Godrej Properties on land-buying spree for housing projects; to acquire Rs 15k-cr projects in FY24

Godrej Properties, one of India's leading real estate developers, has announced its plans to acquire land for housing projects worth Rs 15,000 crore in the fiscal year 2023-24. The company aims to expand its presence in key markets across India through strategic land acquisitions.

Pirojsha Godrej, the Executive Chairman of Godrej Properties, stated that the company has already identified potential land parcels for acquisition and expects to close the deals over the next few months. The company's land acquisition spree comes after a successful financial quarter that ended in March 2023, with a 68% increase in its consolidated net profit.

Godrej Properties has a history of developing innovative and sustainable projects in prime locations across India. The company has also been at the forefront of adopting new technologies and construction practices to create world-class projects.

When questioned about the FY24 projection for new business growth, which includes joint development agreements (JDAs) with landowners and outright land purchases, he responded that it has been set at Rs 15,000 crore for this fiscal year.

Pirojsha asserted that the business might easily reach bigger levels.

On the justifications for lowering the goal for the establishment of new businesses, Pirojsha stated, "The previous year was particularly good. These numbers won't always be present every year."

However, he added: "Even adding new projects costing Rs 30,000 crore year is not something we want to do. We don't truly need to add new projects of Rs 30,000 crore in order to reach sales bookings of Rs 14,000 crore in a year."

According to Pirojsha Godrej, the business is in talks with other landowners in important cities about making outright purchases as well as signing JDAs.

Regarding the performance over the previous fiscal year, he emphasised that it was very robust in terms of all crucial measures, including sale bookings, customer cash collections, project completion, and new business development.

According to him, practically all of the Rs 12,232 crore in sale bookings, up 56% from the previous year, was for residential properties.

 

During the previous fiscal year, cash receipts increased by 41% to Rs 8,991 crore, and project deliveries reached a record 10 million square feet.

18 new projects were added by Godrej Properties in FY23, totaling an estimated almost 29 million square feet of saleable space.

One of the high-profile transactions in FY23 saw the business pay Rs 750 crore to purchase an 18-acre plot of land in Kandivali, Mumbai, with plans to build a luxury home complex with a potential market value of nearly Rs 7,000 crore.

Pirojsha stated that the corporation has set a target of Rs 14,000 crore in sale bookings for the current fiscal.

According to him, the current fiscal year's cash collection goal is Rs 10,000 crore, and project deliveries will increase to 12.5 million square feet.

When asked about the market, Pirojsha stated that despite an increase in house loan interest rates, the rebound in the real estate industry following the second wave of the COVID pandemic has been quite successful.

In terms of sales volumes and pricing, Pirojsha remarked that the Delhi-NCR region has been functioning quite well.

He claimed that the business intended to launch more projects in Delhi, Noida, and Gurugram to capitalise on this.

One of the top real estate developers in the nation is Godrej Properties, a division of the commercial behemoth Godrej Group. For the development of residential projects, it primarily focuses on the Delhi-NCR, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Bangalore, and Pune.

The company's net profit climbed to Rs 571.39 crore during the entire 2022–23 fiscal year from Rs 352.37 crore the previous year.

The total income increased from Rs 2,585.69 crore in 2021–2022 to Rs 3,039 crore in the most recent fiscal year.