Thommen Ollapally
Executive Director
(Ex Columbia University)
Nandi Housing: A 40 Year Success Story, Built Solely on Word of Mouth
One of Bengaluru’s oldest real estate developers, Nandi Housing is a brand that has found success by doing things differently. Executive Director, Thommen Ollapally takes us through Nandi Housing’s unique path to success and why 40 years later, they are still thriving.
Hitting the 40 year milestone
In this business, simply surviving 40 years is a huge milestone in itself. We have seen several wonderful organizations come and go – several have changed names and avatars. We are grateful that our efforts have helped us earn the trust of home buyers and granted us the pleasure of being Bangalore’s oldest developer.
Building Nandi Housing solely on word of mouth
This was a conscious decision that was made firmly with the intention of building harmonious communities. We wanted our homes to be loved and lived in, and we took efforts to vet prospective home buyers first.
This unconventional approach helped us build communities of like-minded individuals and create a safe neighborly environment for families to grow.
As we hoped, word spread and we saw our vision of having an organically growing community come to life. We find it to be much more cohesive and aligned than a community built through sale to investors or mass advertising.
Initial challenges and breakthroughs
Nandi Housing was started by a group of middle class, IIM graduates with no family backing. They were among very few fresh IIM Graduates who decided to quit their cushy corporate jobs and go the entrepreneurial route. In the mid 70’s, Business was a passion reserved for the wealthy and well connected.
To get Nandi Housing off the ground in such a situation was a huge challenge, extremely stressful and required navigating innumerable existential threats. But a rock solid set of values, a sincere and committed team, and God’s grace have given us an amazing 40 year foundation to build the rest of the journey on.
Passion, vision and expertise soon resulted in notable breakthroughs for Nandi Housing and earned us a spot on Bengaluru’s real estate map. Some of our achievements include building Coventry (1983) – one of Bangalore’s early high rise apartment buildings, Nandi Enclave (2001) – Bangalore’s first ‘group housing project’ with multiple towers, and Nandi Gardens (2005) – the first joint development with the BDA. Apart from this, we also shifted to the revolutionary use of stone for all our facades – which is not only easy to maintain and durable, but adds a timeless charm to our projects. We are also one of the earliest builders to adopt precast technology back in the early 2000s.
The value systems that make Nandi Housing different
We have been committed to putting people first from day one. This shows in the relationships we have cultivated over the years with:
- Our customers – many of whom we have wonderful relationships with several decades after the transaction
- Our employees – the average tenure at Nandi Housing is over 15 years
- Our contractors and labor staff – many of whom have been with us for decades
- Our vendors – who consider us one of the best business partners in the industry by far
Proudest achievement during this time
A point of immense satisfaction is that we have held on to our founding objective of quality over quantity, and people over profit even in the face of challenges.
Adhering to the values that we started 40 years ago and having built a team that’s committed to continue being led by the same values for the next 40 is what we’re most proud of.
