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Macrotech Developers — erstwhile Lodha Developers — is seeing good traction for its new launches and is betting on strong demand in the ongoing festive season. The real estate developer's management will wait till the end of December to consider revising its revenue guidance for the year ending March 2023.

"Our brand is very well recognised, valued and seen as the best provider of housing... We continue to see strong sales across different periods on the construction cycle,” Macrotech Developers Managing Director and CEO Abhishek Lodha said in an interaction with CNBV-TV18.

Remarks from the top helm of the property developer come a day after it reported a 57 percent jump in pre-sales in the quarter ended September compared with the corresponding period a year ago.

“The demand is pretty strong across the different segments of the housing market, all the way from affordable to mid-income and above (segments). That is the reflection of the fundamental fact that the housing market in India has a lot of room and as prices are moving up modestly, people are making their buying decisions,” said Lodha, banking on strong demand in the sector.

In a business update, the company said its pre-sales grew to Rs 3,148 crore, 12 percent compared with the previous three months. Its collections rose 24 percent on year to Rs 2,375 crore, according to the filing. The company said its debt came down to Rs 8,796 crore, from Rs 12,477 crore in the year-ago period.

Jefferies raised its pre-sales estimate for Macrotech Developers for the year ending March 2023 by five percent. The brokerage retained a 'buy' rating on the stock for a target price of Rs 1,420 — implying 43 percent upside potential from its closing price on Thursday.

Macrotech shares jumped by as much as Rs 47.1 or 4.7 percent to Rs 1,040 apiece on BSE, continuing to rise for the fourth day in a row.

Earlier, the company had guided for sales growth of 75 percent for the year ending March 2023. In July, the company said it had already delivered delivered on the guidance as it posted its best first quarter performance ever, on the back of robust domestic pre-sales.

"We feel quite confident about our current level of guidance,” Lodha told CNBC-TV18. He believes the the country is at the start of a long-term upcycle.

"Housing base in India, the formal sector is quite modest compared to the size of the population and the size of the economy. There was oversupply in the period from 2015 to 2020 due to various reasons, but that's been significantly cleaned up. We now have a very disciplined and consolidated supply side with only the highest quality developers enjoying the confidence of the consumer,” he asserted.

The Macrotech management expects price hikes to the tune of 6-7 percent this year. Lodha also said there is some impact of rising benchmark interest rates on housing.

“There could have been an impact of rising interest rates, but the resilience of the buyer demand plus leading companies like us coming out and saying 'we will protect homebuyers on the interest rate for a couple of years' means that the buyer sentiment has continued to be positive,” Lodha added.

Last month, the RBI announced a widely-expected hike of 50 basis points in the repo rate — or the key interest rate at which it lends money to commercial banks — in line with a tightening monetary policy cycle globally to tackle red-hot inflation. Central banks around the globe, however, face the challenge of addressing rising consumer prices without causing a blow to economic growth.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das also warned of more increases in the key rate in the coming months. The central bank's rate-deciding panel retained the inflation forecast for the year ending March 2023 but brought down its GDP growth forecast by 20 basis points.

Macrotech shares have declined almost nine percent in the past one month, a period in which the Nifty50 has declined two percent.

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