One out of every four or five DLF unit sold is to an NRI, with businessmen and families outside the Delhi-NCR region like Jaipur, Kolkata, Agra, etc being amongst the buyers for some of the key projects of the real estate major, Aakash Ohri, Joint MD, DLF Ltd told businessline.

Percentage of NRI sales have moved up from 12-15 per cent a couple of years back. Last year, it was in the 20 per cent range.

For instance, in the just sold out Privana North project — average units priced at ₹9.5 crore and penthouses priced ₹25 crore and above, there are 25 per cent NRI bookings, coming in from places like the UK, the Americas, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, Jakarta and Kuwait.

There has been nearly 10 per cent booking from businessmen and business families located outside Delhi-NCR in places on Agra, Kolkata, Mumbai, Jaipur, Chennai, Bengaluru, etc.

“Some of these businessmen have some operations or offices Delhi-NCR, or have children working and studying here or are looking at expansion here. We have been tapping into this segment for sometime now and there is active interest for DLF projects amongst them,” Ohri said.

“This apart there is a DLF diaspora that we are tapping into. However, most of the buys in Privana North (in Gurugram) have been new buyers, that is first time ones,” he added.

Aakash Ohri, Joint MD, DLF Ltd 

Aakash Ohri, Joint MD, DLF Ltd 

Previously, during an investor call, Ohri had said, “housing demand for good hourse and DLF has got its own diaspora. So, housing demand for quality products is continuously there.” And there is housing demand for sale and rentals.

Geopolitics has also played its part. Rising tensions — in West Asia and elsewhere — have also made some of the Indian diaspora tap their roots.

“There are some who would want to come back and settle in India. But not compromise on their overseas lifestyle,”Ohri said.

Average Age Profile

The average age of the buyer for DLF projects is now down in their 30s, Ohri said, driven by “re-deployment of savings from the capital markets to real estate” — a trend that DLF has been noticing for nearly one-year now.

In case of higher-end projects — with detailed utilities — the average buying age is slightly higher, between 40 and 70.

“People continue to deploy savings in real estate, particularly high value projects that have been generating resale premium,” Ohri said adding that investments are being made in DLF real estate as an asset class.

Sales Guidance

The Delhi-headquartered realtor and amongst the top two in India by market capitalisation, DLF has pegged an annual sales guidance of ₹21,000 crore for FY26; as against ₹17,000 crore for FY25.

By Q1 (April - June) end, at least half — nearly ₹11,000 crore — of sales booking has been from its just launched Privana North project. Launches in Goa and Mumbai are expected in Q2 (July - September), while the company is expecting another ₹4,000-5,000 crore of sales from The Dahlias.

Cumulative project investments are expected to be in the ₹17,000 crore range for the year.

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Published on June 18, 2025