Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the earnings conference call of Godrej Properties Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode. There will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star and then zero on your touchtone telephone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Mihir Shah of CDR India. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Shah.
Thank you. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us on Godrej Properties Q2 FY23 earnings conference call. We have with us Mr. Pirojsha Godrej, Executive Chairman, Mr. Mohit Malhotra, Managing Director and CEO, Mr. Gaurav Pandey, Managing Director and CEO Designate, and Mr. Rajendra Khetawat, CFO of the company. Before we begin, I'd like to point out that certain statements made in today's call may be forward-looking in nature, and a disclaimer to this effect has been included in the presentation shared with you earlier. I'd like to invite Mr. Godrej to share his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us for Godrej Properties' second quarter financial year 2023 conference call. I'll begin by discussing the highlights of the quarter. We then look forward to taking your suggestions and questions. While the global macroeconomic situation deteriorated in the second quarter, the Indian economy has continued to perform well, and residential demand in India has remained strong. I'm happy to report that Godrej Properties reported its highest ever first half sales of INR 4,929 crore. It's a sale of 4,710 homes comprising an area of 5.54 million sq ft. This represents year-on-year value growth of 60% and year-on-year volume growth of 26%.
During the second quarter, sales stood at INR 2,409 crore, so the sale of 2,410 homes with an area of 3.71 million sq ft. This is slightly below the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year. We believe this sets us up well for the year ahead and to achieve our guidance of INR 10,000 crore. We are expecting that the second half will be exceptionally strong given the sales launches that we have planned, and that we will exceed our INR 10,000 crore booking values guidance for the year. We also focused on opportunities to take price increases across our portfolio, both to offset commodity price inflation and to aid in margin expansion.
On the operations front, while project completions were muted in this quarter, we remain on track to deliver a large number of projects in the second half of the financial year and expect deliveries this year to be well in excess of 10 million sq ft. Due to limited project supply in Q2, our revenue was moderate at INR 327 crore, a year-on-year growth of 13%. Our adjusted EBITDA declined by 8% to INR 98 crore, while our net profit grew by 54% to INR 55 crore. Net operating cash flows for the quarter were robust at INR 721 crore. We made significant progress on several of our facilities and ESG deliverables during the quarter, and our DE&I team was also recognized for the third consecutive year as a global leader in ESG performance by the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark.
From a development perspective, we added two new projects during the quarter, a luxury residential development near Carmichael Road in Mumbai, with an estimated sales potential of approximately INR 1,200 crore, and a new project at Indiranagar Extension in Bangalore with an estimated sales potential of approximately INR 750 crore. Post Q2, we have added two new residential projects in Panvel in Mumbai Metropolitan Region and in Hinjewadi in Pune, with an estimated combined sales potential of INR 2,500 crore. For the financial year to date, we have added six new projects with an estimated sales potential of INR 1,000 crore. Our business development pipeline is the strongest it has ever been, and we are confident of meeting our previous guidance of INR 15,000 crore or more of future booking from projects added within the year.
Before I conclude my remarks, I'd like to mention that based on feedback and suggestions received from the investor community, we have improved our disclosures in the current quarter's investor presentation. In the annex of our quarterly presentation, we have added details including accounting methods, cumulative area launched, area sold, booking value achieved, collections received, and area delivered for each project. We've also elaborated on venture profitability by disclosing the interest income and development management fee income earned from joint venture projects during the quarter. We hope you will find these additions as useful, and we look forward to receiving further feedback so that we can continually improve the quality of our investor communication. On that note, I conclude my remarks. Thank you all for joining us. We'd now be happy to discuss any questions, comments, or suggestions you may have.
Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may enter star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Anyone who has a question may enter star and one. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We take the first question from the line of Parikshit Kandpal from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, Pirojsha. Congratulations on a decent quarter. My first question is on the business development pipeline. Historically, we have seen that the great years have been like two years back. We used to do about INR 15,000-16,000 crore. This year you seem to be confident of achieving it. We just wanted to understand out of this how much will be the MMR, because that has been the weakest link in our business development pipeline. And also, if you can touch upon any developments on the Vikhroli, if we can open up a new area during this year or next year in Vikhroli land parcel.
All right. Thanks for the question. Yeah, I think as I said, the pipeline, we are confident of getting to that INR 15,000 crore number. I think a decent portion of that should come from Mumbai. We have, I think, fairly strong visibility of INR 5,000 crore of booking value being locked in Mumbai, subject to deals closing as expected. We're actually quite hopeful that we might be able to even exceed this INR 15,000 crore number meaningfully. Vikhroli, any additions would not be included in this number, but we do expect a new phase launch in Vikhroli next year of about 1 million sq ft.
Sorry to interrupt. Mr. Godrej, there is slight, you know, echo that's coming from your line. May we request you to move the device a little closer to you and if you could repeat the answer because participants may have not heard [crosstalk] it.
Sorry about that. I hope. Am I clear now?
It's a little better, sir. Thank you.
I could understand what you said, Pirojsha, yeah. You said that you will try to exceed it at INR 15,000 crores+ and INR 5,000 crores may come in from Mumbai basically, right?
Right. Thanks. I won't repeat it then. Thank you.
Yeah. My second question is on some of the premium launches, high-ticket launches, especially, the Worli side and the Bandra and Ashok Vihar. Any update on these three projects' timelines? How do we see the launches panning out here? Any timelines here for these three projects?
Yes. I think on Ashok Vihar, there's been reasonable progress. We're still awaiting final approvals, but we're quite optimistic about launching that project in the fourth quarter. On Worli, we expect it to launch next financial year. On Bandra, unfortunately, given some of the issues, while there has been a little bit of progress, I think people prefer to wait and watch till things proceed a little further before giving timeline guidance on that one.
Okay. Just lastly, on the ROE guidance which we have given some time back, about 20% to be achieved from 2023-2024. Any update there? How do we see that happening now?
I think, you know, the 20% was also on the smaller base of capital. We've also done two QIPs. My sense is that it's from the capital raised in the QIPs, assuming sort of deployment takes a couple of years, and then at least three years thereafter from an approvals and actual OC perspective, I think it will take a little bit longer. We do expect to see meaningful earnings momentum both in the second half of this financial year and next year. Hopefully that will give the investor community confidence that we are heading in the right direction.
Okay. Sure, sir. Thanks for answering. Those were my questions. Thank you.
Thank you.
A reminder to our participants, if you wish to ask a question, you may enter star and one. The next question is from the line of Abhimanyu Kasliwal from Choice Equity Broking Ltd. Please go ahead.
Good evening, Pirojsha. Am I audible?
Yes.
Thank you so much. Pleasure connecting with you, sir. I just had a question regarding Vikhroli land and the DM portfolio. What kind of gross margins are we looking for the DM portfolio? That was my first question, sir. Secondly, this quarter we seem to have recognized some tax benefit of INR 50 crores. I wanted to know how we can project this, forecast this going forward. That would be very helpful, sir.
Yeah. On the Vikhroli land, I think the current arrangement is at 10% DMC. Against that, we would have a couple of % of marketing and sales costs. The rest would be the margin, of course, with some overheads, et cetera, also factored in. I'll ask Rajendra to take the question. Yeah. On the tax benefit part, I think, you know, there was a DTA which got created. This is, you know, you cannot predict. It all depends how your tax planning happens. This year, the provision, so we could trigger the DTA, hence there is a tax benefit which has come into the earnings.
Okay. Another follow-up question. Regarding the Carmichael Road project, I mean, it is going to be a very high-margin project, I understand, and we own it completely and almost 100%. Are we looking at a more transition to high-value, high-margin projects, or we are sticking to the mid-income range which we have excelled in Bangalore and Pune? What would you say, sir?
Yeah. I think, you know, certainly we will not be having most of our projects of the type of Carmichael Road. We're very happy if we find the right opportunities at the right entry point to look at luxury product type being a small part of the portfolio. Certainly, I think the bulk of the focus will remain on sort of mid-income housing. We have though been trying to position the project more into a premium housing bracket, where I think, which even our projects, recent projects in Pune and Bangalore that you referenced, we would describe as more premium than mid-income housing. I think we've seen, you know, good ability to both generate significant volumes and much higher margins at these kind of projects. I'd say Vikhroli is an example of one such project.
Our upcoming project, Godrej Ashok Vihar in Delhi, is another one. We have been focusing on trying to enter higher quality areas and, you know, therefore, deliver projects at a slightly higher value and higher margin. We do think that will aid in delivering higher margin expansion over the coming years.
Oh, perfect. Thank you. One last. Hypothetically, what would you give a ballpark in the for the next year or two? 30% EBITDA, 35%, what would you suggest, sir?
Yeah. Honestly, you know, we don't believe it's appropriate to give margin guidance. I think there are a lot of, you know, points in this sector that can change. You're obviously selling at one point and then going through an entire construction cycle. If you need any evidence of the challenges of trying to provide forward-looking margin guidance, then I think this year would be an ideal year to look at with the kind of inflation that has happened. We, to be perfectly honest, are not comfortable giving margin guidance.
That said, really, we are very confident in saying that the steps we have taken through business development in ensuring a higher share of profit in our projects accruing to Godrej Properties by ensuring higher quality locations that are at higher price points, and by some of the operational improvements we've made around digitization, procurement, you know, how we're handling sales and therefore marketing and sales costs. We do think all of these are directionally going to be very margin accretive, and we are confident again of those resulting in strong earnings growth over the next few years. In terms of giving margin guidance, we prefer to avoid that.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Puneet Gulati from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Thank you so much for the opportunity. My first question is, you know, if you can give some color on what kind of demand are you seeing. Are you seeing some bit of, you know, movement towards more investor-driven demand versus the end user? How is the demand between the premium luxury to the mid-income segment? Some qualitative [crosstalk].
Yeah. I request Gaurav, but maybe I'll take this opportunity to introduce Gaurav. As some of you would know, he's taking over from Mohit Malhotra as MD and CEO in January of this year. Maybe I'll request Gaurav to take the question.
Hi. Thanks for the question. You know, what's very interesting right now is we are seeing demand acceleration across segments. Of course, premium and luxury is seeing the maximum because it was kind of beaten down for the last two to three years. But it's not really specific only to one segment. If you look at price segments of 10-12,000 per sq ft, where we've seen great traction, but at the same time, even luxury projects that we've done, we've seen good traction. It's a very holistic price acceleration that we are seeing, and margin expansion is consistently happening over that.
Between the micro markets, any divergence in trends?
You know, one of the things we've noticed is that not just micro markets, northern markets have tended to see price acceleration. We saw that trend almost a year and a half back. That trend is now kind of catching up across all geographies for us purely because there is demand coming from end users and not just investors. Yeah. It's not really specific to a micro market in a city. It's kind of quite prevalent across all the key cities where we operate.
Demand across all segments, all micro markets, is that how it's a particular [crosstalk] thing?
Yes, we did. Yes. [crosstalk] Yes.
Okay. Great. My second question is, you know, if I look at the cash flows, there was an uptick in the operating, you know, inflows or the collections on a Q-on-Q basis, while there was a, you know, downtick in the outflow. How should one read that? I think normally it should trend in same direction and different magnitudes maybe.
Puneet, you know, I think, you know, it's, it is going to improve going forward. Now, there are going to be more launches and more completion milestones reached, this cash flow will become stronger in the coming quarters. The trajectory is that it is going to improving in the coming quarters. I think there's a slight difference, but it's, I think, you know, I think from period to period, for example, if some of the construction incurred last quarter that resulted in milestone collections could happen this quarter. I think, you know, directionally, obviously operational investment as a company increases will increase. We do think, operating cash flows both at a gross and net level, will see meaningful movement over the remaining of the financial year and the couple of years ahead.
Okay. Okay, that's it. My last one is, you know, on your land acquisitions, would it be fair to assume that whatever land acquisitions that you included in the previous quarter have been all completely paid off, or is there some element of deferred payment there as well?
No, there are instances of deferred payments. For example, we mentioned when we acquired Ashok Vihar that one of the appealing points about the project was that the land payment was staggered over several years. For example, there I think we've only a certain part of the land payment. Similarly, there would be other land payments that are still pending. In some cases, there is actually this quarter, we've actually made some land payments for new projects that we've not yet publicly disclosed because some of the conditions precedent we'd like to see in place before those disclosures are worked on. I think there's both some amount of land payments that have been made for new projects that are not yet fully disclosed as well as pending payments for existing portfolios.
INR 843 crore cash outflow for land includes something which you haven't disclosed so far. Is that the right way to read it?
That's correct.
That's it. That's confirmation. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Mohit Agrawal from IIFL. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. My first question is on the business development. We've seen last few deals have been all on the outright model. Wanted to understand, have we kind of shunned the JV-JDA model largely and/or is it just a tactical approach and we are probably, you know, this time, you know, we think that what are the merits that we see in an outright model versus the JV-JDA model, based on the experience that you've had over the years because you've done JV-JDA earlier and now you've moved to outright.
I would not really say we've moved, right? I think we've certainly incorporated outright as a greater part of our overall business development strategy, but we're still very much focused on doing joint ventures. I think we are to increase the economic share of projects that accrue to GPL, and therefore, in the margin that we can generate from each sort of unit of real estate that we sell. I think I mentioned that our business development pipeline is probably the strongest it's ever been. I would say a large percentage of that is actually through joint venture projects. I would expect a significant number of joint venture projects being announced in the second half of the financial year, in addition to a few more outright purchases.
The reason to sort of look at this economic interest increase is twofold. One, as I mentioned, to improve the share of the economics in the project that accrue to Godrej Properties. This is also something that we will have to tailor to the market environment that we're in. We still feel that there are land opportunities at relatively attractive valuations while leading developers across markets are doing very well. I think the broader sector is still in a liquidity crunch, and there are still good deals to be had.
We believe any deals done over the past 12 months or over the next 12 months are quite likely to be developed in an upward cycle of the market, and therefore, we'd be quite happy to lock in, you know, outright deals where all of that upside will accrue to us or joint ventures where a significant share of that upside will accrue to us. This may not always be. If in 4 or 5 years we feel the market is near a top, if we feel that valuations are not very attractive, we may well prefer to look again at more capital light structures. I don't think that we should through the cycle look at business development through a single lens.
We will remain focused on both joint ventures and outright opportunities in the next few months. As I mentioned, I think it's more coincidence that the last three, four deals have all been outright. I fully expect some significant joint ventures to be announced over the next few months.
Sure. That's helpful. On the completions, you know, for the first half you've done, you know, less than 1 million sq ft and you've reiterated a target of 10 million sq ft. How is it gonna be spread across the next two quarters? If you could give any estimate around what kind of revenue recognition we can see for the next two quarters?
Yeah, I think it'll be Q4 heavy, but you know, I think the pipeline is actually for even more than 10 million. I think even if some things end up slipping out to Q4, we're very confident the full year number will be in excess of this 10 million, but it's skewed more towards Q4 than Q3.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we would request you to please limit your questions to two per participant. Time permitting, you may come back in the queue for a follow-up question. We'll take a next question from the line of Abhinav Sinha from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good to see the higher disclosures, which are there. Now there are about 45+ million sq ft of, you know, projects which are still under construction, not delivered. Is there a broad timeline, and can we expect these to be delivered in, say, three years from now on?
Yeah, I think any project under construction should be delivered within this financial year or the subsequent two financial years. Unless there's, you know, one or two things we've just launched that might go a little bit longer than that. I think the 90% plus of that certainly should be delivered in this next two and a half years.
Okay. On the business development front, when you have been announcing these deals which have been outright purchases, as percentage of the Gross Development Value, what is the likely land cost associated here?
I think it'll vary quite a bit, project by project. I know obviously, you know, something like Carmichael Road can't be compared to a mid-income project somewhere else. There would be a range we can sort of take you through it project by project, perhaps offline.
it's say 15% on average, is that a correct number to look at? It should be higher or lower?
Abhinav, as Prashant said, obviously a city-centric deal obviously can be anywhere from 20% - 30%. But like, you know, in other markets, it will be somewhere in the range of 15%-20% on a GDV basis.
Okay.
So the [crosstalk].
The [crosstalk] Pune one should be more like 15, 20, right? Is [crosstalk] that correct?
Yeah.
Also, on to the color on sales, have you seen any impact of the rising interest rates on, say, the lower or mid-income segment as compared to others, or it's still too early for that?
Sorry, Abhinav, can you repeat your question?
Yeah. On the demand front, have you seen any impact of rising mortgage rates on the affordable and mid-income component or the lower ticket size component of your sales so far?
No, not really, Abhinav. I think that, you know, we've had now enough time we think to see the impact of inflation and slightly higher prices as well as this increase in mortgage rates. Demand looks to be holding up very well. We're quite pleased that we've achieved nearly 50% of the full year guidance in the first half. I think this quarter it looks like it's shaping up quite well, and we're optimistic that this will be one of our best ever quarters from a booking value perspective. So as of now, there is no concern on demand per se anyway.
I think it's important to keep in mind that while it's true that compared to last year, mortgage rates have gone up by, you know, 200 basis points to 8%-8.5%, by any sort of comparison, mortgage rates to 8.5% in Delhi is quite affordable. If we look at the last time the sector was booming around 2012, mortgage rates were in double digits, 10%-11% then. You know, if you look at affordability of residential real estate, I think the story is still fairly intact. We've had almost no price increases for a 7 year-8year period, maybe a 10% increase over the last year and a half. Mortgage rates that have gone up, but gone up from all-time lows.
Actually if anything, you know, I think people are truly aware now that both pricing and interest rates, if anything, are likely to go up further, so as to get off the fence and, you know, secure deals. But certainly in our own sales, we have not witnessed any source of concern as of now. If anything, data is telling us that we need to be faster in our business development and regulatory approval process. One of the numbers we track internally quite closely is unsold inventory as a percentage of launched inventory, and that number is now at about 11% or 12%, which is a historical low for us. I don't think, you know, sales either from a volume or pricing perspective is concerning right now.
Again, a lot of the focus will be on bringing more inventory to market.
Thank you, Pirojsha Godrej.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next question is from the line of Pritesh Sheth from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking my question. Firstly, on, you know, little bit of aggression into plotted development. We find one project in Mumbai, and we are building, you know, these inventory in, I mean, not so common markets. I mean, Bangalore, Pune are still kind of plotted development markets. Just if you can highlight the size of, you know, these markets and, you know, your confidence in terms of, demand, that that can sustain, for plotted development. That's one. Yeah.
I think, you know, plotted development is attractive sub-opportunity within residential. The advantages of it, of course, are that you can turn around these projects very quickly given the limited development activities. Your capital exposure from a timeline perspective is much lower. Your IRRs can actually be significantly enhanced in this kind of development. So far we've now had some experience with these projects. We've had successful project launches in Bangalore and Faridabad and Sonipat. I think we have a good sense of the demand and which seems to be quite strong and the returns which are also quite lucrative. We will continue to maintain this as a modest part of our overall business development activities.
Just a follow-up on that. Given, you know, it could be a highly competitive market because as you said, turnaround could be, you know, that way high. What is the value addition that, you know, we are bringing in in terms of project development and, I mean, plotted development? We had a Sonipat plotted development launch this quarter, which seems to be like 25% sold out as of the end. Is it just the timing of the launch, it happened quite at the end or, you know, or that's the response you have got overall for that project?
I'll request Gaurav to take this.
Thanks. Coming first on the Sonipat specifically, you know, we've seen a stellar kind of reported performance of that project. As you rightly said, you know, it was launched towards the end of the quarter. The figures that you are talking about 20%-25% is only the portion of what was launched then. And, you know, after that, we're happy to share with you kind of sold out the entire project at a, you know, even close to about 30% over the underwriting price. It's been one of our, a massive success recently. Now the focus is towards completion of that project. Plotted in general is the first part of your question was, the differentiation, right?
You know, what normally happens historically on the plotted project is that people have issues later on the title of the property, and it's not just about cutting and putting a, you know, a gate outside it, because that was the conventional way of doing plotted. People used to have a lot of challenges later on moving on. If you go to our plotted developments, the value proposition that you get is you get a decent well-laid road, you get amazing infrastructure from strong water drainage systems to electricity to water pipelines. These are people who are finally looking at long-term staying in these homes. The quality of roads, infrastructure plays a very important significance. We bring a lot of competitive advantage purely because of the operating excellence we've got in the group housing project.
That's the USP that people tend to get. Of course, with every plotted development, each project has a different pattern and style. Sometimes it's greenery, sometimes it is a massive club. We're quite confident on robust sales going forward in the upcoming plotted projects as well.
Sure. Lastly, just on bookkeeping, the customer collections that's in slide 10 versus the actual gross collections that we report in the cash flow statement. Is there a difference between the two, if you can highlight?
There is a maintenance and other items which we collect. That's the difference between the gross and the net. When we report in the cash flow, operating cash flow, everything is included, and when we say the net collection, those are excluded from the collection part.
Got it.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Manish Gandhi from KPMG Investments. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Good evening, and happy to see the disclosures, the extended disclosures. Pirojsha, first I would like to ask about Godrej Living and what you want to achieve through that.
Thanks, Manish. I think, for any of you who haven't heard about this, we've launched a 100% subsidiary of Godrej Properties called Godrej Living, which is going to be in the facility management vertical. Manish, a couple of things we want to achieve from this. One is, I think we think one of the very important long-term value creators for Godrej Properties will be to ensure that our projects post-delivery are maintained at a standard that is higher than is typical of the industry today. That therefore, over the long term, people see value in being part of a Godrej Properties development. We felt that having our own capabilities in this area was going to be important to deliver that long-term value creation.
Equally, as the scale of Godrej Properties increases, and we think the opportunity will be to increase scale tremendously over the next several years and really several decades, we do think we will be creating a large base of housing societies and complements that are part of the Godrej Properties family. We think there will be a lot of opportunity to look at business value generation through these societies and through this business. I think both long-term value creation to the core business of you know building and selling homes, as well as an independent opportunity for value creation in this business are the two things that we're focused on with Godrej Living.
Right. Wonderful, Pirojsha. My second question is on how the demand is shaping up in deals really, but in two parts. When you're buying a land, say about INR 300 crore or INR 500 crore in one side, and the other side is the joint venture. Do you see the demand scenario different in those things? Sorry, the competition different in land side or on the JV side? Or how do you see the color?
Manish, as I mentioned, I think, you know, the environment for business development we think is quite conducive. I think this will be hopefully a record year for business development overall. Very confident that we will actually see a lot of joint venture projects coming through over these next few months. I suppose if you mean big projects, there is somewhat less competition on the outright purchase side because the number of developers who today could cut say INR 500 crore or INR 1,000 crore checks, that number is still very limited.
You know, probably two or three players in each market at most. But equally on the significant size joint ventures, landowners or smaller developers really are looking to partner with leading developers, which again, brings the number down to a fairly limited number of players who can do this. Overall, you know, I do think what we have reported from a business development perspective over the last 12 months has been underwhelming, but extremely confident that, you know, we're going to see very strong additions over these next 3 months.
Yeah. Happy to hear that. Pirojsha, just a short one. If I am not mistaken, I think last quarter we spoke about two large deals in Mumbai: one purchase and one JV. Do you see by your commentary that it is slipping to the next year or something like that?
No, I think both the deals are on track, Manish. Hopefully, this quarter or next quarter at the latest, we can announce both of those.
Okay. Thank you so much. Can I slip in one for Gaurav?
Please.
Yeah.
Sure [crosstalk].
Yeah. Hi, Gaurav. Welcome. Just wanted your view on the same business development side on NCR. Given the market in NCR with the volume and price rise, market is very hot. Do you see it is different from other part or more competition to do deals in NCR?
Thank you. It's a fair question. At the moment, what we're realizing is across markets there is competition for good land parcels, right? The only advantage that we tend to get over some of our peers is our ability to structure a transaction which is a win for GPL and for a landowner, especially the JV partner kind for project. While the valuations, you know, are of course much higher than what it was say three years back in NCR, but the market has really moved forward. We are quite competitive, in our offers to landowners. Very soon, hopefully you'll see a, you know, single property deal announcement in NCR as well.
Yeah. Thank you so much and all the best for the team and Gaurav also taking over. Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much.
Thank [crosstalk] you. The next question is from the line of Parvez Qazi from Edelweiss Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you.
Hi, good evening, and thanks for taking my question. Just wanted to get your views on price hikes. Did we take any price hikes in Q2, and what was the quantum? Also, your views on the quantum of price hikes which can possibly happen in future going ahead. Keeping in mind obviously the increase in mortgage rates.
We managed to increase, you know, price increase across our portfolio, and depending on project to project, it's been between 2%-5%. Incidentally, what is heartening to note that, unlike previous quarters when the cost inflation was very high, the previous quarter was quite good for us on the cost side. If this trend kind of continues, we might see positive upside in the next 2 quarters-3 quarters of the margin potential as well.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Kunal Lakhan from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Yeah, yeah. Good evening. Firstly, thanks for the additional disclosures. Just on those disclosures. This, the share of value, or booking value, I'm assuming this is for the entire project, not just our share, right?
Correct.
Okay. Secondly, just trying to understand, what will be the balance cost on these projects to complete them?
Different costs for different projects, you know. Maybe, you know, we can take you through the top line. Obviously, you know, because it is all types of projects. Some are luxury, some are mid-income. Kunal, I think just to jump in also, I think, you know, we did have a choice. We understand that, you know, some other developers are getting into giving us a cost guidance and margin guidance. Our sense is, again, in a real estate sector that I think we've all seen multiple cycles. You know, these estimates can change, and we don't think that we're actually adding value to the investor community by giving our own assessment of this at this time.
Because this, you know, as I was saying earlier in my remarks, this year is a perfect year where you've seen the kind of volatility that can happen on the cost side. I think general sense is that the community knows what approximate costs are, that hopefully the numbers we are giving is of quite detailed nature in terms of collections, booking value, and scale of project will allow a reasonable estimate of cost to be made.
Sure. Thanks so much. My second question was on the outlay on land. How should we look at that in the second half, considering that we remain robust on, you know, adding more projects? We have spent about INR 1,300+ crore in the first half. How should we look at this in the second half?
I think it will be quite considerably higher than the first half. You know, as I mentioned, we are expecting a very strong period for new project additions. Of course, investments to secure those will be commensurate. If you recall, you know, when we raised the capital in our last QIP, I think the goal was always to fully deploy it in this kind of period. We're happy that now that the opportunities are in place. You know, we have several advanced stage discussions that we're quite hopeful will fructify over these next few months. Hard to give a specific number, but certainly would expect it to be meaningfully higher than the first half.
Just to follow up on that, just in the long run, right, do we have some target in mind in terms of like, you know, the spend on land acquisition would be, say, in line with the operating cash flow? Or, you know, is there some metrics in mind that you have for the long term?
Yeah, I think that's fair. I think the idea through the last QIP was to sort of reset the scale of the company. I think if we are able to do the kind of BD we think is possible, this year and next year, that will be achieved. I think the scale then of operating cash flows will also be meaningfully larger and much more easily able to support strong growth, from those levels.
Sure. That's helpful. Thank you so much and all the best.
Thanks, Kunal.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sameer Baisiwala from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you so much, and good evening, everyone. Pirojsha, if you are looking to deliver 10 million sq ft in next about 4 or 5 months, is there something to worry about in terms of costs spiking up?
Sorry, I didn't quite catch that. Yeah, I think there of course have been cost escalations. We've I think we discussed a little bit on the last call, Sameer. I think it's clearly over what we would have hoped at the start of the year. I think the projects that are up for OC this year will have had a negative cost impact due to the kind of escalations that happened there. Of course, some escalations, et cetera, would be budgeted. I think it certainly went beyond that. For projects that have been launched recently, these costs have been more than passed on. As Gaurav mentioned, I think some of this inflation tapering off will also significantly benefit projects up for OC in subsequent years.
Yes, I think, you know, there is a little bit of cost pressure for projects where sales have happened. You know, construction delivery is due this year.
Okay. Okay, that's clear. Pirojsha Godrej, you know, the question that we get a lot is what if it's fine so far, you know? But what if the mortgage rates move 9%-9.5%? Is that something that can, you know, spoil the party and, you know, this upswing in demand can, you know, can slow down?
Yeah, Sameer, many things can stop the party. You know, I think, as of now, reality is that, you know, interest rates are at actually quite comfortable levels by any historical standard. I think last year and the sort of response global governments undertook to combat COVID was really an exception. I think, you know, by any historic comparison, 8.5% mortgage rate is not that troubling. As I mentioned earlier also that, you know, purchasing real estate is not an entirely, rational mathematical decision. There have been periods like 2019 and, you know, early 2020, where affordability was excellent, but sales were very poor because sentiment was poor and because people thought things would get even worse.
There have been periods, you know, in, say, 2007, where despite many years of prices sort of doubling over previous levels, demand remained robust. 2012, demand was robust despite mortgage rates at 11%, 12%. My sense is that, you know, we're still at the relatively edges of the up cycle. More than mortgage rates, which I think, you know, another 100 basis points I would imagine would not affect demand very significantly. Perhaps as we start going into double digits, if in fact that happens, that you could see some effect on demand. My sense is the much bigger factor will be how are people feeling about the Indian economy. Is there confidence from a job security perspective?
On all of those things, I think Delhi is really at a relatively advantaged position at the moment. I expect this real estate cycle to, as most cycles do, have legs and last for seven or eight years. Certainly if there's anything we've learnt over the last few years is, you know, don't discount the possibility of unexpected developments hindering best expectations.
Okay. That's very clear. Pirojsha, as I look at your four key markets, you know, you now have quite a strong pipeline, you know, 30, 40, 50 million sq ft, and there's more coming. Beyond that, are you looking to expand outside of these four, Hyderabad and Chennai especially?
Hyderabad, we're open to if we get the right opportunity. I think our preference is, you know, not to enter the markets in a very sort of gradual way and do one or two projects. If we come in, we'd like to have clear visibility on a significant portfolio of projects. The clear focus though, Sameer, is to really deepen our presence in the markets we're already in. We think we have, you know, single digit share in each of these. Lot of opportunities for expansion through business development and entering new micro markets within each of these.
While I think a Hyderabad entry is certainly something we'd like to see happen over the next couple of years, I'd say our far bigger priority is to further strengthen the presence in the four markets we're already in, some of which, you know, we're only scratching on the surface of the potential available.
Okay, great. Yeah. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thanks, Sameer Baisiwala.
Our next question is from the line of Manoj from Geometric. Please go ahead.
Our expectations are on good pre-sales in the first half, and I think it's a sure PRS is launched. I think we will be able to exceed the guidance by a good margin. Thank you for giving new disclosures also. It's very helpful. I was looking at one project in Noida, Godrej Woods. I think it has been constructed very fast, as compared to the timeline you've given at the launch of project. Is this across the four micro markets or four markets or is it a project which you have built more faster? Can you give some color on that?
Thanks for the question. You're referring to Godrej Woods. Yes, you're right. One of our most successful projects. On the construction timeline, I think as an organization, we took a very strong view on reducing timelines across geographies. We had piloted a series of projects. If you see our historical amount of OCs that we tend to hit, why we're seeing a massive jump is because of the same initiative. So yeah, this is one of those projects where they were focused. We've managed to create an exemplary quarter on quarter growth on the construction development. You will continue to see that not just in Noida projects, but you know, other zones as well.
Okay. Is this other developer also focusing on that or Godrej is taking a lead in this area?
Say we are taking a lead, sir.
Okay, great. Thank you and best of luck.
Thanks.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Ankit Patel from HSBC Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Yeah, Ankit, we can hear you.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to know, last quarter, you mentioned, you know, the Bengaluru sales would be picking up in subsequent quarters. Based on what you have given now project-wise also, seems like the MMR and the Bengaluru projects, the bookings are not picking up the way the other projects are doing. If you could give some clarity on how this is progressing.
I think, you know, I wouldn't really agree with that. If you look at our best performing project during this quarter from a booking value perspective was actually Godrej Splendour in Bangalore, where we sold almost INR 400 crore inventory. It will of course take a little bit of time to rebuild the business development portfolio to the extent we'd like to see in Bangalore. We just also announced a new project addition during the quarter. I think we feel very confident that in all four markets visibility on new launches and business development is strong and will enable significant growth over current levels.
Okay. Now the Godrej Park Retreat Bengaluru, which has seen a booking area be much lower than the first quarter. I was referring to that actually.
You know, each project of course will have its own dynamics and perhaps there was a, you know, additional.
There's no particular specific issue, which is faced in these localities, right? That's what I was trying [crosstalk] to.
No. No, not at all.
Okay. Fine. Sure. Thanks. Thank you.
Thanks [crosstalk] to you.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. That was the last question. I now hand the floor back to the management for closing comments, I'm sorry. Over to you, sir.
I'd like to just say a quick thank you to Mohit Malhotra, who of course has led the company with great success over the last five years. He allowed me and Gaurav Pandey to do most of the talking on this call. Just take the opportunity to say a big thank you to him since this is the last time he'll be joining this forum. I hope we've been able to answer all your questions. If you have any further questions or would like any additional information, we'd be happy to be of assistance. On behalf of the management, I once again thank you for taking the time to join us today.
Thank you, members of the management. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Godrej Properties Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.