Sobha's property sales down 6% in FY'17 at 2K cr

Realty firm Sobha today reported 6.21 per cent decline in its sales bookings last fiscal at Rs 2,012.40 crore due to slowdown in property market.
The company had achieved sales booking of Rs 2,145.80 crore in the 2015-16, Bengaluru-based Sobha Ltd said in its operational update filed on BSE.
The company's sales volume dropped to 3 million sq ft last fiscal from 3.38 million sq ft in the 2015-16.
However, sales realisation increased to Rs 6,704 per sq ft from Rs 6,342 per sq ft during the period under review.
Sobha said: "This (demonetisation) had profound impact on the economy especially in the real estate sector. Third quarter performances bears testimony to the same, as most of the developers faced difficulty including your company."

The company said it has witnessed revival in demand in the Delhi-NCR market.

Sobha expects that the real estate sector would be able to transition smoothly to a new era governed by RERA (real estate regulation act) and GST Act.
The RERA Act would have huge transformational impact on the real estate sector. From GST, the realty sector should see some benefits on absorbed costs like cement, steel and other building materials, the company said.
"Union Budget has given special emphasis to the affordable housing segment. The infrastructure status would certainly help the real estate entities with impeccable governance practices to raise funds at substantially better interest rates," it added.

Sobha informed that its borrowing cost has been further brought down during the quarter by more than 50 basis points to below 10.5 per cent per annum.
The operational cash flow of the company remained healthy and positive during the fourth quarter of 2016-17.
Besides Bengaluru, Sobha has presence in Delhi-NCR, Chennai, Thrissur, Pune, Coimbatore, Cochin, Calicut and Mysore property markets.