by THO
Real estate major DLF is hoping to receive approvals for its maiden project in Mumbai in the next few weeks, Ashok Kumar Tyagi, Managing Director, DLF Limited, informed investors during a recent call.
“…three projects, Goa, Mumbai and Privana Phase 3, are all under the approval process. Our current reading of it is that it looks like the Mumbai approval should come hopefully in the next few weeks, and we should be able to launch it. And the other two projects could overflow into the next quarter,” Tyagi said while replying to a question on the project launch pipeline.
“But again, while we have to report on a quarterly basis, this is not, unfortunately, a business which is executed on a quarterly basis. So, our three projects are under the approval cycle and we are hopeful at least one of them should be able to make it to the finishing line within this quarter,” he added.
DLF’s re-entry into Mumbai’s real estate market
In 2005, DLF purchased 17 acres of prime mill land in Lower Parel at a National Textile Corporation auction for ₹704 crore, the highest bid at the time. After the 2008 economic crisis, it changed its plans and sold the land to Lodha, also known as Macrotech Developers, for ₹2,700 crore in 2012.
In July 2023, the company announced its re-entry into the Mumbai real estate market. During the investor’s call for Q1FY25, the company said it plans to launch its first project in Mumbai by December 2024.
The company’s first launch in Mumbai’s Andheri is expected to be a premium project. It will tentatively have apartments priced between ₹6 crore and ₹8 crore. The company is expected to have 3 BHK and 3 BHK plus apartments. The first phase of the project consists of nearly 1 million square feet of development, the company had earlier said.
Ashok Tyagi, during the January 27 investors’ call, said that the Mumbai project that the company is currently launching in the first 900-odd thousand square feet, “frankly, the way we are accumulating the entire area, I think that number itself should, hopefully, over time cross a significantly higher number than that and that will keep us busy for maybe the next few years in Mumbai.”
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Asked if the Mumbai project had been delayed, he said that there was no delay happening in Mumbai or Goa. “But yes, those are newer geographies for us from an approval standpoint and the approval cycles are underway in both places.”
He also said that once the approval cycles are complete, “We should be in a position to launch. Right now, the way it looks, it looks Mumbai should launch first and Goa may be after some time.”
Aakash Ohri, Joint Managing Director and Chief Business Officer at DLF, said at the investors’ call that the company is seeing ‘good kind of demand’ in Mumbai.
“Mumbai right now, I’m seeing a good kind of a demand. Mumbai, I’m seeing the expectations also quite reasonable in terms of what we are looking at what price points approximately. But overall, I think there is a good amount of excitement for a DLF product to come into Mumbai.”
In September 2024, Ohri told HT.com that DLF is here to stay in Mumbai and that everyone is our competitor. “We will bring the Delhi-Gurugram residential lifestyle to Mumbai with the launch of our project in Andheri, and we see everyone as our competitor in Mumbai,” Ohri said.
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“Right now, I will say that everyone is our competitor in Mumbai. I am coming from outside and I have to say this. The company will essentially do what other developers are doing in the Mumbai real estate market when it comes to real estate projects. But what we will do differently is that we will package our product differently,” Ohri had said.
