DLF to launch 2 luxury housing projects in Gurugram: MD Ashok Tyagi

Realty major DLF Ltd will launch two luxury housing projects worth Rs 15,000 crore in Gurugram during the second half of this financial year to expand its business amid strong demand for premium homes, its Managing Director Ashok Kumar Tyagi said.

Buoyed by sales of Rs 8,000 crore worth of flats within three days in February in its new project ‘The Arbour’ at Gurugram, Tyagi said the company has set a target to achieve sales bookings of Rs 13,000 crore in this fiscal year and hopes to exceed the number.

During the 2022-23 financial year, DLF posted sales bookings of Rs 15,058 crore, a more than two-fold increase from Rs 7,273 crore in the previous year.

In an interview with PTI, Tyagi talked about the overall housing market and noted that the demand for ultra-luxury, luxury and mid-income residential properties is very strong.

However, he mentioned that there is some stress in the affordable housing segment because of the rise in interest rates on home loans and an increase in housing prices.

On the company’s plan to tap this high demand in premium and luxury segments, he said the company has created a launch pipeline of Rs 20,000 crore for this fiscal.

“Launches this year will be predominantly driven by two launches in Gurugram – one in Southern Peripheral Road (SPR) and the other in Golf Course road,” Tyagi said.

The estimated sales bookings value of these two upcoming projects in Gurugram is about Rs 15,000 crore, he said but did not share any further details.

DLF already owns land parcels for these two projects in Gurugram.

Tyagi said the company would also launch one residential tower in its project at Moti Nagar here, one in Tricity of Chandigarh and one in Mumbai this fiscal.

“Launches in Chennai and Goa might spill to next fiscal year,” Tyagi said.

Tyagi pointed out that the company did not launch many projects during the April-June quarter of this fiscal as it had expected ‘The Arbour’ project to be fully sold out by September this year but all units got sold out within days of launch in Q4 of FY’23.

As a result, DLF’s sales bookings in the first quarter of this fiscal remained flat at Rs 2,040 crore.

Asked about plans to buy new land parcels, Tyagi said the company would focus on Delhi-NCR, Tricity, Chennai, Goa and Mumbai markets.

He said the company is examining some land deals in Gurugram but they are at a very initial stage.

On its entry into the Noida market, he said the company is not able to find land parcels, which have clear titles and without any litigations.

Last month, DLF announced it will invest Rs 400 crore as equity to develop a real estate project, comprising 35 lakh sq ft of estimated saleable area, in Mumbai in partnership with NCR-based builder Trident group. The company plans to launch the first phase of the Mumbai project, comprising 9 lakh square feet of residential space, by the end of this fiscal year.

Asked about the sale of all of his equity shares in DLF by billionaire K P Singh, who is Chairman Emeritus, Tyagi said Singh is planning to set up a charitable foundation in his personal capacity and the amount will be utilised as corpus.

Earlier this month, Singh sold his entire remaining stake in DLF for around Rs 731 crore.

Recently, DLF reported a 12 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 527 crore in the first quarter of this fiscal. The company’s net profit stood at Rs 469.57 crore in the year-ago period.

Total income rose marginally to Rs 1,521.71 crore in the April-June period of the 2023-24 financial year from Rs 1,516.28 crore in the year-ago period. DLF’s net debt stood at Rs 57 crore as on June 30, 2023, as compared to Rs 721 crore at the end of the 2022-23 fiscal.

During the period under review, the company’s gross debt also fell to Rs 3,068 crore from Rs 3,840 crore.

DLF is India’s largest realty firm in terms of market capitalisation. It has developed more than 158 real estate projects and an area of over 340 million square feet.

The Group has 215 million square feet of development potential across residential and commercial segments. It has an annuity portfolio of over 42 million square feet.