New Delhi: Realty major DLF has kept the new sales bookings target for this financial year at last year's level of about Rs 4,000 crore as the company feels that it would take at least 12 months for housing sales to improve. The country's largest real estate firm achieved gross sales bookings of Rs 3,850 crore in 2014-15 fiscal, down 5 per cent from Rs 4,070 crore achieved in the previous year. In a conference call with analysts, DLF Executive Director (Finance) Saurabh Chawla said that the sales bookings target for 2015-16 fiscal is Rs 3,500-4,000 crore.
The company had given the same guidance for last fiscal as well. On sales outlook, DLF said in a presentation that it would take "at least 12 months for the sales momentum to begin improving; the key factor would be in general, reduced interest rates and GDP growth and, in specific, demand/supply conditions in micro markets." The sales volume in most geographies shall continue at a diminished pace similar to FY14 and FY15, it added.
The real estate sector is facing huge slowdown, especially in housing sales, from last few years due to high property prices as well as interest rates. DLF, however, said that actual users continue to purchase into projects which are unique due to both location and product attributes. "Projects which have better visibility from construction run rate will have higher customer interest," it added. Notwithstanding muted sales momentum, DLF plans to launch next phases of its existing projects including 'Capital Greens' in the national capital.
DLF said that since the 'normal' sales momentum is still some quarters away, the company is in a dialogue with few private equity (PE) players "for part cash out in some marquee projects and mitigate cycles before launching in FY16". Earlier this year, DLF had announced plans to raise about Rs 3,000 crore as private equity at project level. Last week, DLF reported 16 per cent fall in consolidated net profit at Rs 540.24 crore in 2014-15 from Rs 646.21 crore in the previous year. Income from operations fell by 8 per cent to Rs 7,648.73 crore from Rs 8,298.04 crore in 2013-14.
