Brexit has worked in its favour, with the depreciation of the British pound leading to an increase in demand and sales, according to realty major Lodha Group.

The company, which has launched a project at Lincoln Square in London, said that project had seen sales of ₹150 crore over the past two months.

Also, said the company, despite a persistent weak sentiment in the realty segment, it is witnessing steady demand across all price points. Gross sales revenue stood at ₹1,100 crore in the first fortnight of June, it added.

Prashant Bindal, Chief Sales Officer, Lodha Group, said the company hopes to generate ₹400 crore from its London project in the next few months. The group has sold 20 units, of which Indian buyers acquired six.

He said all its Indian projects have contributed more or less equally to sales.

Lodha Altamount, Trump Tower and New Cuffe Parade in India and Lincoln Square in London have been the highest contributors, he added.

Fitch report

A Fitch Rating report had last week pointed out that Indian developers having exposure to the London property market are going to be impacted in near term from Britain’s decision to leave the EU.

The report further said Indiabulls Real Estate (IBREL) and Lodha Developers have significant exposure to the luxury residential and commercial property segments in London, where they made sizeable investments in 2013 and 2014.

“Of the two, IBREL is less exposed to demand volatility in the next 6 to 12 months because it only expects to start developing its properties in 2017. Lodha could be more exposed to near-term property market turbulence because it has already launched the smaller of its two investments,” Fitch added.

Recently, Moody’s and Fitch had downgraded Lodha’s ratings from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’, due to weaker operating performance. Bindal said the company aims to achieve gross sales of ₹9,000 crore this fiscal. It had closed last year at ₹8,000 crore.

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