Sobha’s Real Estate Sales Dip In Q2

Sobha Ltd.'s sales fell in the quarter ended September even as its price realisation rose.

The Bengaluru-based developer's sales fell by nearly 14% over a year ago to 8.91 lakh square feet. In terms of value, sales dropped by 5.4% to Rs 530.9 crore, it said in an exchange filing on Monday.

Still, average price realisation rose by nearly 17.5% to Rs 7,737 per sq. ft.—the highest in five quarters.

Nearly two-thirds of the company's sales was in Bengaluru. “We continue to perform well in Bengaluru but dependency on Bengaluru sales volume has reduced from 74% during Q1-21 to 60% during Q2-21,” Sobha said in the filing. The company's sales volume in India's IT capital fell by 31% to 5.38 lakh sq. ft.

The company made no new launches during the three-month period—at a time when the country has gradually started easing the restrictions that were imposed following the Covid-19 outbreak. Enquiry levels are now back to almost pre-pandemic levels, it said.

Sobha said it remains focused on cash flow management and cost optimisation. “We continue to bring down our average cost of borrowing and as a result, cost of borrowing as of Sept. 30, 2020, came down meaningfully.”