One of the leading privately held real estate developers Lodha Group has managed to sell 2,000 homes worth over Rs 1,600 crore ($238 million) in its upcoming project in Mumbai at a time when the real estate market continues to reel under subdued sales momentum.
In a statement, the company claimed it has clocked the sales in two pre-launch phases between July 2015 and February 2016. The project is to come up on an 88-acre land parcel the group bought from Clariant Chemicals in Thane two years ago.
The project will be developed in multiple phases with the first phase comprising 3,500 units across 1 and 2 BHK houses in 27-30 storied towers. “This neighbourhood has not only created super normal demand in a highly competitive market such as Thane but also revived its real estate landscape by reinforcing people’s trust towards appreciation and investment in real estate,†said Prashant Bindal, chief sales officer at Lodha Group.
While sales continue to be soft broadly, the pick-up in momentum may kick off revival of MMR, the biggest realty market in India. Indeed, the market has been showing signs of an improvement, especially in the luxury segment.
According to real estate research firm Liases Foras, the market saw robust growth in sales—35 per cent on year on year and 34 per cent quarter on quarter—as of Q3FY16. In a mark of return of investors and end users to the market, it has contributed the highest sales (37 per cent in overall sales) in above Rs 2 crore bracket followed by sales in Rs 1-2 crore range.
Overall, sales across the eight markets rose 7 per cent to 78 million sq ft in the three months through December, 2015 from 72.9 million sq ft a year earlier. The pace of growth, however, was slower than the 17 per cent year-on-year increase recorded in the July-September quarter.
Meanwhile, the developer, which boasts of owning the tallest residential project and the biggest land bank in the country, has over the years become the biggest group in terms of sales. It clocked sales of Rs 7,790 crore for financial year 2014-15, up from Rs 7,520 crore in the previous fiscal.
