Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to DLF Limited Q1 FY 2024 earnings conference call. We have with us today on the call Mr. Ashok Tya gi, Whole-time Director and CEO, DLF Limited; Mr. Vivek Anand, Group CFO; Mr. Sriram Khattar, MD, Retail Business; and Mr. Aakash Ohri, Chief Business Officer and Group Executive Director. At this moment, all participants are in listen-only mode. A question and answer session will be conducted towards the end of the session. At that time, you may click on the Raise Hand icon from the toolbar or type your questions. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Vivek Anand. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Aman. Good evening, and welcome to DLF Limited Quarter 1 financial year 2024 earnings webcast. First of all, I'd like to thank all of you for joining us today. We are happy to announce that our business continues to deliver sustained performance across all key parameters. We will start with the highlights of the business. Financial highlights for Quarter 1 financial year 2024, DLF Limited consolidated results. The revenues stood at INR 1,522 crores, gross margin at 52%, EBITDA at INR 495 crores, net profit at INR 528 crores, reflecting year-on-year growth of 12%. New sales booking for the quarter stood at INR 2,040 crores, in line with our guidance. Our launch inventory across market continues to witness healthy traction from our customers.
We remain optimistic about the demand for housing as the cycle continues to remain positive. We are gearing up for bringing new product across the markets during the fiscal. We believe that macro tailwinds, along with the strong demand outlook, augur well for our business. In line with our stated strategy of entering new markets, we have announced our arrangement with Trident Buildtech Private Limited, to jointly develop a residential project in Mumbai. This is our SRA project, which is currently being developed by a subsidiary of Trident. We would be developing the first phase of the free sale area, totaling approximately 900,000 sq ft of sellable area. This will be a pilot project to understand the market dynamics and apply these learnings to see how best we can plan our expansion strategy in this market. We continue to focus on strengthening our balance sheet and cash generation.
Strong collections led to a further reduction in net debt during the quarter. Our net debt now stands reduced to the lowest ever at INR 57 crores. With these low levels of debt, we have almost achieved our commitment of being net zero and hopefully should end the year with a surplus cash position. I'll now move to the financial highlights for quarter one financial year 2024, DLF Cyber City Developers Limited consolidated results. Rental income grew to INR 1,047 crores, year-on-year growth of 13%. Consolidated revenue of INR 1,412 crores, reflecting a 12% year-on-year growth. EBITDA at INR 1,088 crores, year-on-year growth of 13%, and net profit at INR 391 crores, reflecting year-on-year growth of 21%. The office portfolio maintained its stability, while the retail business continues to follow an upward growth trajectory.
Q1 financial year 2024, consolidated revenue of DLF Cyber City Developers Limited stood at INR 1,412 crores, reflecting year-on-year growth of 12%. Consolidated profit for the quarter stood at INR 391 crores, year-on-year growth of 21%. We are experiencing strong demand for our new office developments. We have achieved pre-leasing of approximately 82% across our two new office complexes, DLF Downtown in Gurugram and DLF Chennai. We remain enthused about the growth prospect of our retail business and remain committed towards expanding our retail offerings in multiple markets. Our rental business has been conferred as the world leader in LEED Zero Water. We hold over 45 LEED Zero certifications by the U.S. Green Building Council, the highest in the world for any real estate developer.
The residential project developed by the company, The Crest, has been voted as the project of the year by U.S. Green Building Council, which recognizes projects, developers, and builders that have demonstrated leadership in the residential green building marketplace. Green homes play a pivotal role in reducing our environment footprint, fostering a sustainable and responsible way of life. These awards are a testament of our leadership approach towards sustainability and adoption of green building practices. With a strong pipeline of new launches planned for this fiscal and a strong rental portfolio, we remain confident of delivering consistent and profitable growth across our businesses. With this, I'll end here, We can now open the floor for the Q&A session. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, please click on the Raise Hand button on the toolbar or the Q&A tab and click Raise Hand. The operator will announce your name when it is your turn to ask a question. Please unmute your webcam and microphone while proceeding with your question. You may also send a question via text from the Q&A tab. Participants connected on the audio, may click star and one on your phone to ask a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Pritesh Sheth, from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
Hi. Hi, thanks for taking my question. First is, you know, again, on Mumbai, you mentioned 0.9 million sq ft of, you know, sellable area. What would be the, you know, GDV potential, your launch plans, your initial investment, into that subsidiary? Whether that project itself has further expansion possibility, and if yes, then how much it would be? Yeah, that would be my first question.
Okay. Coming to the Mumbai project, I mean, in fact, I'll use this opportunity to give slightly greater color to the entire project. This is a part of a bigger slum rehab scheme, where and we anticipate once the entire process is complete, the total sellable area, and I mean, I know in Mumbai we use built-up area, but the total sellable area should be in the range of between 3 million-3.5 million sq ft under the LOI, which is currently under development. Learning from our experience in Mumbai so far, the first phase that is being launched, what we are doing is, that basis, the slum rehab that has been completed so far, about a 900,000 sq ft sellable area is what's sort of consummated or very near consummation.
We are transferring that cleanly into a new entity where we'll hold 51-49, and we'll launch this. The total project on which we are taking a 51% stake will be in the range of, as I mentioned, 3 million-3.5 million sq ft. Plus, there are some adjoining expansion opportunities also that exist, but right now that is the broad indication. From an investment standpoint, we anticipate that the total equity, quasi equity or equity equivalents that we'll end up investing in this project should be about INR 400 odd crores.
There may be some additional working capital advances, but I think the equity piece of it should be ballpark in the range of INR 400 crores for the entire project, you know, in that sense, not just for this sliver of 900,000 sq ft which we have disclosed about. We will, at some stage, take equity in the parent company also, but there are some internal restructuring going around in that group, and we'll be able to sort of take an equity position only post those have been completed.
Sure. Sure, that's helpful. Just to clarify again, we had the SRA development, right?
No, no.
Right.
We did not have SRA. The SRA was owned-
Right
... entity called Sahyog, which is a wholly owned subsidiary-
Right
... of a North Indian developer called Trident. They had the SRA. We had no SRA. We have entered into this project because we did a lot of recce, and we realized that this particular project, A, was offering almost 3 million sq ft plus in the heart of Andheri, B, I think the SRA progress was relatively better than what one normally sees in the list of SRAs in most other projects
Sure. All the best for that. You know, welcome back to Mumbai.
Thank you.
My second question is on the increased vacancy that we have seen in the commercial portfolio, largely on the SEZ side. Any particular tenant, obviously, you know, I mean, whoever is left, has any further space to be vacated, and how do we see this, you know, trend going forward? When do we expect that improvement to come on? I think non-SEZ has been doing well. We have, you know, shown that in our pre-leasing post portfolio as well. Just your comments on SEZ portfolio.
In Q1, there has been a large tenant of about half a million square feet, which vacated in the Cyber City, Chennai. Because of that, the vacancy has temporarily gone up, and it's a minor blip. I am pleased to share with all of you that we have negotiated to lease that entire building of about half a million square feet to a strong American company. As we speak, the whilst the negotiations and handshakes are over, the paperwork is going on to give it on lease. Their lease starts from October 1, and therefore there is a temporary blip in the revenue earning, but it will pick up very quickly. Overall, the SEZ market has been a little weak. We have had the existing tenants take up space.
Fortunately for us, the vacancy has not increased because of that. We are quite hopeful that the Ministry of Commerce and the Department of Revenue, and the Ministry of Finance are in the final stages of issuing a gazette notification for floor-wise denotification of a floor-wise denotification for the IT, ITeS, SEZs. Once that happens, I think the take-up will pick up quite well.
Sure, sure. One last question to Vivek. We have now around INR 3,000 crore of cash in our balance sheet, where we will generate another INR 2,500-3,000 crore this year, rest of the year. You know, what are our allocation plan? You know, do we should we expect some dividend out payments this year, which would be higher than our usual payouts?
Hi, Pritesh. I think my response will always be the same, that, yes, this extra cash, whatever we are generating, our first priority is to put it behind growth. We'll continue with that priority. Secondly, we'll continue to reward the shareholders, as we've done this year.
Sure. Any specific growth plans you want to highlight, or it would be like, you know?
Well, like, for example, we talked about very recently, we talked about entering a new market, right? It is something which we are always exploring and evolving, right? There is nothing for me to specifically call out, but this is a continuous process which we really go through. As and when it happens, we'll be more than happy to share with you.
Pritesh, like Mumbai, once an opportunity sort of gets curated enough for us to put a disclosure out, we will definitely put a disclosure out. Right now, I mean, some of those are just very early WIs.
Sure, sure. That's helpful. Thank you, and all the best for the rest of the year.
Thanks, Pritesh.
Thank you. The next question is a text question from the line of Vasudev Ganatra from Nuvama. One, what are the exit rentals that we are expecting in FY 2024 and FY 2025? Two, how is our CapEx trajectory moving and our progress on leasing the vacant spaces in the rentals asset in DCCDL? Three, what is the pre-sales guidance and launch trajectory for FY 2024?
Let me give you on the Based on the March 2024 quarter, the exit run rate will take the rentals up to about INR 5,000 crores. Based on the exit rentals for March 2025, this will go up further to about INR 5,600-5,700 crores. These are just the rentals. To this, we have to add the maintenance and power income that we have, which will also grow to about INR 225 crores in FY 2025 and INR 275 crores in FY 2026. On the vacancies, I have just explained on the SEZ side.
On the non-SEZ side, I'm pleased to share that vacancies have been slowly coming down, and if we go as per plan, by the end of this year, we will have come down to a vacancy level, which should be roughly similar to what it was in the pre-COVID times.
Sales guidance, Aakash?
Sales guidance is basically the same.
Yeah.
The sales guidance, as we had mentioned last time also, continues in the range of 12 to 13. Given the fact that we are planning some major launches in the second half of the year, you know, I mean, obviously there is an upside risk to it. From a guiding standpoint, I think we'll still stick to the 12 to 13 number that we had mentioned last time.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Puneet Gulati from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you so much. My first question is, again, on, you know, Mumbai, if you can give some more color on what are you investing for the first phase? What would be, you know, the potential saleable value, and what are the liabilities associated with it? Just for the first phase, I think would be a good starting.
In the first phase, as you mentioned, the saleable area will be ballpark 900,000 square ft. Obviously, Aakash and his team.
Right.
Will do a recce of the sale prices prevailing in that area. I mean, you guys are all Mumbaikars, you will have a far, far better, you know, idea of that, so I wouldn't right now hazard. We expect that to be ballpark, at least the INR 900,000 to be ballpark, at least in the range of INR 2,000 crores, you know. That, obviously, the price points and all will be closer to the launch. The balance piece, obviously, is there. As we said, that we have, that we have, I think, broadly invested about INR 400 crores in equity or equity-like instruments, not in equity, but in equity convertible instruments in the entire structure.
We'll be basically taking hardcore equity in the upstream vehicles only once some of the restructuring at their end gets completed. This particular entity, we transferred INR 900,000 cleanly into this entity, and in this entity, there's a 51-49 equity, but this entity, to be fair, is a very thinly capitalized entity.
Right. you're putting INR 400 crores, and you get a 51% of the 0.9 million sq ft area, right?
broadly about 3.5 million sq ft.
What for the INR 0.9? Three and a half is for the full project, right?
Three and a half is for the total piece. This 0.9, you know, this 0.9 is being transferred at a pre-agreed price from Sahyog to this entity, Pegeen. The equity here is actually very. Overall, our investment of the 400 odd crores will hopefully give us a 51%, you know, equity or a stakeholding in the entire three and a half odd million square feet.
Okay, construction costs would be shared equally?
Oh, yeah. The construction cost and the selling price and construction cost will obviously be there.
Okay. Simply put, INR 400 crore for 3.5 million sq ft.
There's the selling price, there's the construction cost, and there is the slum rehab cost, which also.
Yeah.
which basically substitutes for the cost of land in normal circumstances.
Okay, what would that likely be, and for how much area?
No. Right now, we are focusing on first getting this 900,000 to the market. This 900,000, as we mentioned, I think should have a significant amount of both sales revenue and the, and margin. I mean, broadly, I think you guys will know what Andheri West price points are in this area, so you can do your modeling.
Yeah.
This will be a normal high-rise, you know, it will not be ultra-luxury. It will be normal, good high-rise. I think, I presume it will cost in the range of whatever INR 6,000-7,000 a sq ft that these things cost. I think the residue would be the margin that will be emanating from this part of the project. The balance is obviously because it does involve a lot of slum rehab work as well. The costing there obviously gets more complicated, and I think we are still trying to put our head and tie our hands. What we did not want was that unlike in the case of our other joint venture in Mumbai, Tulsiwadi, we did not want to sort of.
Right
.. sort of delay getting the first launch to the market while waiting for the bigger spool. Let's get the first launch to the market fast, and then hopefully that, A, would set the template, and B, you know, obviously start cycle of virtuous cash flows.
Okay. Hypothetically, sorry to belabor on this point. Hypothetically, if the further JV does not take off, would it be fair to assume that the maximum investment on your part would only be INR 400 crores and the balance construction cost?
No, no. If the balance piece doesn't take off, then obviously the INR 400 crores will also not be. will also in some form and shape come back for sure. The idea is that the balance.
Okay.
balance slum rehab, you know, there's an LOI sign. Slum rehab is proceeding.
Yeah
Fairly aggressive clip there, you know, in that sense. In fact, some of the analysts I know, you know, are aware of the clip at which it's happening right now. Honestly, I don't think that.
Right.
It's not that we are ending up spending INR 400 crore for 900,000 sq ft. I think if that is the question, the answer to that is a definite no.
Yeah. Okay. Understood. My second is, you know, on this quarter's gross margins number. Gross margin was slightly lower compared to the, you know, the previous quarter. Is that how should one look at those numbers?
Puneet, you're right. The current quarter gross margin is upwards of 50%. It's at 52, which has dropped from-
Yeah.
57 of quarter four. I think it's largely to do with the product mix, right? The super luxury of in the base, which is quarter four, we showed possession letters-
Mm-hmm.
For almost 26% versus 11% in the current quarter, right? That's the reason why we are seeing a drop in gross margin. If you compare quarter-on-quarter, it is almost flat, right? 53%, 52%.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
In terms of our guidance, I think, we've been giving that guidance that, current year we will be holding on to 50% plus, that stays. There is no change in the guidance on the gross margin. Again, Puneet, health alert, I mean, all of these margins pertain to sales done 4 years back.
Yes. Yeah. Right. I understand that. I understand, yeah. Okay, lastly, on DCCDL, how do you expect the borrowing cost to pan out? It's almost at 8.13%. Do you expect it to increase a bit, or do you think it has peaked out here?
You know, this is just grazing through the crystal ball, but, we expect this cost to go up marginally to about 8.2-8.25, and then plateau out at that.
Okay. Okay. Great. That's all from my side. Thank you so much.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Parikshit Kandpal from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead. Parikshit, you're unmuted.
Hello?
Yes, please go ahead.
Can you hear me? Yeah. Hi, Tyagi. My first question is again on Mumbai market.
Mm-hmm.
Typically, Mumbai market is almost INR 1 lakh crore in terms of volumes, in terms of value. You are kicking off your first project now. How do you think Mumbai will pan out for you in the next 3-4 years? What's the strategy here broadly? If you can help us understand what is the total development value, what is the total sellable sq ft as of now, and how big can this portfolio be to your overall sales?
Okay. As I mentioned to the earlier speakers, the current LOI that the slum rehab company has, in addition to a couple of adjoining parcels that they're trying to close, should give a saleable area of about 3.5 odd million square feet, somewhere between 3.3-3.5, depending on the final configuration. I do not wish to put a speculative price point in the, you know, on the horizon, but I think all of you would broadly be able to understand or make your own assessments of what the price points in India, Andheri East, that particular micro market would broadly be. You can make your own assumptions.
From a construction cost standpoint, we believe that the cost of constructing the sale area should be in the range of INR 6,000-7,000 a sq ft. The cost of constructing slum rehab is typically in the range of INR 2,500-3,000 a sq ft. Those are the broad numbers that we seem to be having right now, and we seem to be broadly working, which basically means that we should hopefully get a fairly decent return on this entire piece. The first 900,000 sq ft launch is an important launch for us, because that really is the first time that DLF is actually launching a project in Mumbai. It's like a pilot, you know, and hopefully if that goes well, then this entire equation will keep on multiplying forward.
Besides this Tulsiwadi, so any update there? Any progress there? I think there was the restructuring which was happening there.
No, Tulsiwadi is not in the midst of restructuring. Tulsiwadi is in the midst of actually in an acute, inter se shareholder dispute, you know, because of which, frankly, there's also a lender whose loan has been, you know, is delinquent. It's currently in NCLT, Mumbai. The lenders have initiated a process for share invocation, which, like responsible corporates, both us and Shapoorji Pallonji fully supported, but the third shareholder did not, and right now it's all in NCLT. I think given the multiple legal fronts that this issue is being right now challenged by the third shareholder, I think it will take some time before it really stabilizes in our system.
Okay. Just on this size, like, I mean, what kind of pre-sales on 3-4 years from here on? What kind of contributions can come in? Can it be as big as INR 4,000-5,000 crores contribution coming in from the MMR market itself for you in 3-5 years?
I think right now, much as I'm tempted to, I would keep my counsel to myself. Let's first get the 900,000 sq ft to the market. Let's understand what are the contributions we make, and then we can project more. I mean, at a INR 20,000 a square price, it's a different product. At a INR 25,000 a sq ft, it's a different product. At a INR 30,000 a sq ft, it's different. Where in this entire equilibrium the price points will eventually settle for a good sustainable sale velocity of at least like a INR 1,000 odd crores a year, is I think the key point, and in my view that it's still early days, but I think we, let's just sort of, you know...
I mean, clearly, we believe that normally if you see, most of our Gurgaon projects are in the range of, you know, at least INR 4,000-5,000 crores of saleable area, or of saleable revenue and a good 35%-40% margins. We don't believe that these numbers should be any different from here, but again, I would honestly hesitate to hazard a more specific number, right?
Are you looking for any commercial also? I understand it's a large land parcel once it gets cleaned up. Entire 3.5 million will have 16-17 acres, and maybe you look at doing some commercial there. What will be like?
You are correct that it is a significant land parcel. You don't get, you know, 3.5 million sq ft developable area in one contiguous parcel in, on the western suburbs. Potentially, while the first 900,000 would by and large, I think, be residential, that's pretty much done deal. On the balance pieces, there could be a segment of it which is commercial, but I think it's still subject to a lot of master planning that's going on, you know. We have set up an office in Mumbai now as well, you know, and we have a couple of very senior people who have joined us from the Mumbai market. I think we are clearly not trying to inflict our Gurugram knowledge into Mumbai, but looking at what the local guys do. I mean, honestly, in this entire FSI mass that we'll have, a portion of it could be commercial in nature, for sure.
Okay. Just the last question, sir, if I may. On this INR 19,000 crores of planned launches, so if you can give some more color on or give some names to these launches or some sectors where maybe segment on, so we can give some granularity to this?
Yeah. Yeah, I think, this is something we talked about in our last call as well. This 11 million sq ft of launch, we are holding on to the plan, which is, which includes a high super luxury residential in DLF Five. Almost 3.5 million sq ft, expected sometime in Q4. We have a high-rise luxury residential development coming up in Chennai, which is 1.2 million sq ft. We have large project, which is mid/high rise in New Gurgaon, Sector 76/77, coming up in Q3, that's close to 3.5 million sq ft. We have a residential low rise coming up in Chandigarh, Tri-City. Hopefully, the end or early quarter, Q2, end or early Q3.
We have commercial SCOs in multiple geographies, which include Gurgaon and Tri-City, and that happens, that's happening across quarters. That's around INR 0.7 million. The last is Noida, which is INR 0.8 million. Here we received OC, and I'm happy to share that the rental income will start coming in starting this quarter. We are continuously evaluating how fast we can monetize this asset. That's broad construct of 11 million sq ft of our, of our planned pipeline for the current fiscal.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is a text question from the line of Biplab Debbarma from Antique Stock Broking. 1. Are we going to use the surplus cash flow in expanding in Mumbai, as well as doing CapEx projects in DLF? 2. What are the payment terms in the Mumbai project, and what are the responsibilities between partners?
I answer the second question first. No, it's a joint venture, but the, we'll obviously recruit the requisite talent in the joint venture. Broadly, the local thing, which is the entire approval processes and the slum rehab, and all the processes that go with it, the local partner will be more adept at that. The construction, and sales, and branding, and financial closures are stuff that we do better, and hopefully, you know, we can bring those skill sets to the table. You know, obviously, you know, this is a continuously evolving process, so I'd say it's not like, you know, one time we cut a check and, you know, took 51% equity off the table.
This will be a evolving thing. As I said, ballpark, we believe that the total equity that we invest in this project, at least at the size at which it currently is. Tomorrow, another couple of million sq ft gets added, it's a different ballgame. At the current size at which it is, we believe that about INR 400 crores, you know, should be the total equity that, give or take, that we should be investing in it. If you see our balance sheet, you know, actually, already that money is invested, you know, in a couple of those entities there right now in a convertible instrument format, which once their internal restructurings are done, would get converted to equity.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kunal Lakhan from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks for taking my question. Firstly, again, on the Mumbai project, Tyagi, we have seen in the past, like, you know, that, in Mumbai, slum rehabs are generally very complicated, you know, long gestation, you know, approvals get stuck. You know, how have we safeguarded ourselves, in terms of, you know, such delays? Firstly, like, you know, where are we on the approvals? I assume you said that, you know, the slum rehab portion for the 0.9 million square feet is already done. So where we are on the approvals process here, and when can we expect the launch of this project, a formal launch? A related question is, like, what kind of product segment would we look at?
You know, DLF is known in Gurgaon for, you know, putting up these large, you know, apartments, and, you know, how will we look at, you know, launching in Mumbai, you know? Considering this will be our first project in Mumbai, how will we position it?
Okay. you know, let me first. What was the first question? I'm sorry. I understood the second one, the sizing of the project. Your first question was very complicated. Can you repeat it for me?
First question was in terms of approvals, like, you know, where we are on the approvals side.
Got you. Approvals and lessons learned.
Yes.
Look, Kunal, we honestly have reflected a long time before reentering Mumbai, as you know, in fact. Broadly, the 3 or 4 things we are doing differently here is that, A, we have taken 51% with the specific intent of taking overall operational control-ship of the project. I don't think there's any doubt on that we will be the operational people who will be running this project, be it construction, be it sales, you know, be it financing, those sort of things. Secondly, we took a project where the slum rehab is not a complete greenfield, but a brownfield. I think, if I'm not mistaken, some 27 stories of the first tower are already built in, I think, in that sense, a certain square footage is already consummated.
The third thing was, we did was, that we did not link the first launch to the entire slum rehab, you know, completion, all of those things. This FSI, which is consummated today, we are cleanly transferring into a new, into a new SPV, where, which is currently our 100% subsidiary, where we will issue 49% shares to the partner and do the first launch there. That actually the team which are doing the sales area construction and the sales and all of those things are completely, you know, isolated from the entire challenges that typically go in the slum rehab schemes. Parallelly, obviously, we are keeping a very close eye on the entire slum rehab and obviously the slum area construction, all of those things, and those will continue. The approvals of the slum rehab piece are already done, obviously.
The LOI of is clearly approved for the entire area. The building plan approvals for the sale area will, I think, go in shortly. You know, you can never say about approvals, but we definitely anticipate that the first launch should definitely happen 12 months from now at the latest, hopefully within this financial year.
Okay, great. Just.
No, honestly, you know, this is early days, but clearly, at least our first launch, and it's a matter of internal discussions, frankly, between the technical teams, marketing teams, and the partner. We are clearly looking at the, at least the first launch should be at a, of a product sizing and specs, where the velocity of launch, the velocity of sales is pretty high or reasonably high. That's where we're looking. Aakash, you may want to weigh in on the entire sales cycle of this entire piece. Yeah.
Obviously, if you see that West Andheri side, there's a certain ticket size that prevails there, and, you know, go a little further to Lokhandwala, there's some, you know, there's, I'd say a little better than what that area is. There's, what I have seen, there is a latent demand there. I feel that one thing that I can very confidently tell you all today, that the first trip that I made, and post that, I think there's been a considerable amount of feedback that I have got, which has been quite encouraging. I've been told I just hosted a very big brokers' conference, which was just for rest of India, nothing to do with Mumbai, but obviously the same kind of questions were thrown at me.
There is a lot of interest for DLF to come there. You're right, you talked about a certain way that we operate, and I think the DLF lifestyle is something that we will bring there.
e have been asked about sizes, which, you know, still in the making. One thing that you all can be assured is that it will be, you know, how we've been operating all over the country, you will have the same thought process, and what is going to be on the ground is going to be something that Mumbai is yet to see, especially in those segments. I will strongly encourage you all to buy. Because, you know, wherever we've been, we have, thankfully, you know, positively changed the market.
Here also, I think with all the intent that we will bring to the project, both from the operations point of view, of course, the concept and the product and all will be, you know, very exclusive, for the segments, I repeat, that we will bring in there. Rest assured, you will have, you know, our print in everything that we do there as well. We're also equally excited about Mumbai. On ground work and all that, I mean, we will only formally come in post all our approvals, but right now it's just an announcement. I think, you all, you know, please wait for this next announcement. Yeah. Thank you.
Sure. Thank you. Just to follow up on that, so to Tyagi, like, you know, you mentioned that it's a joint venture, and 49% stake is what partner has. I'm assuming he'll be contributing to the construction cost and overheads in accordance with his stake, right?
No, those will be done in by the SPV. I mean.
Okay
... the construction costs, the sales costs, the approval costs, will be costs of the SPV. The SPV profits will be distributed in the 70-49 ratio. Yeah.
Sure, sure. Just, the reason why I was asking was that, how well capitalized your partner is in terms of like, you know.
No, no, actually, hopefully, once the project hits the operating phase, neither of the two shareholders will need to put in money, because hopefully…
Okay
Aakash will sell at a price, the 70% account of RERA will be more than sufficient to defray the operating and even the slum rehab expenditure. Frankly, we do not anticipate putting any significant amounts of money into this project once it hits the operational stride. The monies that are being invested, are essentially twofold. One is, from the time that the operationally cash flow starts, B, obviously, in continuing to build on the slum area. You know, a lot of developers in Mumbai, what they do is, they just make enough for the first launch, then the slum rehab also stops, and then let's wait for the first launch.
We will continue to invest in slum area, because what we are targeting is that if hopefully we have 900,000 sq ft launched at the end of this financial fiscal, 6-9 months down the line, the next 1 million sq ft should be available for launching as well. We want this to become like a cycle, you know, in that sense. That is important. Also, you know, one thing which I thought I'll say at the end, but since there are so many questions on Mumbai, I just want to put for everybody's... I appreciate the fact because all of you reside in Mumbai. We are right now in the second half of the year and already underway, looking at 3 projects in Gurugram. One is what Vivek mentioned in sector 76, 77.
It's a project 4x the size that we are proposing to launch this quarter. The second is the DLF 5 piece, Vivek mentioned, and the third is the entire downtown project that Shriram will hopefully, you know, as I mean, step out across the next few years. Just as a reality check, the GAV of all of these three projects will be higher than Mumbai. Individually.
Okay.
Hence, I can appreciate the enormous interest around Mumbai.
Thanks. My last question is for Khattarji. Sir, you mentioned a little earlier about, you know, non-SBZ vacancy at the year-end, you know, being closer to, say, pre-COVID levels. Can you comment the same on the SBZ vacancy side? Where do you expect that to settle by year-end?
No, I wouldn't like to comment on that. As I said earlier, we are quite confident that Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Finance are working on floor-wise denotification. We expect that shortly. Once that comes, the ability to denotify and then to lease out will happen. Therefore, thereafter, the vacancy in SCZs will also start coming down. Will we reach pre-COVID levels? It's a little difficult to say at this stage because I am not yet certain on the timing of the notification. Thereafter, the time the development commissioners will take to approve the denotification floor-wise. Maybe during this call, at the end of Q2, we will have much more clarity on this.
Sure, sure. Thank you so much, and all the best, sir.
Thanks, Vinay.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Abhinav Sinha from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thanks for taking my question. I will take the hint of Tyagiji and bring it back to the NCR market. Sir, can you talk a bit about the pricing which has been achieved in Camellias and the Midtown project this quarter? How are things looking there?
Okay. I think you have almost given Aakash Ohri like a penalty stroke that he was waiting for all of these 45 minutes now.
Please go ahead, sir.
Camellias, obviously, is been performing phenomenally. Happy to let you all know that we are now trading anything upwards of, say, INR 45 crores to about INR 60 odd crores per apartment. We are looking at, in fact, there will be just another price increase. INR 60,000 a square foot plus whatever you can attribute even today. I'm talking about INR 60,000, just the BSP plus your PLCs and all that, is your present Price point. You have seen last quarter's performance.
We've got now the last, you know, some apartments left. Basically, these are obviously in Q2 also, we will take them out. Just to give you a little more in-depth analysis of where we are. We have in Camellias, out of the stock of these 20, 30 left, we have just about 7 of them, which are floor 8 and below. Why I specifically mention this to you is because if you see our valuations and you see where the numbers that we're talking about, INR 60,000 is already achieved, INR 70,000 is what hopefully we'll announce soon. You know, I see this going up to about INR 1 lakh a square foot in no time, because it is going to jump now.
You know, if you see the kind of valuations like what Mumbai does, and see the work and in fact, you all have seen, you know, the view corridors and just the vistas and all are so phenomenally good, the infrastructure, the kind of people, the social infrastructure. I feel today, if you're actually looking at if an NRI or anybody else wants to look at a good, green, safe, happy environment to invest in, and live there primarily, what is the option? One is that. Second, as I say, we are walking our talk in every other I mean, in terms of development for that area, both from operations point of view, and the hospitality.
Most importantly, if you see The Camellias as today, an average apartment is right now, a rental in an for an average apartment is anything between eight and a half to INR 10 lakh. This is, I'm saying that, the smallest apartment size, this is 7,400 sq ft. There, the demand for The Camellias, we are right now in the home run. When I look back, I think it's been quite a gratifying journey there. A lot of work, and I still recall 18 months back when we first came onto the first call, there were so many doubts you all had, where quarter on quarter, you know, one tried to allay them and your...
Where we are today is just now the final thing, but it's going to be valuation, and I definitely feel once more people trade. There was another thing that I'd like to add here. When the registrations happened in The Camellias, and this is very important for everybody to know, I was told that, you know, the market prices will drop, and there will be a substantial amount of corrections and all that. Let me happily tell you today, the retrade market in The Camellias, the last thing, the last apartment that was sold about a week back, has been sold at about almost INR 5,000 square foot, more than what I'm in the market at. That has further validated the kind of work that we've been doing.
All those, I'd say what people had presumed and assumed has also gone out of the window because everybody who thought that they could trade it below certain price points have also now, you know, realized that, look, this is not going to be an easy buy. That itself has established a good price point. Camellias there, I feel, please watch this space because I think that will be a benchmark for the country for sure. Everything else has been kind of achieved there. I think price points there will continue to go up, and I reiterate, substantially. Moving on to OMT. We've got some great traction.
That market, as you know, is a little bit of a, you know, different issue there in terms of price points had never been an issue, but I think the way that financially, how that, you know, real estate-wise, how that market operates has historically been a little bit of a problem with all check deals and all. Because of our policies and what we are doing, prices have definitely gone up, sales have been pretty good. We have replaced sales, collections have been pretty good for the last two quarters.
I think whatever work that we are doing in One Midtown today, a lot of work on ground that we did in Gurgaon to establish these communities, to make sure that our investors are also, you know, making money as we go along and sell. I feel as we are coming closer to handover, which will be sometime later part of mid-next year, you will see a substantial increase there as well, because that is Delhi. No matter what happens there, prices will have to go up. I think at this point of time, we are going to be launching the Tower D soon, sometime later this quarter. There also, there's again, just one, you know, I'd say 20% odd of the stock, which is now left.
The rest is all been done and is being realized as we speak. I think that the sales, the realization potential for our already invested patrons will be reasonably high there as we move along there as well. Both looking good, and Gurgaon and all you already know. I think, yeah, that's where we are.
Great to hear. couple of questions for Khattar sir also, if, you know, with your permission. One, we can see Mall of India now mentioned in the area under development, slide 14 of the presentation. Is this started now? And what are we looking as timelines here?
it honestly, the planning started quite some time back, but now we have nearly completed the master planning, and the detailed drawings should start in the next month or so. If all goes well, we will probably start in Q3 of this financial year, the construction.
Okay, okay. Sir, 1 last question on the offices front. We have seen large pre-commitments, you know, now you have about 82 odd% lease there. At the time of handovers, which I'm assuming is somewhere end of the year and early next year, do you envisage a shift from the currently occupied space to Downtown, or these are completely different tenants?
This has happened when we even did, say, Cyberpark a few years ago. About 10%-15% of the existing tenants in Cybercity do move there, and that is true for even Downtown One and Two. Downtown Four, there is one tenant which is going to move from here. As we speak, Downtown Four, out of the 2 million odd sq ft, 1.7-1.75 million is already leased. There is an advanced stage of discussion with another tenant who would also partially move from Cybercity. In Chennai, out of 3.3 million that we are doing, we've leased 2.9-3 million already. There, because the existing IT park was an SEZ park, we have not seen any movement from one park to the other.
In terms of timelines, we expect the occupation certificate for Downtown One and Two by late August, early September, and we are hoping to catch a sliver of rentals in Q4. The full rentals of Downtown One and Two will come in in the current year, and Downtown Four, the rental will start in the last 1 or 2 months of FY25.
Okay. For Chennai?
Chennai, Block 1 and 2, the rentals should start before the end of this financial year, maybe February, maybe March.
Right.
The third tower, which is given to Standard Chartered Bank, will start end of FY 25.
Okay, great, sir. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that would be our last question for today. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Ashok Tyagi for closing comments. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you once again to all of you for joining us today. You know, I mean, this Q1, lucky, I mean, the way we look at it, is a continuation of the last few quarters, where the focus has been on strengthening our sales, our, you know, our sales engine, strengthening the quarter-on-quarter delivery on profits and cash flow. I mean, you know, some of you may recall the days when DLF used to have the, DCCDL side used to have a net debt almost nearing INR 20,000 crore, and this quarter we are down to INR 57 crore, you know, which is as close to zero, hopefully, as it gets. The rental piece, you know, is now, I mean, it's actually witnessing a situation where hopefully offices and retail are both growing very aggressively.
We do have a slight, you know, our launch pipeline is more slightly tweaked to the second half of the year. Hopefully, in the second half of the year, you will actually see a lot of, you know, strong launch. After a long number of years, we finally reentered Mumbai, and, you know, there also, we should hopefully see the first launch in the next 9-12 months. Hopefully, you know, that should set the base for a more, a stronger pipeline there as well.
You know, frankly, yes, some of you did point out what to do with excess cash, and yes, excess cash hopefully is a good problem to have, and, you know, once we get used to having 3,000 or 4,000 crores lying in the bank accounts, we'll figure out the right apportionment between growth and shareholders' return, as you rightly said. Just, I mean, by way of a cautionary note, that a large part of that cash does get trapped in the RERA accounts as well. While it's there, some of it at least cannot be accessed at will, but that's the nature of the RERA piece, so, you know, no regrets there.
You know, hopefully, we continue to, you know, deliver what you, what the analyst community had been looking for for the last few years. We'll try to keep on improving our disclosure, as frankly, we've been doing over the last two or three years now. Obviously, if any of you have any offline or detailed queries, please feel free to reach out to Kuldeep. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of DLF Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.