Keystone Realtors to invest Rs 900 cr on construction of housing project this fiscal: CMD Irani

New Delhi: Keystone Realtors will step up investment on construction of residential projects this fiscal to Rs 800-900 crore as part of its strategy to ramp up execution capabilities.

Keystone Realtors, which sells its properties under the Rustomjee brand, is one of the leading real estate developers in the country with a significant presence in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

In an interview with PTI, the company's CMD Boman Irani, who is also president of realtors' apex body CREDAI, said the company would invest a lot in construction and land purchases this fiscal to grow its business.

"We will be investing around Rs 800-900 crore on pure construction during this fiscal. We invested around Rs 400 crore in the last financial year," he said.

Irani said the company has a surplus liquidity of around Rs 3,000 crore to make investments for growth.

"We raised Rs 800 crore from Qualified institutional placement (QIP) plus our internal cash flow," he said.

Irani noted that the demand in the housing market continues to be strong.

Hence, the company has set a target of 32 per cent growth in its sales bookings this fiscal to Rs 3,000 crore.

"We will hopefully cross that number," he added.

Already, the company has achieved pre-sales of Rs 611 crore in the first quarter of this fiscal, up 22 per cent from Rs 502 crore in the year-ago period.

During the entire 2023-24, the company sold properties worth Rs 2,266 crore.

Earlier this month, Keystone Realtors reported a 45 per cent decline in its consolidated net profit at Rs 25.82 crore for the June quarter of this fiscal on higher expenses.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 46.97 crore for the year-ago period.

Total income increased to Rs 437.20 crore during the April-June period of this fiscal from Rs 282.82 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Total expenses, including construction spend, surged to Rs 398.16 crore from Rs 216.54 crore during the period under review.

In June quarter, the company launched two new projects with an estimated GDV (gross development value) of Rs 2,017 crore as per its guidance of launching two projects per quarter.

The company acquired one more project in the first quarter with an estimated GDV of Rs 984 crore.

Keystone Realtors has 34 completed projects, 15 ongoing projects and 27 forthcoming projects. So far, the company has delivered 25+ million square feet of construction area, with a pipeline of 43+ million square feet of construction area in the works.