DLF India's largest real estate firm, announced record sales in its $4 billion "super luxury" housing project near New Delhi, as affluent buyers rushed in to bag premium properties.
DLF announced that it sold 173 units in "The Dahlias" located in Gurugram for about $1.4 billion within nine weeks, illustrating the increasing trend among Indians to opt for luxury living as the well-heeled splurge on high-end items from luxury cars and watches to bathrooms of designer stature.
According to data from the analytics company CRE Matrix, this marked the first instance where the sales value from a single project crossed the 100 billion rupee ($1.16 billion) threshold within a single quarter.
The developer is offering 420 units, each averaging $8 million, in a 17-acre project that features duplex penthouses and outdoor terraces.
The firm proclaimed on Friday that the "massive reaction" has propelled its sales reservations for April to December to 191.87 billion Indian rupees, exceeding its own complete fiscal projection of 170-180 billion rupees. In 2023, DLF finalized the transaction of a luxurious living plan in Gurugram for $1 billion within merely 72 hours.
The trend of luxury home purchases by wealthy Indians accelerated after the pandemic as the buyers were not deterred by high borrowing costs and continued to look for larger houses with more amenities.
Mumbai-based Anarock Property Consultants says that last year, luxury homes accounted for 26% of all residential sales — more than three times the volume seen in 2020.
Experts believe this trend will continue into 2025 as rich people keep spending freely despite a large section reducing their expenditure because of inflation. Mercedes-Benz car sales in India last year mapped out an all-time high. Lamborghini, on its part, recorded a 10% increase in sales for 2024.
In the third quarter, which ended on December 31, DLF posted a minuscule rise of 0.5% in consolidated revenues while net profit soared by 61%, aided by one-time tax benefits.
One US dollar is equal to 86.1740 Indian rupees.
(Reported by Aditya Kalra in New Delhi; with Hritam Mukherjee and Yagnoseni Das in Bengaluru; edited by Leroy Leo)
