Realty firm Godrej Properties on Tuesday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 260.47 crore for the quarter ended in March while its sales bookings grew by 23 percent to Rs 3,248 crore on improved housing demand despite the second wave of the COVID-pandemic. The company had posted a net loss of Rs 191.57 crore in the year-ago period.

Total income increased to Rs 1,522.57 crore during the January-March quarter of the last fiscal from Rs 576.08 crore in the year-ago period, according to a regulatory filing. Mumbai-based Godrej Properties posted a net profit of Rs 352.37 crore during the 2021-22 fiscal year as against a net loss of Rs 189.30 crore in the previous year.

“This year is something we are very bullish. We feel this would be again a record year in terms of tremendous growth over the last year,” said Mohit Malhotra, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at Godrej Properties.

The company has a strong pipeline of launches planned in first quarter itself, he added.

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The Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das has announced that the Monetary Policy Committee has decided to hike lending rates by 40 basis points (bps) to 4.40 percent. “This rate hike would have a marginal impact on consumers because the EMIs would go up a little bit but would it disturb the overall positive demand cycle which has got generated in real estate? My answer is it won’t disturb, it is a very marginal increase,” Malhotra said.

“I do expect further rate hike sometime in future. But I think even if there is a 100 bps rate hike, the EMIs for Rs 1 crore loan typically goes up between Rs 5,000 and Rs 6,000 per month, which given the way incomes are rising is something which consumers can absorb,” he added.

“This has been 9 years of downcycle in the industry, prices are at all-time low, affordability is extremely good. So I think overall one could expect some more rate hikes but the overall cycle is on a very positive swing,” he said.

Total income increased to Rs 2,585.69 crore in the last fiscal from Rs 1,333.09 crore in the 2020-21 fiscal. On operational front, Godrej Properties said that its sales bookings rose 23 per cent to Rs 3,248 crore. The sales bookings increased 17 per cent in the entire last fiscal to Rs 7,861 crore, of which Rs 7,781 crore came from the residential properties. It sold 9,121 homes with a total area of 10.8 million square feet in FY22.

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The company achieved record sales bookings during the fourth quarter as well for the full last financial year. Pirojsha Godrej, Executive Chairman, Godrej Properties, said, "The real estate sector has strengthened during FY22 and we expect strong growth for the sector over the next few years. We are pleased to close the financial year with our best ever annual sales, cash collections, and earnings. With a robust launch pipeline, strong balance sheet and sectoral tailwinds, we look forward to building on this momentum in FY23."

During the 2021-22 fiscal, the company added 6 new residential projects with around 9.33 million square feet of saleable area. The company delivered around 6.4 million square feet across 5 cities in FY22. The collections from customers was also record at Rs 6,907 crore in FY22.

Godrej Properties, the real estate arm of the business conglomerate Godrej Group, is one of the leading developers in the country. It has a significant presence in the property markets of Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Delhi-NCR, Pune and Bengaluru. The company has delivered around 24 million square feet of real estate in the past five years. The company currently has 192 million square feet of saleable area across India.

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(With inputs from PTI)

First Published:May 5, 2022 1:03 PM IST