RMZ Corp’s Arjun Menda and family third richest realtors in the country: Grohe-Hurun India

While Rajiv Singh of DLF Ltd continues to be the richest real estate player in India, Arjun Menda & family of Bengaluru-headquartered RMZ Corp secured the number 3 spot as a new entrant in this year’s Grohe-Hurun India Real Estate Rich List.

The sixth edition of the list, which ranked 100 of India’s richest real estate entrepreneurs and inheritors, studied 67 companies across 16 cities in the year ending March 31, 2023. The ranking is based on net worth of the players proportional to their ownership in their respective realty businesses.

While this year’s list saw 25 new faces, 61 per cent of the players saw their wealth increase by a combined average of 4 per cent to the tune of Rs 4,723 crore, the report highlighted. Furthermore, four players - Vinod K Goenka of DB Realty, Shekhar G Patel and Dipakkumar G Patel of Ganesh Housing and Kumar Pritamdas Gera and family of Gera Developments - more than doubled their wealth over the past year.

The youngest player to feature in the list is KV Satish of DS Max Properties at 45 years of age while Pia Singh and Renuka Talwar of DLF are the richest women to have made it in the ranking. About 66 per cent of the players in the list are considered to be self-made.

With 29 entrants, Mumbai is home to a maximum of the 100 richest realty players, followed by New Delhi and Bengaluru at 23 and 18, respectively.

"For Bengaluru, this accomplishment signifies our collective success in shaping the city's real estate landscape," said Irfan Razack, Chairman and Managing Director, Prestige Group, who bagged the 19th spot on the list. It further solidifies Bengaluru's position as a thriving hub for development and investment, he added.

According to the list, the western states of Maharashtra and Gujarat account for 40 per cent of the cumulative wealth of real estate billionaires, registering an increase of 83 per cent over the past five years.

With the real estate sector expected to touch $1 trillion in market size, contributing 13 per cent to the GDP by 2030, Anas Rahman Junaid, founder and managing director of Hurun India, expects the sector to churn out many more billionaires, including from tier II and tier III cities, as it fires all cylinders for significant value creation.

“Almost 40 per cent of the new entrants in Grohe-Hurun Real Estate Rich List 2023 hail from tier 2 cities,” Junaid said, adding this highlights the fact that geographic boundaries no longer limit the rise of influential real estate players in India.