Macrotech Developers reported a 16 per cent annual growth in pre-sales in October-December, while collections were up 26 per cent on robust demand across segments, helping the real estate developer reduce its net debt to just over Rs 8,000 crore at the end of the quarter.

The company, which sells residences under the ‘Lodha’ brand, said in a release it sold houses worth Rs 3,035 crore in the third quarter. Collections came in at Rs 2,682 crore. Having reduced its debt by Rs 753 crore to Rs 8,042 crore in the quarter, it would be able to achieve its target debt-to-equity ratio of under 0.5 and debt-to-operating cash flow ratio of under 1 in the next six months. It was also set to top its pre-sales guidance of Rs 11,500 crore for the full year. For the nine months to December 31, the company’s pre-sales were at Rs 9,039 crore.

The company launched four new joint development projects in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Pune with a gross development potential of Rs 8,500 crore. It was on course to deliver its goal of 20 per cent growth in bookings in 2022-23 and a 20 per cent return-on-equity.

Despite rising mortgage rates and record retail inflation, demand for housing has sustained in 2022, though data from Knight Frank shows that there has been a marginal shift towards buying smaller houses. In Mumbai, property registrations in December rose 2 per cent on month, but fell 5 per cent on year to 9,812 units. The Maharashtra government’s total revenue from Mumbai’s property registrations in 2022 (January-December) was the highest in a decade at Rs 8,800 crore, data showed.

Abhishek Lodha, Managing Director of Macrotech Developers, said in the statement the upward trajectory in mortgage rates was likely to end by June 2023 and this would result in strong sales momentum, especially by developers who have a track record of timely delivery of good quality projects.

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