Prestige Estates Projects sales booking rose by 9% to Rs 1123.3 crore in the September quarter because of the high demand in it’s residential projects even during the pandemic. The Bengaluru based real estate giant reported sales of Rs 1026.3 crore last year.
According to the company’s presentation, its sales booking declined to Rs 1,584.4 crore in the first six months of 2020-21 from Rs 2,042.5 crore year-on-year.
The nationwide lockdown imposed because of the COVID-19 outbreak in the month of April and June badly affected the housing industry. According to PropTiger.com, housing sales in eight major cities fell 54 percent to 1,23,725 units in January-September 2020 year-on-year.
Builders with a respectable track record have reported improvement in sales since July. During April-September period, Prestige Group launched three new residential projects.
The presentation also revealed rental income from leased commercial assets at Rs 404 crore in the first half of this fiscal year. Prestige Group’s net debt stood at Rs 8,667.6 crore at the end of the second quarter with an average borrowing cost of 9.65 percent.
To reduce the debt the real estate firm is selling off its offices, shopping malls, hotels to global investment firm Blackstone for over Rs 9,000 crore. The deal between the two parties is signed and is likely to be concluded next month.
Prestige Estates Projects reported 40 percent fall in consolidated net profit at Rs 93.8 crore for the quarter ended September and a net profit of Rs 157.2 crore last year.
Total income stood at Rs 1,916.7 crore in the second quarter of this financial year as against Rs 1,962.7 crore last year. Prestige Group has so far completed 247 projects covering 134 million sqft area.
Prestige has completed 118 projects in the housing sector and is currently developing 30 more projects. It has completed 36 million sqft of office space and 15 million sqft area is under construction. In the shopping mall segment, it has completed 7 million sqft and is building another 3 million sqft area.