When Sudesh Jhunjhunwala arrived in Auckland from Hong Kong four years ago, he had to chase real estate agents to get them interested in finding properties.
Now, he says, the agents chase him.
Three times a week an agent calls the Indian migrant asking him to sell the Masport Industrial Estate in Mt Wellington. The 7ha block of land on Mt Wellington Highway has bright development prospects.
Fletcher Building and others are developing the former Winstones Quarry nearby, and Kiwi Income Property Trust has started its $300 million Sylvia Park project in the area.
Jhunjhunwala, aged 43, said his family's company, Hind Properties, owns between $90 million and $100 million of real estate.
"We would like to double that, but not by paying silly money," he said of the heated real estate market.
Hind - a reference to the family's strong Hindu links - just sold Meadowlands shopping centre to the $6 billion Australian mall giant, Centro Properties Group, for $12.5 million. Two years ago Hind sold Central Park at Penrose to Australia's Macquarie Goodman for more than $52 million.
Jhunjhunwala's family - his grandfather was an accountant - is from Bhiwani, near New Delhi. He was born in Burma, and moved to Auckland four years ago when the scope of the family's property interests here were so large that it was imperative to own an office here.
The family moved from Burma to Nepal, then Hong Kong where it founded the Hind group of companies.
These are run by his father, Laxmi Niwas, aged 67, who is chairman. Jhunjhunwala's brothers, Dinesh and Manoj in Hong Kong and Anil in Singapore, also run the businesses.
It was Laxmi Niwas Jhunjhunwala who bought Hind's New Zealand property portfolio in the early 1990s, his path eased by a letter of introduction from bankers HSBC.
Having sold the Central Park office estate and Meadowlands shopping centre in Auckland, Sudesh Jhunjhunwala is looking to reinvest.
"But people are asking silly money for the properties, so we are taking it easy," he said, citing stiff competition from Australian investors made wealthy by superannuation funds. Developing property is not an option. He investigated the prospect but found escalating land prices and construction rates made prospects unattractive.
Instead, he plans to boost income by expanding international hotels in Rotorua and Christchurch.
www.lakeplazahotel.co.nz
Assets owned
Wiri Wool Stores in Auckland.
The 7ha Masport Industrial Estate on the Mt Wellington Highway in Panmure.
The 156-room Sudima Hotel Grand Chancellor, 700m from Christchurch International Airport.
Lake Plaza Rotorua Hotel, bought in 2003 for $24 million. The hotel on the shores of Lake Rotorua has 250 rooms and Hind is planning a conference centre.
Skellerup Industrial Estate in Christchurch.
Real estate agents now pursue Indian migrant
In his office Sudesh Jhunjhunwala displays an image of Laxmi, goddess of wealth. Picture / Kenny Rodger
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