Godrej Properties to Sobha, realty firms line up launches in March quarter

From Godrej Properties to Oberoi Realty, from Prestige to Sobha, property developers in the country have lined up launches in the January-March quarter (Q4FY21).

Most of them were delayed or postponed owing to the pandemic and ensuing lockdown.

What is helping developers are record sales they did in Q3 due to pent-up demand and cuts in levies by governments and low interest rates, experts said.

Though the velocity was higher before 2017, when the Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act, 2016, or RERA, was notified in many states, Anuj Puri, chairman of Anarock Property Consultants, said it was after 2013 that the industry was seeing such a high speed.

In 2020, launches came down by 46 per cent.

Godrej Properties, part of Godrej Group, has lined up 12 launches in Mumbai, the National Capital Region, and Bengaluru.

It has been the best quarter in terms of launches for the company, said Chairman Pirojsha Godrej.

“In the first half, governments focused on other issues, so regulatory approvals became slow. So a lot of projects we would have launched in Q2, Q3 or Q1 were postponed,” Godrej said.

However, Godrej said it was unlikely all 12 would happen in this quarter, given the regulatory challenges “but the teams are geared up to handle it”.

Mumbai-based Oberoi Realty’s booking values for nine months ended December 31, 2020, surpassed the ones for the whole of FY20, the company had said earlier.

“We just launched Elysian One Tower in Goregaon and got a good response. We are now doing another one in Borivali,” said Vikas Oberoi, chairman and managing director, Oberoi Realty.

Adhidev Chattopadhyay, analyst with ICICI Securities, said: “Oberoi Realty is targeting launches of 4-5 million square feet in Q4FY21 (one million square feet in Thane and the balance in the Goregaon and Borivali projects).”

“The upcoming launches, along with completion of the 360 West Worli project and near completion inventory in Mulund and Borivali, is expected to drive Oberoi Realty’s sales over the next 12-18 months. We expect Oberoi Realty to clock bookings of over Rs 3,000 crore each in FY22 and FY23,” Chattopadhyay said.

On the back of strong sales, Bengaluru-based companies have lined up launches. Hard on the heels of its highest quarter sales ever, Brigade Group has five launches planned in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Chennai, and Hyderabad of over 3 million square feet in the March quarter. 

“We have a project launch each in Mysuru and Hyderabad — Brigade Sapphire and Brigade Citadel, respectively — and a new phase launches in our popular integrated enclaves — Brigade Cornerstone Utopia and Brigade El Dorado in Bengaluru, and Brigade Xanadu in Chennai,” said Rajendra Joshi, chief executive officer, Residential Brigade Group.

Brigade posted its best ever quarterly sales in Q3FY21.

Prestige Estates has plans to launch three projects in Bengaluru.

“We have planned to launch integrated townships with plots, villas, apartments and retail at The Prestige City in Bengaluru,” said Swaroop Anish, executive director (business development), Prestige Estates Projects.

Prestige also posted the highest ever sales in Q3FY21.

Sobha’s forthcoming residential projects are located in nine cities — Bengaluru, Gurugram, Delhi, Thrissur, Trivandrum, Chennai, Hosur, GIFT City, and Hyderabad — with a built-up area of 14.43 million square feet.

Nitin Gupta, managing director at Macquarie Capital, said demand for residential units from end-users had picked up recently due to factors such as historically low interest rates, government incentives such as lower stamp duties, and work from home, requiring larger/better homes.

“Demand for new projects launched by reputed developers in established micro-markets and at affordable prices should be reasonable as some buyers cannot pay a lump sum upfront for ready homes,” Gupta said.

He said home prices would follow a demand-supply pattern.

“If new launches are spread across micro-markets in a city, the supply may get absorbed as developers sell projects in phases,” he said.