Godrej Properties sales bookings up 84pc in FY24 at record Rs 22.5k cr

New Delhi: Godrej Properties on Tuesday reported an 84 per cent increase in sales booking last fiscal to a record Rs 22,500 crore on higher volumes and the launch of premium housing projects amid strong consumer demand.

Shares of the company zoomed 7.85 per cent to hit a 52-week-high of Rs 2,791.20 on the BSE in day trade. The stock closed up 4.64 per cent at Rs 2,708 per share.

Godrej Properties sold 14,310 homes during the last fiscal and has surpassed the sales booking numbers of Bengaluru-based Prestige Group, which on Monday reported pre-sales of Rs 21,040 crore during 2023-24.

Mumbai-based Godrej Properties, part of business conglomerate Godrej Group, may emerge as the largest listed real estate developer in terms of sales bookings in the 2023-24 financial year.

Among major developers registering bumper sales numbers, Macrotech Developers (Lodha Group) has reported sales of Rs 14,520 crore in the previous fiscal. DLF is yet to announce its numbers for the full 2023-24 but the company has already sold properties worth Rs 13,316 crore during the first nine months of this fiscal.

In a regulatory filing, Godrej Properties said the company has achieved its best-ever quarterly and annual sales during the fourth quarter of the last fiscal and for the full 2023-24, respectively. Its sales bookings during the last fiscal grew by 84 per cent year-on-year to more than Rs 22,500 crore.

In volume terms, the sales bookings rose 31 per cent year-on-year during the entire last fiscal to 20 million square feet (sq ft). "This is the highest-ever annual sales announced to date by any publicly listed real estate developer in India. This was achieved through the sale of 14,310 homes with a total area of 20 million sq ft," the company said.

In an interview with PTI, Godrej Properties Executive Chairperson Pirojsha Godrej said, "We had a slow start but we are happy to have caught up. The team has been performing very well and the market is being very supportive".

He noted that sales bookings in the Delhi-NCR market crossed Rs 10,000 crore in the last fiscal and said the company plans to launch multiple housing projects in Delhi, Noida and Gurugram in the current financial year.

Asked about factors driving sales, Pirojsha said the real estate sector has turned into an upcycle since 2022 and there is a lot of "consumer exuberance". He said the customers especially while buying under-construction properties prefer top developers who have financial wherewithal to deliver projects.

"In the last boom time in early 2000, people have burnt their fingers badly while buying homes from less strong developers," he pointed out. Pirojsha said the company's strategy to expand business across major cities and the decision to acquire land during the downturn of the real estate sector have helped the company achieve record sales.

"In the downturn, we did not get overly pessimistic. We raised the capital we need and deployed very aggressively into land acquisition when markets were not as hot as they are now," he explained.

Pirojsha said the company acquired the land parcels at an attractive valuation which is helping it now in terms of profit margins. As per the data, Godrej Properties' sales bookings more than doubled to over Rs 9,500 crore in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year compared to the year-ago period.

The sales bookings in volume terms grew by 56 per cent year-on-year in the January-March quarter of the last fiscal to 8.17 million sq ft. "Sales were driven by superlative consumer demand in some key new project launches," Godrej Properties said.

Godrej Zenith in Delhi-NCR achieved a booking value of more than Rs 3,000 crore and Godrej Reserve in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region achieved a booking value of Rs 2,690 crore, the company cited.

Gaurav Pandey, MD & CEO, of Godrej Properties, said, "We are delighted with the scale-up we have achieved in the past two years. The sales bookings of over Rs 9,500 crore in Q4, FY'24 surpass our annual bookings in FY22. "We achieved a growth of 84 per cent in FY24 to register bookings of over Rs 22,500 crore. We are pleased that this sales growth was on the back of both an improving project mix as well as strong volume growth of 31 per cent," he said.

Pandey said the company has a strong launch pipeline for the current fiscal, which will also be bolstered by the recent entry into the important Hyderabad market. "We have built a deep understanding across key real estate markets in India and are greatly excited by the potential the next several years offer for us to deliver sustained high-quality performance across all key operating metrics," Pandey said.

Godrej Properties is one of the leading real estate developers in India. It has a huge presence in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Pune and Bengaluru. It entered Hyderabad last fiscal with the acquisition of two land parcels.