Lack of buyers in the property market has forced country's largest real estate firm DLF to cut prices of its future projects by up to 15 per cent, while the firm hinted that unless the housing market improved, it could resort to "some kind of cutting" of jobs.
The country's largest realty firm DLF will launch 400 plots in Gurgaon on Thursday and is expecting sales realisation of about Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion) from this project over the next two years.
They have realised that there is a lot of money to be made from selling ultra-luxury villas at holiday destinations in India. The target customers will be high net worth individuals, since each of these villas is being branded as "second homes" and will be sold for upwards of Rs 2 crore (Rs 20 million).
Hurt by the establishment's statements that have the potential to dampen demand, the country's largest real estate player DLF Ltd asked the government on Friday to rather focus on augmenting supply and cutting interest rates to further boost growth.
Real estate giant DLF, which revived its process of entering the capital market last month to raise Rs 13,600 crore (Rs 136 billion) through its Initial Public Offer, said on Tuesday its IPO plan is on track.
Realty player retains dominant position, thanks to its enviable land bank.
The success of the DLF initial public offer might give more confidence to realty companies.
'Today, we have over 200 subsidiaries across India and we are one of the most automated companies'
DLF has received approval from market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India for its initial public offer, through which it is expected to raise a record Rs 13,600 crore (Rs 136 billion). "
DLF, India's largest real estate developer by market cap, on Monday said it has sold 49 per cent stake in some of its residential projects to private equity investors for a total consideration of Rs 1,675 crore (Rs 16.75 billion).
The company's profit stood at Rs 292.79 crore (Rs 2.92 billion) in the year-ago period.
Leading real estate developer DLF Ltd, which is aiming to raise up to Rs 9,625 crore (Rs 96.25 billion) through its initial public offer, plans to set up three townships in Chandigarh and its suburbs and Shimla.
Given its track record, cautious analysts are monitoring progress on these fronts.
The Delhi government on Friday strongly rejected charges of civil society activists Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan that it has allotted land to realty major DLF which in turn allegedly favoured Robert Vadra.
CLSA has downgraded select real estate stocks and expects most counters from this sector to consolidate in the months ahead after the sharp run seen in them in the last few months. Most positive factors in terms of a pick-up in housing demand and office space absorption, it said, are already priced in. "We expect housing industry demand to grow around 12 per cent in 2024 and for large developers to outpace industry to grow at 15 - 20 per cent.
Ruling out any probe into business dealings between Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra and realty major DLF, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday said the government cannot look into private transactions unless there are specific allegations of corruption.
Confusion prevails on the lock-in period of the about-to-be allotted shares of DLF Universal to the minority shareholders.
India's biggest real estate developer is considering a major human resource redeployment to boost efficiency and productivity. This may lead to a further reduction in its workforce at several recession-hit businesses, which the company denied. DLF plans to restructure verticals such as homes, offices, retail, special economic zones, hotels and infrastructure. At present, all of them have separate human resources, accounts and marketing departments.
Real estate major DLF announced a price band of Rs 500-550 a share for its upcoming initial public offering.
These are the top buyers of the scrapped electoral bonds, the data for which was released by the Election Commission on Thursday.
DLF appears close to bagging a Rs 30 billion convention centre project in Delhi, possibly the biggest in the country, as the company is the only bidder for developing the facility.
DLF joined the Asian big league in hotel deals after it sold Aman Resorts at around Rs 1,600 crore to the latter's founder, Adrian Zecha.
The company, which has already taken possession of land for the project -- it was inaugurated just two months ago -- is facing a cash crunch amid the prevailing economic downturn, which has slackened the demand for commercial real estate projects. A source close to the development said DLF was unlikely to go ahead with the project as its cash position was not comfortable and it did not expect many takers for the project due to the economic downturn.
DLF Ltd, which aims to raise up to Rs 9,625 crore (Rs 96.25 billion) through the country's largest IPO, plans to invest Rs 3,500 crore (Rs 35 billion) of the proceeds for acquisition of land and development rights in 60 major Indian cities.
In the March quarter analysts' presentation, the company had said it was targeting to raise a total of Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) from non-core asset sales in the medium term.
The country's largest realty firm, DLF, has mopped up about Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) as booking amount for flats it had offered in the second phase of its housing project in the heart of the National Capital.
Gaganjeet Bhullar dazzled with a solid four-under 68 in the final round to register a comprehensive five-stroke win at the DLF Masters golf tournament in Gurgaon on Sunday.
The National-Capital based realty major will also launch 9-10 million sq ft of real estate projects during the second half of the current financial year.
DLF, Unitech and other real estate developers may lower prices up to 30 per cent by mid-2009 to nudge buyers out of their "wait and watch" stance, according to experts.
The Kushan Pal Singh-led realty major has halted construction work on nearly 16 million sq ft of office and retail mall space out of the 62 million sq ft of planned construction. In the office space, the developer has stalled construction on nearly 12 million sq ft of office space out of the 36 million sq ft of space being planned.
The developer needs to realise Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) to Rs 3,500 crore (Rs 35 billion) from non-core asset sales, to reach its 2011-12 goal.
The company has already booked Rs 5,450 crore (Rs 54.5 billion) revenue from sale of 5 million sq ft it has sold to DAL. DLF on Tuesday clarified to the exchanges that it had been looking at various options from time to time but no definite option had been presented to the board so far for its consideration.
Mumbai land sale part of non-core divestment this year, counters DLF
In both good and bad times, we will do things that are good for the company and its shareholders. We are not a company that decides strategy on the basis of newspaper articles or analyst comments.
The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Thursday reserved its order on the maintainability of a writ petition filed by a local activist -- seeking a probe into allegations of irregularities against Robert Vadra relating to his land transactions with real estate major DLF in Haryana.
India's largest real estate firm DLF plans to invest about $24 billion for developing two townships in collaboration with Dubai-based Al Nakheel over a period of six years.
India's richest real estate entrepreneur Kushal Pal Singh on Monday became the country's third trillionaire in rupee terms with a sharp rise of four per cent in his group's flagship company DLF Ltd, pushing its market value to about Rs 1,14,744 crore
