Abhishek Lodha, CEO and managing director of Macrotech Developers, also known as the Lodha Group, has said that residential real estate demand did not slow down in the last quarter or the first four weeks of January, and that the company plans to launch projects in Alibaug, Vikhroli, Palava, Pune and Bengaluru.

“We have not seen any slowdown in residential real estate demand. Not just in the last quarter, but also in the first four weeks of January, demand has been quite robust,” Lodha said during a recent investors’ call.
PTI quoted him as saying that the company is exploring entering the Delhi-NCR residential market as part of its strategy to grow its business beyond the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Pune, and Bengaluru.
“We are exploring entering the Delhi-NCR housing market,” he told PTI in an interview. He added that the company is looking to acquire lands, either outright or through a joint development agreement with landowners.
Earlier, at the investors’ call, Lodha said that housing demand is primarily driven by those with an annual household income of ₹10 lakh and higher and those focused on buying quality homes.
He also said that even if the real estate market slows down, branded players ‘will remain in a fairly good position.’
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He said the robustness of the real estate market can be attributed to two main reasons. The first is that the consumer base for real estate is not the entire urban middle class but a subset of it. And that subset, which is probably people who may have an annual household income of maybe Rs10 lakhs and higher, “they still, I believe, continue to do well, and that is really what is keeping the real estate demand robust,” he told investors.
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The second part of the equation, which is important to know, is that consumers have become increasingly more focused on buying high-quality homes,” which comes from a select group of well-reputed and branded developers. And whatever growth rate you might want to positively ascribe to the small group of 5, 7 maximum 10 developers, there is no way that the large-scale developers get anywhere close to meeting the demand that is there for their product,” he said.
“And therefore, even if there is a market slowdown in real estate, which happens going forward, I do believe that the branded players will remain in fairly good position, not that they don’t get affected, but they remain in very good position,” he said at the investors’ call.
He said that despite the fact Maharashtra has had two election cycles and environmental clearances getting changed due to an order of the NGT “which obviously has had an impact on launches, our sales performance is what it is, as you’ve seen, 25% up year-on-year, which partly shows that the business model matters.”
Lodha said that real estate demand for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) has been from end users and that the company plans to maintain its focus on entry-level mid-income housing between ₹40 lakh and ₹1.5 crore as well as release more inventory in the price range of ₹1.5 crore to ₹8 crore in their projects located in Palava and Upper Thane.
Lodha said that the company expects “a steady growth rate of approximately 20% per annum in terms of our sales, and a higher growth rate, of course, in terms of profitability because as product prices increase, the margin will only grow.”
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Demand from end-users versus investors
Responding to a query on investors versus end-user demand, he said that MMR is almost entirely led by end-user demand.
“As you know, Lodha does not allow any flipping or resale of units, which is very different from many other developers in other parts of the country. None of our units can be sold before completion, and that itself incentivises people to buy for their own use, not to flip. Occupancy generally is upwards of 80% by the end of 1.5 years after we hand over possession, which is another indicator that most people are buying only for their end use,” Lodha said during the call.
Lodha Group’s launches by FY25 end
According to Lodha, the company has planned several launches by the end of FY25, including Alibaug, Vikhroli and Palava.
“We have a launch in Alibaug, which is part of the South Central bucket. We have a launch in Vikhroli (Mumbai), and then we have a large aspirational launch in Palava (Lodha’s project near Mumbai). So those are sort of the four launches. We all have a new launch in Pune. We also hope to have a new launch in Bengaluru,” Lodha said during the call.
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Macrotech Developers on January 25 reported 88% increase in consolidated net profit at ₹944.4 crore for the December quarter FY25 on higher income amid strong housing demand, the company said in a regulatory filing. The company’s total income rose to ₹4,146.6 crore in the third quarter of this fiscal from ₹2,958.7 crore in the preceding year’s corresponding period.