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THE BUILDERS OF EMPIRE

Fortune India

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AUGUST 2025

REAL ESTATE TYCOONS RIDE ON THE LUXURY HOUSING BOOM TO BOOST GROWTH.

- BY MANOJ SHARMA

THE BUILDERS OF EMPIRE

WITH PREMIUMISATION becoming the industry’s North Star, real estate barons are shifting their focus from the mass market to high-value assets to woo India’s aspirational class.

Sample this: Flats priced above ₹1 crore accounted for 62% of total sales in H1FY25, with demand backed by low inventory, rising affordability, favourable policies, and growing urban affluence, according to JLL, a global real estate services firm.

Kushal Pal Singh of DLF; Mangal Prabhat Lodha of Lodha Developers; Vikas Oberoi of Oberoi Realty; Irfan Razack, Rezwan Razack and Noaman Razack at Prestige Estates; and Atul Ruia of Phoenix Mills are building next-gen real estate assets, putting India on the global luxury map. They top the list of real estate billionaires in the 2025 Fortune India-Waterfield Advisors study of India's Top 100 Billionaires on the back of a booming luxury market, record launches and pre-sales, and a bullish long-term outlook.

The billionaire builders

Like last year, the man leading the Fortune India realty billionaires' club is 93-year-old K.P. Singh, DLF's chairman emeritus. Although his net worth dropped to ₹1,53,571 crore as of June 30, 2025, from ₹1,59,053 crore the previous year, the firm, now helmed by his son Rajiv Singh as chairman, reported significant growth in FY25.

India's largest developer by market capitalisation grew robustly in its residential and rental businesses. Its ultra-luxury benchmark projects, such as The Dahlias and Camellias, have shaped the Golf Course Road luxury corridor in Gurugram. Its recent ₹11,000-crore luxury project, Privana North, was sold out in a week. Eyeing a bigger share of Indian realty, DLF has reentered Mumbai after a decade with a ₹1,000-crore premium project—Trident Realty.

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