Good afternoon, and welcome to our third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. With us today, we have Sheyla Resende, our CEO, Luis Fernando Ortiz, VP of Business, and Edmar Prado Lopes Neto, CFO and IRO. This video conference is being recorded, and all participants will be in a listen-only mode during the presentation. After that, we will start the Q&A session. Before proceeding, we would like to inform you that the management's forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Changes in macroeconomic policies and legislation and other operating results may impact the company's performance. I would now like to turn the call over to Sheyla, our CEO.
Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Gafisa's third quarter 2023 earnings video conference. The third quarter of 2023 had the company continuing to focus on the execution of our strategic plan, increasing sales and revenue, and reducing our inventory. Another step in our transition towards the high-end products. Gross sales totaled BRL 206 million in the quarter and BRL 823 million year to date. That is the highest sales volume we have had in the past five years, and it is a 13% rise year-on-year. Net sales totaled BRL 177 million in the quarter and BRL 715 million year to date. That is a 2% rise year-on-year. In the quarter, cancellations totaled BRL 29 million, a 53% drop quarter-on-quarter, and a 45% drop year-on-year.
The net revenue in the quarter was BRL 266 million, and in the year to date figure, we had BRL 842 million, a 4% rise year-on-year. In the quarter, the company delivered three high-end projects totaling a PSV of BRL 167 million. The following projects were delivered: Ivo in Botafogo in Rio de Janeiro, Chez Perdizes in Perdizes in São Paulo, and Igara in Leblon in Rio de Janeiro. At the end of the third quarter 2023, our total inventory was BRL 1.8 billion, a 30% reduction year-on-year. Gafisa is preparing to launch a unique project devised to become a luxury global benchmark in Rio de Janeiro. With one of the highest PSVs in the history of Gafisa, the project heralds a new phase for the company in Rio de Janeiro. As part of our strategy in the high-end segment, Gafisa is participating in the largest luxury project in Brazil as the developer of the Cidade Matarazzo complex.
Our next launches will boost our presence in the high-end segment. These projects are located in more premium and privileged neighborhoods in the capitals of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro states, which bears witness to our strength and reputation as one of the main and most traditional building and developing companies in the high-end market in Brazil. Lastly, the macroeconomic scenario indicates that in the end of 2023 and in the following quarters, there should be an increase in economic activities and a decrease in the interest rates, which is favorable for our sector. We enter into the fourth quarter keeping to our strategic plan to consolidate our position in the high-end segment and to improve our financial and operation KPIs. I would now like to turn the call over to Ortiz, who will be presenting the operational and financial highlights in the quarter.
We will start off on slide five, showing the next launch in Rio de Janeiro. It's a unique project, one of the highest PSVs in the story of Gafisa. This next launch in Rio de Janeiro is in line with the world-class luxury benchmarks on the Carioca promenade. Across from the sea, with a privileged view of the Ipanema Beach and Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, the project will boast unprecedented services and experiences for national and international clients who have Rio as a reference and who seek exclusiveness. As part of our presence in the high-end segment, Gafisa is also participating in the largest luxury project in the country, building and developing part of the Cidade Matarazzo project. In the current stage, Gafisa is building the retail phase two, composed of five blocks that will house designer shops, restaurants, and an exclusive hotel, and accounts for 27,000 sq m.
Our construction is quite careful and preserves the history of the location, which is a natural, constant inspiration, and is modern and sophisticated with the quality that every Gafisa project has. As Sheyla mentioned at the start, we ended the quarter focusing on executing our strategic plan and with a strong performance in sales. In the quarter, sales were BRL 206 million and BRL 823 million year to date, the highest sales volume in the past five years, with a 4% increase year-on-year. Net sales totaled BRL 177 million in the quarter and BRL 715 million year to date. That is a 2% increase year-on-year. This performance also resulted in an important increase of 30% in net sales of delivered units, and also an increase that is even greater, 58%, in net sales of units that are under construction.
Without any launches in the first nine months of 2023, we still had an operating performance that consolidates and strengthens our strategy in the transition from mid-high to high-end products. When it comes to cancellations, we had BRL 29 million in the quarter, a 53% reduction quarter-on-quarter and 45% reduction year-on-year. Gafisa had record numbers in sales, both gross sales and net sales in the first nine months of 2023, as we can see in the next slide. We have had a record in the past five years, as you can see in the chart. We had our speed of sales at 28%, a seven percentage point increase year-on-year. In net sales, we had 89% in high and mid-high, and 11% in mid-end level.
We can see that continuing with our strategy to migrate to high-end, we had a 30% reduction in delivered units in the third quarter in comparison to the same period in 2022. The inventory is composed with high-end and mid-high end at 81% and 19%, respectively. Here we can see our PSV, which is BRL 167 million. The projects we delivered were Ivo in Rio de Janeiro, Chez Perdizes in São Paulo, and Igara in Rio de Janeiro. I'd now like to turn the floor over to Edmar, who will talk about our financial performance.
Thank you, Ortiz, and good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to start talking about the financial highlights. In the first nine months of 2023, our net revenue was BRL 842 million. That's a 4% increase year-on-year. This increase that we have seen since 2019, 196% to be precise, almost 200%. That really shows that the company has reached a new level, as Ortiz and Sheyla have just mentioned. In our assessment, we can see that the gross margin was impacted by the product mix from previous periods, and there was an impact of inflation. There is also a persistence of the high interest rates, which impacts our financial scenario. However, we have an improvement in the macroeconomic context. W ith our consolidation in the high-end market, I am adamant that the projects are going to give us better margins as of now.
Let's take a look at slide 12. We have two important points to discuss on it. The first is receivables and revenue to be paid. Revenue to be paid totaled BRL 198 million. That's in line with what we had quarter, so minor reduction. This is a healthy level for this transition moment of the company. Receivables, also a substantial value. We're at BRL 1.3 billion in this quarter. That is a decrease of 13.9% quarter-on-quarter. That is due to the lack of new project deliveries in this period, new project deliveries this year. The new projects are going to be delivered and launched next quarter and next year.
Now, slide 13. Let's talk about expenses now. We can see how the company has been reorganizing itself internally. We have reduced our overhead, and we are becoming more and more efficient. In this quarter, our SG&A expenses had a reduction that was 11% quarter-on-quarter, and it's an even bigger figure when you compare it to what we had last year. So it's a 35% reduction year-on-year. Our SG&A was BRL 37 million. That shows our commitment to becoming ever more efficient and also a commitment to having better and better indicators. Thank you very much for your attention. I'd just like to say that we continue to focus on the execution of the strategy we adopted for the past quarters. We have fulfilled the step towards our transition into the high-end segment, and now we can start the question and answer session.
We'll now start the Q&A session. Should you wish to ask a question, please send your question in writing using the chat box. Joao Pedro Salgado has a question to Edmar and Ortiz. The interest rates has been decreasing at a slower rate than expected. Can that have an impact on your strategy for the high-end market?
Thank you for your question. No, that does not have an impact on our strategy. This strategy is based on the best margins we can achieve in the long run, and that's what the company has been focused on doing. The fact that the interest rates took longer to go down than the market originally expected is not going to impact on our strategy. We understand this is an important change to the market, but that's going to give us an opportunity to improve our operating and financial KPIs in the company.
Matheus Meloni has a question. What about the timeline for new projects to be launched?
Hello, Matheus, and thank you for your question. We are preparing the new launches. They're going to be launched at the right time. We have one launch approved in São Paulo and the other ones are in the final phase of approval for launch. Vieira Souto in Ipanema should probably be the next launch. Also aiming to take advantage of summer in Rio de Janeiro. We know that these buyers will not only be from the city or state of Rio de Janeiro, but from other locations in Brazil and from other countries as well.
Felipe Mendonça has a question. As for your inventory levels, are they adequate as they are?
Thank you for your question, Felipe. I am going to put the slides back up. I think on page eight we have the inventory. Yes, our current inventory levels are adequate. In the first nine months, we have not launched anything, and there is a 30% reduction in our ready units. Now delivered units, which shows that sales has been performing well. Our inventory profile is quite adequate considering that we are going through this transition towards the high-end segment at this point.
We still have our portfolio of mid-high products, but we are shifting towards high end. When it comes to the geography, we are operating in Rio and São Paulo. We have a third of our inventory in Rio and two-thirds of the delivered units here in São Paulo. As the launches approach, as they close up, we are going to have changes in our inventory levels, and then we will show a new level for the company. Getting back to your original question, yes, our delivered units and inventory levels are adequate for our current business moment, and they show the focus we have had on sales in the past months. Thank you for your question.
If there are no further questions, this is the end of the Q&A session. This is the end of the conference call. Have a great day.