Sunteck Realty, Signature Global Lead Q2 Sales Booking Growth In Realty

India's top real estate companies reported their second quarter business updates this month. One of the key measures to determine the business performance of a real estate company is its pre-sales number, that is, the sales booking before a project is fully completed or constructed.

Considering the basket of the eight companies reporting their sales booking so far for the quarter, there has been an average growth of 28% in pre-sales, led by higher bookings in Signature Global India Ltd. and Sunteck Realty Ltd. In contrast, Puravankara Ltd. and Sobha Ltd. reported the highest decline this quarter.

Despite a softening market in the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2024, strong demand for new housing projects, particularly from branded developers, continues to drive growth in the real estate sector.

Top realty players like Godrej Properties Ltd.'s booking value grew 89% YoY to Rs 13,800 crore in the first half of fiscal 2025. This was achieved through the sale of over 8,600 homes with a total area of over 14 million sq. ft in the period.

Meanwhile, Macrotech Developers Ltd. reported 21% growth in pre-sales, in line with its fiscal 2025 guidance of 20% growth in the quarter gone by.

Signature Global is on track to surpass its launch target of 16,000 crore for fiscal 2024 by December 2024 itself, said Chief Executive Officer Rajat Kathuria.

According to Anarock, going forward, it is anticipated that the festive quarter (October-December) will see growth in both new supply and demand, as developers have several projects lined up for launches. However, the growth in the upcoming quarters may not be as steep as it has been in the last one to two years.

In fact, the residential prices too seem to have attained their peak and are now gradually stabilising across cities.

Average residential property prices across the top seven cities collectively registered double-digit yearly growth of 23% in the third quarter of calendar year 2024. Thus, focus remains on management commentary on expectations of stabilisation in pricing growth from hereon.

PropEquity explains that while CY23 was another record year for residential sales, with total absorption up 13% YoY to 5.2 lakh units across the top seven cities, the post-election slowdown in launches led to a 26% drop in volumes for the next three months.

Another important focus area going forward remains the potential interest rate cuts and the optimism on the real estate sector in effect.