This is a Mint Premium article gifted to you.Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.
A bunch of listed realty developers announced March quarter (Q4FY26) operational updates last week. The highlight: record FY26 pre-sales or bookings.
Godrej Properties' pre-sales rose 15% year-on-year to ₹34,171 crore, 5% ahead of its guidance. Its Q4FY26 pre-sales at ₹10,163 crore was flat year-on-year, but rose 21% sequentially.
Peer Lodha Developers’ FY26 pre-sales rose 15% to ₹20,530 crore. March saw some deferral of sales due to the Iran war, the company said, this led to Lodha slightly missing its guidance of ₹21,000 crore.
Prestige Estates Projects achieved its highest-ever annual presales of ₹30,024 crore, up 76% year-on-year, with ₹7,697 crore in Q4FY26. After a pre-sales decline in FY25, Sobha’s FY26 pre-sales jumped 30% year-on-year to ₹8,136 crore – also its best ever annually.
New project launches, geographical diversification and easing regulatory approvals have buoyed pre-sales.
Housing, however, remains a high-ticket purchase. In some cases, demand can be discretionary and investment-led rather than end-user driven.
Against the backdrop of the ongoing West Asia war, the Street’s nervousness over future pre-sales and potentially lower FY27 guidance is understandable. The Nifty Realty index is down 15% so far in 2026.
Hopes of a truce triggered a temporary bounce in Indian equities, allowing realty stocks to recover some lost ground. But with peace talks stalling on Sunday, uncertainty persists.
The after-effects could weigh on housing demand and push up construction costs.
“We do see execution challenges—a lack of availability of labor force, who are migrating back to villages due to low LPG supplies, or the shortage of tiles due to shutdown of manufacturing facilities in Morbi,” said the Kotak Institutional Equities report on 9 April.
If 5-8% war-led raw material inflation is absorbed, Ebitda margins for developers could be impacted by 200-300 basis points, Kotak estimates, assuming a starting margin of 25%. This could increase up to 500bps if tensions elongate. Lower-margin developers such as Brigade Enterprises and Sobha could see a higher impact from the cost uptick.
Most listed developers have robust launch pipelines across geographies, positioning FY27 for a supply uptick.
Redevelopment of housing societies is emerging as a key supply driver, particularly in Mumbai, with participation from both large and small developers, said Anuj Puri, chairman, Anarock Group.
In March, Oberoi Realty announced redevelopment projects at Malabar Hill and Peddar Road, Mumbai. Aditya Birla Real Estate is redeveloping a housing society in Khar, Mumbai and expects revenue of ₹1,700 crore from the free-saleable area. Kalpataru is redeveloping a housing society in Andheri West with an estimated revenue potential of nearly ₹1,400 crore.
However, execution in redevelopment projects is complex and slow, leading to staggered supply and potential moderation in pricing expectations, Puri told analysts at JM Financial Institutional Securities.
Even before the war broke out, slowdown concerns in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region were surfacing due to affordability pressures.
Now, IT-driven hubs such as Bengaluru and Pune face downside risks amid AI-led disruption worries.
Overall, the demand-supply imbalance could weigh on property prices, especially if macroeconomic conditions deteriorate.
According to Kotak, realty companies are currently comfortable on leverage and have built stronger annuity businesses — buffers that were not prevalent during past economic shocks such as the covid-19 pandemic and demonetization.
This is a saving grace, but not enough to trigger a sector re-rating at present.
Harsha Jethmalani is a Deputy Editor at Mint with over a decade of experience covering stock markets and corporate India. As a key member of the Mark to Market team, she specializes in delivering cutting-edge commentary on market trends, the economy, and corporate financial reports.<br><br>Born and raised in Mumbai, Harsha’s entry into business journalism was a serendipitous pivot. Graduating during the 2008–2009 financial crisis, her initial goal of becoming a research analyst at an MNC was rerouted. However, what began as a chance career move quickly became a conscious choice; she discovered that financial journalism is a powerful storytelling tool capable of influencing and empowering the financial decisions of a massive audience.<br><br>Harsha began her career in 2009 at IRIS Business Services (Myiris.com), tracking mutual funds and interviewing fund managers. In 2011, she joined the Network18 Group, writing extensively on equity market trends for Moneycontrol.com and hosting pre- and post-market audio updates. Following a stint covering personal finance at Dalal Times, she joined Mint in 2016 as a Content Producer, steadily rising through the ranks to her current editorial position.<br><br>A defining highlight of her tenure at Mint was her extensive coverage of India's historic Goods and Services Tax (GST) reform. She chronicled the massive indirect tax overhaul from its initial conceptual and execution hurdles to its eventual streamlining. Her impactful reporting earned official recognition when her article exposing a spike in gold smuggling ahead of the GST rollout was formally acknowledged by the Office of the Director General of Audit (Central), Kolkata. Currently, Harsha closely tracks the IT, cement, real estate, and paint sectors. Her sharp news sense and ability to spot emerging trends consistently bring fresh, actionable perspectives to market analysis.<br><br>She holds a postgraduate degree in financial markets from Indira Gandhi National Open University and a Bachelor of Management Studies from Vivekanand Education Society, Chembur, Mumbai.