We would rather build one address properly than four quickly.
Shree Realty was founded in 1996 by a contractor and an architect who had watched enough good buildings go badly to know exactly where the shortcuts are. This page is the short version of how we avoid them.
We started with one rule, and we have not broken it.
In 1996, Ketan Desai and two masons signed off on their own first building — eleven flats in Ahmedabad, funded by everything they had saved. The rule was simple: walk the building before it is sold, every week, for as long as it took.
Three decades later the studio is fourteen people, the site teams have their own Karkhana, and the rule has not changed. It just costs more now, and we have got slightly better at explaining why to people who only compare carpet area.
- Building in western India
- 29yrs
- Sq. ft. delivered
- 4.2M
- Families housed
- 11,400+
- Projects completed
- 17
- 01
One architect, start to finish
The person who draws the first line presents the keys. Nothing is handed over a wall, which is how a plan stays honest from site to living room.
- 02
The craft stays on site
Stone is cut on site, brass is beaten on site, plaster is trowelled on site. We will slow a programme before we move the craft off the building.
- 03
Published, not hidden
Snag lists, construction updates and RERA numbers are on the website and in your possession letter — not only in the sales gallery.
- 04
Five years after
Most builders call you during the defects period. We keep a service team in the building for five years after you move in.
From a piece of land to a key in your hand.
- 01
Land
12 months of study
We buy slowly and we buy once. Every parcel gets twelve months of zoning, drainage and shadow studies before a single drawing is made.
- 02
Design
In-house, 14 people
In-house studio, no outsourced drawings. One architect carries a project from the first line to the last day of site, which is the only way a plan stays honest.
- 03
Craft
Site-made, not flat-pack
Stone is cut on site. Brass is beaten on site. Timber is fitted on site. We would rather slow the programme than move the craft off the building.
- 04
Check
41-point audit
A forty-one point audit before handover, signed off by our own team and then again by an independent one. Snag lists are published, not hidden.
- 05
Handover
5 years on site
We keep a service team in the building for five years after you move in. Most builders call you at the defects period. We keep calling after it ends.
Four materials, and the hands that work them.
Kheda Sandstone
Kheda district, 90 km from site
Quarried in small batches and hand-finished so the face keeps the marks of the chisel. Laid dry, without mortar, and pointed every second monsoon.
Hand-beaten Brass
Fabricated in-house, Karkhana workshop
Each sheet is planished by hand until it holds a soft, uneven reflection. Used for screens, latches, handles and the brass letters in the lobby.
Burmese Teak
Salvaged, kiln-dried to 8% moisture
Salvaged timber, not plantation, dried slowly in our own kiln. Used for doors, window frames and the long community tables in the clubhouse.
Lime Plaster
Applied and cured on site
Three coats, each trowelled by hand and left to cure for twenty-one days. It moves with the building instead of cracking across it, and it breathes.
I started Shree Realty in 1996 with one rule, which was that we would not build anything we could not walk through ourselves before it was sold.
That sounds like a small thing. It has cost us land twice and it has cost us a year of margin more than once. But a building is a thing people live inside for thirty years, and nobody in the business can hide behind a brochure when the light is wrong at four in the afternoon.
We have never been the biggest developer in Gujarat and we have never tried to be. We have tried to be the one that still answers its phone in year nine. Most of the people who bought from us in 2003 still call us before they sell. That is the whole business model.