Listed developers foraying into new markets for growth: report

Mumbai: Many of the 12 listed realty players are focussing on new markets, other than their core interests, to shore up their market share and steer growth. They are expected to clock 15% year on year growth in pre-sales in the financial year 2024, a new research report by Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd said on Friday.

The Lodha group, which has Mumbai as its core market, has focussed on Bengaluru as the new market, while Prestige Estates Private Ltd has aggressively moved from Bengaluru to Mumbai with a slew of new residential and commercial projects.

Similarly, Oberoi Realty has added Gurugram as its new market where it has reportedly purchased 50-acre property on the Gurugram Golf Course Extension Road for a gated community project.

In December, Godrej Properties Ltd announced the purchase of approximately nine acres of land in Gurugram on the same Golf Course Extension Road for a premium residential project. Three days before that, it announced the acquisition of approximately 62 acres of land in Kurukshetra, Haryana.

Like Bengaluru, Chennai is another market that listed developers are exploring. Earlier this month, Godrej Properties Ltd purchased, outright, 60 acres of land in fast developing micro-market of Oragadam Junction in Chennai for residential plotted development.

According to the report, Bengaluru-based Sobha Ltd is strengthening its presence in Delhi NCR, while Garden City’s another leading developer, Brigade group is strengthening its presence in Hyderabad.

Chennai is also the focus of ambitious development by Mahindra Life Spaces, which had Mumbai and Pune as its core market earlier. It is focussing on developing large integrated cities, Mahindra World City in Chennai and Jaipur. Delhi-based DLF had made a bid for the Dharavi Redevelopment Project in Mumbai, but Adani Group’s bid emerged as the highest when the financial bids were opened.

“Most of the listed peers are targetting at least two new markets, apart from its home market, which will lead to a further pickup in their market share,” the MOFSL report said.

The report said NCR clocked 67% growth in calendar year 2022 as the sales across top eight cities surged to a nine-year high. Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Bengaluru also clocked 35% and 40 % growth.

The report said, in 2022, supply exceeded demand for the first time in the last nine years. In 2022, 3,13,000 units were sold, up 34% year on year, while the new units launched stood at 3,28,000, up by 41% year on year.

This had happened back in 2013 when 330,000 units were sold while 4,06,000 new units were launched. “Sustained momentum in demand and low inventory across top cities led to a surge in supply,” the report said.