social housing experience to leverage their local market expertise.
Initially, Xrbia will focus on building homes in London, where the housing crisis is most extreme. It says that its cutting edge construction technology, based on a hybrid of steel framing and concrete form work can slash build times to just six months.
In addition, all utilities are delivered via renewable sources, with water, electricity and sewage recycled and controlled through customers’ smartphones. The technology also creates a customer portal, access, security and billing systems.
In India Xrbia’s standard product is a seven storey building with apartments of 40 square meters and in London the firm hopes to deliver these ‘micro’ homes at a cost of around £80,000 and adds that they will be supported with numerous finance packages, including a rent to own facility.
‘We have been researching Western markets in depth and, given the extent of the housing crisis in the UK and dearth of affordable accommodation, feel our low cost and technology led construction model could have a very positive impact on the volume and type of homes being built,’ said Nahar.
‘We are looking to work with forward-thinking social housing developers who have moved on from the legacy approaches that are holding back a number of more established players. To build the number of homes the UK needs is not just about bricks and mortar but fundamental changes in philosophy and process,’ he added.
