BENGALURU: Several property developers, including top listed firms, reported sluggish pre-sales bookings so far this fiscal as regulatory hurdles and delayed approvals weighed on new project launches.
Prestige, Puravankara, Godrej Properties, DLF, and Macrotech are among companies battling lengthy project approval timelines in key markets such as Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Delhi-NCR. This has hindered launches of many premium residential towers, denting pre-sales figures for some and triggering declines or muted growth in sales bookings compared to last year.
Rating agency ICRA expects area sold in the top seven cities to contract by 2-4% in FY25, reaching 670-685 million square feet (msf), primarily due to lower project launches.
“The launches are estimated at 615-630 msf in FY2025, a year-on-year (Y-o-Y) decline of 10-12%. However, they are expected to rebound with Y-o-Y growth of 9-11% in FY2026, reaching 685-700 msf, supported by low inventory, sustained demand, and comfortable sales velocity,” said Tushar L. Bharambe, assistant vice president at ICRA. “Consequently, the area sold is projected to grow by 3-5% Y-o-Y, reaching 690-705 msf in FY2026.”
Project Delays Impact Sales Performance
Prestige Estates Projects reported a 38% drop in sales bookings at ₹10,065.7 crore during the first nine months of this fiscal as the company launched fewer housing projects due to delays in regulatory approvals.
“It was a modest quarter, with no new launches and limited handovers due to local bottlenecks related to e-khata. Despite this, we achieved ₹3,000 crore in sustenance sales,” said Irfan Razack, chairman and managing director, Prestige Group. Razack however sounded a note of optimism about future launches, saying ” several of our large projects are in the final stages of approval and are expected to be launched in the next few weeks.
These high-velocity projects, located across prime geographies, should drive significant sales volumes and help us regain momentum.” Puravankara secured pre-sales of ₹1,265 crore for Q3 FY25, a modest 2% increase from a year earlier.
