High-Flying DLF Has Turned Cautious. Why?

Rivals Godrej Properties, Lodha and Prestige are far more optimistic about their prospects this year

- Madhurima Nandy

Within a week of launching 'Privana North', its new premium highrise project in Gurugram in June, DLF Ltd sold all the 1,152 four-bedroom homes and the 12 penthouses, raking in about ₹11,000 crore. Last year, it sold two projects, 'Privana West' and 'Privana South', in the eponymous 116-acre township within 72 hours of their respective launches, for ₹12,800 crore. By far the biggest sale, however, was the super-luxury project The Dahlias, which raked in ₹13,744 crore after its launch last Diwali.

Much like consumers falling over each other to buy the latest iPhone, this voracious homebuyer appetite for its premium properties helped DLF, India's largest real estate developer in terms of market capitalization, become the second-highest-selling developer in 2024-25, after Godrej Properties Ltd. However, the company's ₹21,223 crore residential sales came largely from Gurugram, its home market, unlike Godrej, which operates in most of the top cities.

And despite the creditable sales performance, the residential and commercial property developer has given a rather flat guidance for 2025-26—projecting sales of ₹20,000-22,000 crore. Analysts at Elara Securities say the projection is cautious and conservative. In comparison, DLF's top three competitors—Godrej Properties, Lodha Developers Ltd and Prestige Estates Projects Ltd—are more optimistic, having guided for higher sales growth this year.

From DLF's perspective, rather than making short-term gains when the property market is on a high, the focus appears to be firmly on the long term. In line with this thinking, the company has laid out a five-year roadmap with a project pipeline of over ₹1 trillion that will roll out between 2024-25 and 2029-30. That roadmap involves land monetization, close to becoming zero gross debt at the group level, scaling up rental revenue, focusing on luxury sales, and generating ₹25,000 crore of gross cash for its development business.