DLF aims to double retail presence, develop malls, says chairman Singh
Enthused by strong recovery in retail consumption, realty major DLF Chairman Rajiv Singh has said the company has initiated the development of new shopping malls and looks to double retail portfolio in next five years.
At present, DLF has a retail footprint of 42 lakh square feet comprising eight properties, including malls and shopping centres, mainly across Delhi-NCR.
In a message to the company’s shareholders’, he said the company would also scale up development of housing and office projects.
Singh mentioned that the past couple of years have been one of the most challenging and uncertain times experienced across the globe because of the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“... Despite the hardships faced in the recent past, your company exhibited strong resilience during this challenging phase and has come out even stronger, delivering a strong performance across all key parameters during the (last) fiscal,” he told shareholders in an annual report for 2021-22.
Singh informed that DLF’s rental business (office complexes and malls) withstood this challenging phase and is now steadily recovering to normalcy.
“We continue to maintain a positive outlook towards the rental business and consequently are judicially deploying capital to further strengthen and grow the office portfolio by developing safe and sustainable workplaces across geographies including Gurugram, Chennai and Noida,” he said.
Given the recovery across the retail segment and consumption trends in India, Singh said the company has also “initiated development of the next line of retail destinations across multiple geographies.”
”We hope to double our retail presence in the next 4-5 years with these additions,” he said.
In the annual report, the company said that the retail business exhibited strong rebound despite temporary dislocations due to the pandemic. “Footfalls (in shopping malls) are steadily reaching pre-pandemic level with occupancy levels remaining strong at 97% across the retail portfolio,” it added.
DLF had in March said it would invest around ₹2,000 crore to construct two new shopping malls in Gurugram and Goa. It has also started a concept of high-street neighbourhood shopping centres and plans to build at least four such properties.
In the financial year 2021-22, Singh said the company recorded one of the highest new sales bookings in the last decade across its development business, primarily housing.
DLF’s sales bookings jumped over two-fold to ₹7,273 crore during the 2021-22 fiscal year driven by better demand for its properties, especially luxury homes.
The DLF Chairman highlighted that the company’s new products ( like independent floors in Gurugram) continue to receive encouraging response from the market.
DLF, the country’s largest real estate company in market capitalisation, has developed more than 150 projects so far covering over 300 million square feet. The company has a land bank to develop 215 million square feet of housing and commercial projects.