Two Young Builders Are Changing The Face Of Navsari

Five years ago, Jiral Patel with Banti Shthna saw a dream while starting their venture Prabhakunj Developers; a dream of beautiful Navsari. In a tête-à-tête with Deepali Panchal from Soconse, Jiral shares the journey so far, their current and future projects and advice to the young entrepreneurs.
Soconse: How did you start your journey?
Jiral: We started on this journey back in the year 2011 in a partnership. Initially, we studied the market. We understood the requirements of people. Thereafter we launched our first project under the name of Prabhkunj Residency. It was a hit project. We got overnight success and we never looked back after that. We understood customer’s needs first and then customized according to that. That’s the main reason behind our success.



Soconse: How is your journey? Any reason people have so much faith in your company?
Jiral: Till now we have done 8 projects in 5 years. The main objective of our project was not just to earn money. We wanted to give our best to the individuals to every class of the society. Our main focus is on the customer’s satisfaction. For the same reason, we help them getting the loan from nationalized banks. We have hired the best agency so that even a normal person does not hesitate to buy a house. Also we have tie ups with the agencies for the facilities like plumbing, electricity, Flooring work etc which are on contract basis for 7 to 8 years. Even after the completion of our project these agencies take care of the above mentioned issues if arises any.
Our payment structure is very simple. You just have to arrange 10-15% of the total cost. Rest 80-85% will be taken care by the builder. We as a builder educate our customers to go for the home loans provided by the government. Normally after taking the loan a customer is worried for the EMI payments. Both, current and past governments have always persuaded people to take benefit of government home loan which is available at minimal interest rate. We are promoting the same government facility so that any class of the society can avail the benefit. This is because most of our customers belong to service class who work from 9 to 6 to earn money. Hence, to simplify the loan process we have hired another agency who handles loan department. End to end procedure is taken care by the agency.  This was all about home.

Soconse: Do you think people today are happy buying a flat? Everybody wants to live a good lifestyle which is not possible for most of them. Have you ever thought anything for them?                                    
Jiral: We have always realized this fact. Our customers who have marginal income started staying in the naked flat i.e. they had a new home but no money for furniture, wall-painting, and other electronic appliances. So from this, I understood that this class of people only migrated from their village to Navsari for the reason of transportation facility and connectivity to the neighboring cites which was their prime need to save time and money, but they did not have money for better lifestyle. We think a lot about my customers and we feel that if you stay in your new house everything should be new. But here comes the budget problem for them.  So, I came up with an idea- a scheme wherein customers will get new furniture free with Prabhakunj house. POP, lights-fan, fridge, TV, gas geyser, gas line and household necessary things we decided to give it for free. Our customers only need to bring their clothes and kitchen stuff along and stay in their brand new flat!
Soconse: What is the vision of Prabhakunj?
Jiral: Let me tell you a brief yet interesting history of Prabhakunj. The word “Prabha” means “Morning” and “kunj” means Home. The vision of Prabhakunj is to provide new and comfortable house. Another reason for choosing this as a brand name is that the word Prabhakunj contains initials of all my family members. (Pra- Pravin, bha- Bharti, k- Kalpesh, j- Jiral & Jigisha). Under the name of Prabhakunj we moved ahead with Prabhkunj developers, Prabhkunj Group and Prabhkunj Residency.
Soconse: How Prabhakunj contributes to the society and what is your goal?
Jiral: First, we have a project starting from 10 lakhs to 1.5 cr. We have designed houses for each and every class of the society. We build houses keeping in mind the budget of the customers. The lower middle class or the service class people who move to Navsari city from neighboring villages or outskirts to save time and money have to shell out 3500 to 4000 monthly for rent. For such class we offer 1BHK and 2BHK flats so they can buy their own house. Rent will no longer be an expense. Their sum of monthly rent will go in EMI and they can have their own property. Also they should also get a good resale value for the house. This was about lower middle class families.
Second, for middle class families. Generally this class is a salaried class wherein in some cases husband and wife both are working. For this income group we have home with the budget of 30-35 lakhs.
We have bungalows for the elite class people. A town like planning with the facilities like park for senior citizens, Children’s park, club house for youngsters, sitting area for the housewives and families, gymnasium is provided. Along with RCC roads, underground tanks and overhead water tank. We have provided 1.5 lakh capacity water tank for 70 bungalows. Residents will never face water related problems. We even have rain water harvesting tank wherein rain water gets stored.
We take our customers safety seriously. For Safety purpose, we gave underground safety, fire safety and underground poles.
Soconse: Tell us something about your future projects? What will be they like?
Jiral: Well, our future projects will be for those who want to do business but have less money to invest. For that we have our projects near railway station wherein the small scale business man who have limited spending power for business like laundry, general stores or departmental stores etc for them we offer shops which are very economical price wise. They can cover the cost of shops within 2-3 years based on profit and they can have their growth.
In the past, we have offered flats for the lower middle class people. But still there is a class which falls between lower middle class and middle class. For them, we offer fully furnished bungalows and to fulfill their expectations we provide them with all the amenities like clubhouse, swimming pool, gymnasium, RCC roads, drainage facility, entrance gate, security office, intercom system, video call system and many more which is usually given in a lavish projects. Those who buy lavish bungalows get the facilities like common plot; children play area, gazebo, water body, clubhouse etc. So our effort is to give those lavish facilities to those who buys house ranging 30-35 lacs. As per my observation, I have observed that in Gujarat or anywhere, you get all such facilities only if you buy a house worth 80 lakhs or more. I try to give all such facilities in just 25 lakh house. In the last question, you have asked about my contribution to the society and this was one of them. I give mediclaim for free to all my customers. And we provide one year of free education to the children aged between 1 to 10. Plus we give 100% assistance girl child development to the parents of girl. The reason here is simple, if you buy a house you will definitely pay EMI and this will be your major expense. This will affect their children.
Soconse: Last question. You are in early 30’s.  You are successful at a very young age. So what message or advice you want to give out to all the young entrepreneurs or to those who want to do business.
Jiral: My best advice would be don’t listen to anyone. Be a good decision maker. Adopt new ideas. Risk taking is important in any new business venture, provided that it is sensible. Listen to all, take advice from all but do what you feel is right. Avoid the company of negative people. Never ever fall in an argument with the negative people. This is what I personally believe. All youngsters dream of overnight success. But there is nothing like overnight success. You have to give your 110%. Generally what youngsters do is if they get success they jump to another business. Don’t ever do that. Do not experiment too much. Make use of the internet and study thoroughly whatever you do. Meet experienced people. Listen to them. Make connections with them. And grow continuously!