Macrotech Developers' Sales Bookings Up 16% To Rs 3,035 Crore In December Quarter; April-December Pre-Sales Up 62% At Rs 9,039 Crore

Realty firm Macrotech Developers Ltd on Friday reported a 16 per cent growth in its sales bookings to Rs 3,035 crore in the third quarter of this fiscal on better housing demand despite rise in mortgage rates.
     
Macrotech Developers, which sells properties under the 'Lodha' brand, is one of the leading real estate developers of the country.
     
In a regulatory filing, Macrotech Developers informed that the company has achieved its "best-ever Q3 (October-December) pre-sales performance of Rs 3,035 crore showing a growth of 16 per cent on a YoY basis."
     
During April-December period of 2022-23 fiscal, Macrotech Developers has clocked 62 per cent growth in its sales bookings to Rs 9,039 crore from Rs 5,568 crore in the year-ago period.
     
The total sales bookings in the first nine months of the current fiscal has already crossed pre-sales of Rs 9,024 crore achieved in the entire last financial year.
     
"This puts us on track to surpass our full-year guidance of Rs 11,500 crore," the company said.
     
The collections of money from customers against sales grew 26 per cent in the December quarter to Rs 2,682 crore.
     
Macrotech Developers MD and CEO Abhishek Lodha said, "Despite the upward trajectory of mortgage rates, we witnessed robust demand across all segments as well as in different cities (Mumbai & Pune). This evidences our belief that housing demand in India is on a long-term viz. 10-15 year structural upcycle on the back of strong affordability, job creation and income growth."
     
Interest rates on home loans have gone up by more than 2 percentage points since May last year.
     
Amid expectations that the upward trajectory of mortgage rates may end in the first half of this calendar year, he said the company believes that 2023 will continue to see strengthening of sales from trusted developers, who have a track record of high-quality product and reliable delivery.
     
"We continue to remain the preferred partners for landowners looking to generate best value from their land holdings.
     
In Q3, FY23, we have added four new projects (saleable area of 5 million square feet with estimated sales value of Rs 8,500 crore) through the joint development (JDA) route," Lodha said in a statement.
     
With this, he said the company has already exceeded its full-year guidance for business development of Rs 15,000 crore.
     
"This reflects availability of land in the targeted micro-markets for Lodha, which in turn provides visibility for us to deliver on our goals of 20 per cent pre-sales growth with around 20 per cent RoE (return on equity)," Lodha said.
     
Despite heightened business development activity, Lodha said the company continues to be on path of reducing its leverage.
     
"Our net debt stands at Rs 8,042 crore, reducing by Rs 753 crore," he said.
     
On business development, Macrotech Developers said that "the company has already added about Rs 17,800 crore of sales value or gross development value (GDV) so far exceeding its full-year guidance of Rs 15,000 crore.
     
Macrotech Developers focuses on the MMR and Pune—the two biggest property markets in Maharashtra.
     
It has recently forayed into the Bengaluru residential market.
     
Macrotech Developers has delivered more than 89 million square feet of real estate and is currently developing around 100 million square feet under its ongoing and planned portfolio.
     
The Group has about 4,400 acres of land beyond its ongoing and planned portfolio which will be utilised in developing further residential, commercial and industrial & logistics spaces.