Mumbai, Sep 04: AURUS Luxury Managed Residences, a premium co-living brand founded by Bharat Agarwal, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with United Group to establish and operate a large-scale managed residential living development in GIFT City, Gandhinagar, in what is set to be one of India’s largest leasing partnerships in the managed residential space.
The partnership will see AURUS bring its expertise in co- living, hospitality, community management and operations to the development, while Siban Developers will serve as the development and property partner. Together, the collaboration aims to create a professionally managed living ecosystem suited to GIFT City’s evolving educational, corporate and professional landscape.
The commercial and lease structure encompasses a total leasable area of approximately 5,00,000 Plus sq. ft. spread across 480 units, under a proposed 15-year lease term based on the current commercial schedule, the potential rental payable over the 15-year period is approximately ₹550 crore, subject to the final executed agreements
Under the partnership, United Group will serve as the development and property partner, while AURUS will operate and manage the accommodation ecosystem. Its responsibilities will include resident experience, hospitality, community management, programming and day-to-day property operations.
The project is expected to serve a mix of students, young professionals and working executives, in line with GIFT City’s evolving educational, corporate and professional ecosystem. The current project plan targets operations to commence in 2030.
On the partnership, Bharat Agarwal, Founder, AURUS Luxury Managed Residences, said,
“Our journey so far has demonstrated that there is a significant opportunity to build a more organised and professionally operated managed residential ecosystem in India. As we enter our next phase of growth, GIFT City stood out because of the scale of development underway and the opportunity to become part of a new ecosystem from an early stage. Partnering with Siban Developers gives us the opportunity to enter the market with the right development partner and establish a strong foundation for our expansion beyond Mumbai.”
Located in Gandhinagar, GIFT City has emerged as India’s first International Financial Services Centre and a growing hub for global financial and technology businesses. The city currently has over 1,000 operational entities, has generated more than 30,000 jobs, and has over 29 million sq. ft. of space allotted for development. Alongside its expanding corporate ecosystem, GIFT City is also emerging as an international education destination, with global universities establishing campuses within the city. Deakin University and the University of Wollongong from Australia are already operational, offering programmes across areas including business, financial technology, computing and data analytics, while Coventry University and Queen’s University Belfast from the UK have also been approved to establish campuses and financial institutions like Bank of America, Barclays, Deutsche Bank to name a few.
As GIFT City’s business and academic ecosystems continue to expand, the demand for organised, professionally managed and high-quality living infrastructure is expected to grow alongside its student and young professional population.
Commenting on the partnership, Sanket Patel, Partner, United Yogi LLP, said,
“The development of a successful urban ecosystem requires different forms of infrastructure to evolve alongside one another. While GIFT City has established itself as an important business destination, its next phase of growth will also depend on how effectively it supports the people who will live, study and work here. We see this partnership with AURUS as an opportunity to contribute to that evolution by introducing an organised managed-living solution that responds to an important requirement within the city’s broader development landscape.”
The partnership places AURUS within one of India’s most closely watched urban development projects and represents a significant addition to its growth strategy. The company’s long-term ambition is to build the next 100 most beautiful and functional managed residential assets across India over the next five years, contributing to the transition of student and working professional accommodation from fragmented hostel and PG formats towards a more globally benchmarked living category.
The GIFT City entry marks the first step in that wider expansion journey, as AURUS looks to take its managed residential model to new markets across the country.