Mukul Bansal of Motiaz on Building Integrated Townships, Sustainable Urban Ecosystems, and Trust-Led Real Estate Growth

StartupTalky presents Recap'25, a series of exclusive interviews where we connect with founders and industry leaders to reflect on their journey in 2025 and discuss their vision for the future.

In this edition of Recap’25, StartupTalky speaks with Mr. Mukul Bansal, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Motiaz, who reflects on the evolving dynamics of India’s real estate sector amid rising urbanisation, shifting buyer expectations, and increasing emphasis on sustainability. Drawing from Motiaz’s three-decade journey, Bansal shares how the company has consistently focused on creating integrated communities that combine residential, commercial, and industrial spaces to enhance quality of life and long-term value.

He discusses how Motiaz navigated industry-wide challenges in 2025, including rising construction costs, interest rate pressures, and supply chain disruptions, while continuing to scale landmark developments across the Tricity region. The conversation explores Motiaz’s emphasis on customer-led design, amenity-driven lifestyles, PropTech adoption, and transparent engagement as key drivers of trust and growth. Looking ahead, Bansal outlines the company’s five-year vision to expand sustainable townships, luxury developments, and industrial ecosystems—positioning Motiaz as a future-ready real estate player aligned with India’s $1 trillion real estate opportunity.

StartupTalky: What is the core focus of Motiaz’s work across projects, segments, and services, and what long-term vision continues to guide your decisions?

Mukul Bansal: Motiaz’s core philosophy is to create integrated and sustainable communities combining residential, commercial, and purposeful workspaces for a healthier, more balanced, and meaningful connection. We value customer-led design throughout our entire product line, creating amenity-driven lifestyles that minimize commuting and maximize time spent with family; thus, the reason behind the completion of 19 landmark projects, along with several others under development, throughout the Tricity region.

Furthermore, our founding father inspired the philosophy of developing high-rise buildings, such as The Royal Estate, as well as expanding upon the legacy of high-rise developments to create even larger townships. To continue that legacy and create sustainable urban ecosystems throughout India, we will focus on evolving the real estate market to create sustainable ecosystems combining traditional values with innovation to create a better quality of life for future generations.

StartupTalky: Reflecting on the past year, what were the most significant challenges Motiaz faced in the real estate sector, and how were these challenges overcome?

Mukul Bansal: The Indian Real Estate sector in 2025 had to overcome several obstacles due to increased costs associated with construction, higher Interest Rates, and changing supply chains due to rapid Urbanization. Motiaz is one of many companies who faced these challenges when developing their 175-acre industrial township and Luxury Residential Communities.

Our strategy included establishing partnerships that allowed us to optimize costs, using effective project management to complete projects on schedule (as determined by our reputation), and prioritizing premium products and lifestyle offerings, which allowed us to provide buyers with a justification for increased prices. 

Additionally, our customer-focused approach, along with a high level of transparency in both our communications and the availability of Innovative Financing Options, enabled us to maintain strong investor confidence and sales growth, thereby reinforcing our commitment to persistent and Sustainable Growth within a Market that is consolidating.

StartupTalky: How does your real estate company stay ahead of industry trends to influence product offerings and marketing strategies?

Mukul Bansal: In a dynamic sector shaped by sustainability, PropTech, and premiumization, Motiaz stays ahead by deeply integrating global insights, drawn from our Managing Director's international experience, with local consumer research. By following the latest trends like eco-friendly certifications and smart tech features in residential communities, we are offering more living choices to the public and putting a greater emphasis on creating communities that incorporate amenities that promote healthy lifestyles and reduce the distance residents travel to get to work every day.

With today's marketing; we are utilizing a digital-first approach to target specific audiences by providing relevant content about their lifestyle goals, giving them virtual tours of our products and providing data-related information based on demographic groups. Our proactive approach not only promotes innovation in terms of the types of projects we build today, such as branded residences located in developing markets, but also creates long-term loyalty for our clients.

StartupTalky: In the evolving real estate landscape, what key metrics does Motiaz track to assess growth and performance?

Mukul Bansal: Motiaz's real estate ecosystem in India is maturing and we are measuring our success through more than just our sales volume; we are also focused on assessing pre-sales velocity and absorption rates (to quantify demand), net debt-to-equity (to evaluate financial stability), customer satisfaction scores and referral rates (to establish equity and trust with customers), project delivery timelines (to demonstrate our commitment to timely execution), and sustainability indicators (e.g., community green space ratios).

We also monitor return on investment (ROI) to ensure sustainable growth for all stakeholders, as well as occupancy within commercial real estate. The K.P.I.s provide a complete analysis of Motiaz's activities, enabling the company to make long-term plans regarding its current investments in Tricity and beyond, while keeping in mind the broader retail and commercial real estate industries and ensuring that we continue to perform at the highest level within those industries.

StartupTalky: What are the unique selling propositions (USPs) of your real estate projects, and how have these contributed to your brand's success?

Mukul Bansal: Motiaz's USPs lie in thoughtfully planned, amenity-driven communities that integrate residential and commercial spaces to promote balanced, sustainable living; reducing commutes and fostering connections. Through visionary high-rise developments, such as Royal Estate, we have established new standards for the quality of our products and for Innovation to achieve maximum return on investment for all investors. We focus on wellness, green spaces, and timeless architecture through customer-driven design, which reflects the core values of our company. These core values provide a level of trust that no other developer can deliver to the thousands of families in Punjab, Haryana and Tricity that have rapidly sold out, returned to invest and now know us as the Developer of Choice and who are transitioning into luxury and industrial development.

StartupTalky: Can you share any successful growth hacks or marketing strategies that your real estate company has implemented?

Mukul Bansal: Motiaz has leveraged digital transformation as a key growth hack, shifting to targeted online campaigns with virtual reality tours and personalized content highlighting lifestyle benefits; resonating with tech-savvy buyers. By utilizing strategic partnerships with influencers and data-driven analytics to hyper-locally target our markets, we increased our reach at lower costs than traditional media could provide. Offline experiential events, such as our community preview events, fostered emotional relationships with attendees.

In addition to these initiatives, we communicated openly about sustainability and delivered product on time, thus enhancing our potential to convert leads into aspirations for our brand. This combination of global marketing insights combined with local/regional empathy has enabled us to continue to see growth throughout India, despite the many competitors operating within the same market.

StartupTalky: What is your business vision for the next five years, and what strategic steps are planned for achieving your goals?

Mukul Bansal: Motiaz hopes to become a national leader in integrated and sustainable townships and luxury developments within the next five years while actively supporting the growth of India's urbanization towards an eventual $1 trillion real estate market.

To achieve these goals, we are taking several strategic measures, including expanding our existing 175-acre industrial township to create jobs and stimulate the local economy, expanding into new high-potential areas such as Kasauli through the development of branded residential projects, increasing the use of technology (PropTech) in all aspects of our operation to provide customers with a better overall customer experience, and formulating partnerships with financial institutions, both traditional and alternative, to create innovative financing programs for our existing and future project developments, including integrating green technologies into our projects where applicable.

We ultimately intend to provide lasting community value through lifestyle-oriented, environmentally responsible projects that create sustainable communities that balance prosperity and quality of life.

StartupTalky: As a leader in the real estate industry, how do you cultivate a business culture of mutual respect within your team?

Mukul Bansal: In real estate's collaborative ecosystem, Motiaz cultivates mutual respect through a foundation of shared values, integrity, innovation, and empathy, inspired by our familial legacy. We foster open dialogue via regular forums, inclusive decision-making, and mentorship programs that bridge generational expertise. A culture valued for many contributions from executing work on the ground to strategic visioning creates trust and accountability.

Our leaders demonstrate leadership by example in that they put a priority on all employees who are growing in their careers, and that each member has a consistent work-life balance. A business build to create seamless project delivery builds the ability for each team member to innovate responsibly, which provides the same fundamental connectivity to the communities they create.

StartupTalky: Looking ahead, what opportunities do you foresee for future growth in the Indian and global real estate industry?

Mukul Bansal: India's real estate sector in the year 2030 is projected to be worth $1 trillion; therefore, there is an enormous opportunity to create a sustainable mixed-use development, expand into Tier II and III cities, create data centers and warehouses (due to the e-commerce boom). Rising NRI investments and fractional ownership can democratize real estate; and the alignment of Proptech with ESG (Environmental Social Governance) will create further opportunities to focus on green buildings.

At Motiaz, we are primarily focused on two areas in terms of Industrial Townships and Luxury segments and will be driven by the rapid expansion of infrastructure and urbanisation within India. Although challenges exist in terms of affordability, there is also a growing level of policy support, and consolidation will favour visionary players who are primarily focused on promoting lifestyle and resilience.

StartupTalky: Share key business lessons learned during your entrepreneurial journey. What advice would you offer to fellow real estate founders based on your experience?

Mukul Bansal: The experience gained from working at Motiaz for the past thirty years has demonstrated that a company's long-term success relies heavily on having consistent trust, delivering promised product quality and delivery times, and establishing a reputation that extends beyond the physical locations where they conduct business.

The ability to be flexible is essential in today's fast-paced environment; businesses must learn to adapt and change with the evolving global marketplace while still being respectful of their heritage. Companies must have an understanding of their customers so they can develop relationships rather than just focus on completing transactions.

For others that are starting or growing their own companies, I recommend to develop strongly around your core values and create a vision for sustainability and community that aligns with growth in India; utilize the power of Big Data and create partnerships; create a work environment that encourages integrity. Companies that have patience and continue to invest in innovative practices will reap multiplied benefits from their investments as this industry matures.

Explore more Recap'25 interviews here.