Trump Tower builder in Mumbai dumps luxury for cheap homes as India slows.

A Trump Tower developer in Mumbai, India’s financial hub, is shifting focus to cheaper apartments and office space as a credit squeeze crimps demand for posh properties.



Macrotech Developers, earlier known as Lodha Developers, will cut the share of premium housing from its portfolio to about 17% from 30%, said Managing Director Abhishek Lodha. It’s also looking to increase contributions from so-called affordable housing to about 50% of revenue over the next three to four years from 40%.“All our new investment is going in affordable and office,” Lodha said in an interview at the company’s premium World Towers residential project in Mumbai. “We are managing our liquidity very, very carefully. It is something which we need to watch more carefully now than we would even 18 months ago.”

India’s real estate market has been battered over the past three years by a series of policies from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and more recently by a collapse in lending by non-bank financial companies. While unsold premium homes pile up across the country, builders are relying on Modi’s home-for-all push to keep demand for budget apartments robust even as the broader economy decelerates.

ET