Godrej Properties expects record sales bookings during this quarter, beating the previous high of Rs 2,632 crore, driven by new launches of around 10 housing projects amid the strong revival of demand.

In an interview with PTI, Godrej Properties Ltd (GPL) Executive Chairman Pirojsha Godrej said the residential market has revived strongly after the second wave of the pandemic across all major cities, including Delhi-NCR.

Mumbai-based GPL reported a modest growth of four per cent in its sales booking at Rs 1,541 crore during the third quarter but hopes for a strong performance during the current January-March quarter of the financial year 2021-22.

“We are a little disappointed with the last quarter. The market was good but we did not get the launches done,” said Pirojsha.

“Few of our launches got delayed. Last quarter, we were able to do only three launches whereas this quarter we are hoping to do about 10, which should make this quarter a very big quarter,” he said.

These 10 launches also include the new phase of development in ongoing projects.

“We are hoping that this quarter will be our best ever quarter for new bookings,” Pirojsha said, banking on the resurgence of housing demand especially for quality products from trusted builders.

He expressed confidence in crossing Rs 2,700-crore sales bookings in the current quarter.

Pirojsha said the company is likely to achieve an all-time-high sales bookings in the financial year 2021-22, beating the last year’s record of Rs 6,725 crore.

“We will have decent growth in sales bookings this fiscal,” he said.

In the last financial year, GPL became the country’s largest listed real estate developer in terms of sales bookings.

Already, the company clocked a sales booking of Rs 4,613 crore during the first nine months of this fiscal year, up 13 per cent from the year-ago period.

Pirojsha said the company is excited about the upcoming launch of its luxury housing project in Ashok Vihar, Delhi, either in March or early next quarter.

On the business development side, Pirojsha said the pipeline remains strong with the company continuing to look for joint development opportunities as well as outright land purchases.

Last week, GPL reported that its consolidated net profit in the December 2021 quarter nearly tripled to Rs 38.95 crore.

Its net profit stood at Rs 14.35 crore in the same period of 2020-21.

Total income increased to Rs 466.91 crore in the quarter, from Rs 311.12 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Net profit jumped multifold to Rs 91.68 crore during the first nine months of 2021-22, from Rs 2.19 crore in the year-ago period.

Total income rose to Rs 1,063.12 crore during the April-December 2021 period of this fiscal year, from Rs 757.01 crore a year ago.

On Thursday, the company announced plans to invest Rs 700 crore in D B Realty but on Friday, the company called off the deal after its minority shareholders and other stakeholders raised concerns.

“There were concerns with the structure of the investment as well as with the slum redevelopment business in general,” Pirojsha told PTI on Friday.

Mumbai-based Godrej Properties is one of the leading real estate developers in India and is part of the business conglomerate Godrej group.

It has a major presence in the Mumbai region, Pune, Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru.