India’s data centre boom is beginning to reshape the true property alternative. What was as soon as largely a technology infrastructure play is now creating demand for land, energy and specialised buildings. Operational information centre capability stood at round 1,030 MW in 2024 and is predicted to achieve 1,825 MW by 2027. By 2030, estimates vary from 4,500 MW to as a lot as 5,000-8,000 MW (5-8 GW).
This enlargement is opening a brand new enterprise avenue for real estate developers. Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Delhi NCR are rising as key data centre hubs, with hyperscalers and colocation operators searching for appropriate websites.
Delhi NCR can also be attracting investments to cater to the rising demand for Artificial Intelligence. For builders, information centres provide a solution to put their land and growth capabilities to work in a section that’s rising alongside India’s digital infrastructure. Some actual property firms at the moment are positioning themselves to seize this chance.
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#1 Anant Raj
Anant Raj is prioritising its information centre and cloud companies enterprise. Its wholly-owned subsidiary, Anant Raj Cloud, is rising quickly. Not like pure-play tech firms, Anant Raj leverages its pre-owned tech parks and land reserves acquired at low prices. This allows decrease capex and shorter building and implementation occasions in comparison with peer teams.
From Actual Property Roots to Low-Capex Benefit
The corporate is shifting up the worth chain from colocation to sovereign cloud and synthetic intelligence-related companies. Income from information centres, infrastructure, and allied companies was ₹90 crore in Q1FY27. The corporate has commissioned 28 megawatts (MW) of IT load capability, together with 21 MW at IMT Manesar and seven MW at Panchkula.
Scaling to 357 MW: The Roadmap Throughout Haryana and Andhra Pradesh
The info centre’s IT load capability is predicted to achieve 63 MW by the top of FY27. The corporate’s roadmap tasks scaling capability to a complete IT load of 357 MW by FY32 throughout Haryana (Manesar, Panchkula, Rai) and Andhra Pradesh.
Manesar at present hosts 21 MW of lively load, with extra below growth. Panchkula helps a complete deliberate capability of 57 MW. The corporate has additionally begun constructing a 100 MW capability on the Sonepat campus.
Of this, work on the primary 20 MW is at present underway. A further 100 MW of greenfield IT load is deliberate for future enlargement in a separate constructing on the positioning.
Sovereign Cloud Mandates and AI Integration
In Andhra Pradesh, it’s also establishing a 50 MW information centre capability. This facility will probably be executed in 2 phases with an funding of ₹4,500 crore. A key pillar of Anant Raj Cloud’s technique is that the enterprise is aligned with India’s deal with information sovereignty and Atmanirbhar Bharat directives.
It’s empanelled with the Ministry of Electronics and Data Know-how as a Sovereign Cloud Service Supplier. It’s also empanelled with BSNL as a knowledge centre service supplier. These empanelments permit it to pursue mission-critical authorities and enterprise deployments.
Roughly 25% of the overall 357 MW deliberate IT load capability is earmarked for internet hosting cloud companies. The corporate is ready to launch its AI companies in FY27. Anant Raj also signed an MoU with the Haryana government to take a position ₹25,000 crore in information centres with cloud companies between 2026 and 2032 throughout its three Haryana campuses.
The corporate can also be launching an energy-efficient, AI-enabled cloud infrastructure resolution in FY27. For this, it has partnered with Submer (Spain) for high-density, liquid immersion cooling systems. To supply shoppers for information centre and cloud companies, it has commissioned a subsidiary, Anant Raj Cloud Singapore, to behave as a world enterprise growth centre.
Demerger into Ashok Cloud and Monetary Highlights
To unlock worth for shareholders, Anant Raj is demerging the info centres and cloud companies enterprise right into a separate listed entity referred to as Ashok Cloud.
From a monetary perspective, income from operations grew by 6.6% to ₹631.4 crore. EBITDA (Earnings Earlier than Curiosity, Tax, Depreciation, and Amortisation) grew by 26.2% to ₹202.7 crore whereas margins expanded by 449 bps to 31.5%. Because of this, web revenue rose 18.5% to ₹149 crore.
#2 Lodha Builders
Lodha Developers’ inexperienced information centre park in Navi Mumbai is a key a part of the corporate’s long-term enterprise technique. The enterprise is dealt with by the rental enterprise (RentCo). Lodha is leveraging its land holdings to increase into the info centre infrastructure enterprise.
Leveraging Land Financial institution and Sustainable Infrastructure
The park spans roughly 660 acres. Lodha has already monetised roughly 130 acres of land. It plans to monetise one other 150 acres over the subsequent three to 4 years. The corporate additionally has 300 acres of land on its stability sheet. Administration says this land provides the flexibleness to promote it outright or develop it additional.
The park’s present expertise permits for a density of 11 to fifteen MW per acre, which administration notes is rising as expertise evolves. Lodha’s information centre park has a zero-freshwater coverage and runs fully on recycled water diverted from municipal programs
Lodha’s technique is to construct and lease powered shells. Below this mannequin, Lodha builds the bodily structural field and delivers energy to a single level within the constructing. The info centre enterprise is self-funded from the land gross sales happening inside the identical park.
Digital Edge Entry and Surging Land Valuations
A notable growth in Q1FY27 was the entry of Digital Edge India. Digital Edge is a three way partnership between Digital Edge Singapore and India’s Nationwide Infrastructure and Funding Fund. Digital Edge has turn into a tenant at Palava Park, becoming a member of present tenants AWS (Amazon) and STT (Temasek & KKR subsidiary).
Notably, the Digital Edge transaction was concluded at roughly ₹42.5 crore per acre. That is double the value of transactions (₹21 crore per acre) executed in 2025. Rising land worth is likely one of the key causes behind the upper deal. As an example, the land worth at Palava has grown over 16x over the past 5 years.
Administration believes the honest market worth of the land is nearer to ₹65 crore per acre. Lodha expects to achieve this stage throughout the subsequent 18 months. The corporate additionally said that early transactions had been deliberately priced decrease to determine the situation.
Scaling to 1 GW and Monetary Efficiency
The monetisation of Section 1 land will fund the development of 1 GW of powered shell capability throughout roughly 90 acres. That is projected to generate over ₹2,000 crore of annual rental revenue by FY32, assuming ₹2 crore per MW for the powered shells. This rental stream is predicted to play a key function in increasing the rental revenue by 10x to ₹3,000 crore by FY32.
Financially, Lodha delivered robust earnings in Q1FY27. Income grew 43.1% year-on-year to ₹5,000 crore. Internet revenue rose 103.3% to ₹1,373 crore. Adjusted EBITDA for Q1FY27 stood at ₹2,150 crore, up 79.1% year-on-year. Margin additionally expanded by 860 bps, pushed by land monetisation, particularly Digital Edge transactions.
Evaluating Capital Effectivity: Premium Valuations vs Historic Medians
With robust progress over the previous few years, Lodha has a stronger Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) and Return on Fairness (ROE) compared to Anant Raj. By way of valuations, each Anant Raj and Lodha are buying and selling at a premium to the business, however their valuations stay at a reduction to their 5-year historic median.
| Peer Comparability (X) | |||||
| EV/EBITDA | |||||
| Firm | Firm | 5Y Median | Business Median | ROCE (%) | ROE (%) |
| Lodha | 20.0 | 30.2 | 15.8 | 16.4 | 15.5 |
| Anant Raj | 28.0 | 32.4 | 15.8 | 12.1 | 11.2 |
For Anant Raj and Lodha, information centres have gotten greater than only a diversification story.
Anant Raj is constructing its personal information centre and cloud enterprise, whereas Lodha is utilizing its land financial institution to construct a rental revenue stream. The fashions are totally different, however the goal is analogous: get extra worth from present actual property belongings. The subsequent part will rely upon how rapidly this deliberate capability turns into income and money flows.
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In regards to the Writer: Madhvendra has been deeply immersed within the fairness markets for over seven years, combining his ardour for investing along with his experience in monetary writing. With a knack for simplifying advanced ideas, he enjoys sharing his sincere views on startups, listed Indian firms, and macroeconomic tendencies.
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