DLF April-September sales bookings up 16% at Rs 1,425 crore on demand for completed units

NEW DELHI: Realty major DLF‘s sales bookings rose 16 per cent to Rs 1,425 crore during the first six months of this fiscal year, mainly due to demand for its ready-to-move in residential units.

DLF, the country’s largest real estate firm in market capitalisation, had achieved sales bookings of Rs 1,225 crore in the same period a year ago.

“Sales target of Rs 2,700 crore for FY (financial year) 2019-20. Achieved Net Sales of Rs 1,425 crore till September 2019,” DLF said in an investors presentation.

Maintaining its sales momentum in the third quarter, DLF last month said it sold 376 ready-to-move-in luxury flats worth Rs 700 crore on the first day of the launch of its housing project in Gurugram.

Although the housing segment is facing a multi-year demand slowdown, builders are able to find buyers for ready-to-move in inventories, which are not only exempted from goods and services tax (GST) but are also risk free.

Seeing the market condition, DLF had few years back decided that it would only sell completed flats or those on the verge of completion.

In the presentation, DLF informed that it is still left with completed housing stock worth Rs 10,145 crore at the end of the July-September quarter of this fiscal year, down from the peak number of about Rs 15,000 crore of completed unsold units.

“Focus remains on faster monetization of the completed inventory, ~ Rs 10,145 crore with steady increase in pricing,” it said.

The company said it would now work to monetise its completed inventory as well as create the future pipeline of projects to fuel growth.

“Our strategy of build and sell has worked out to be a successful one. Given the overhang owing to numerous factors, the markets are expected to lean towards developments which are either complete or at advanced stages of completion and mitigate various risks perceived to be attached to under construction projects,” DLF Whole Time Director Ashok Tyagi had said.

He said the company has embarked on development of new projects, having a built up area of 17 million sq ft of space in commercial and residential segments.

DLF has started construction of Midtown, a project in central Delhi comprising 1.9 million sq ft. The total development potential of the project is about 8 million sq ft.

The company will soon start work on its commercial project in Gurugram in a joint venture with US-based Hines.

Last week, DLF reported a 19 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 445.85 crore for the second quarter of this fiscal year against Rs 374.74 crore in the year-ago period as it trimmed expenses.

Total income, however, fell to Rs 1,940.05 crore in the July-September quarter of 2019-20 as against Rs 2,304.9 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

DLF’s net debt rose 31 per cent during July-September period to Rs 4,461 crore from the previous quarter.

However, Tyagi exuded confidence that the net debt number would come down to an “insignificant level” in the next one year with likely improvement in housing sales.