Realty firms gain from mid-income group housing

Aided by revenues from mid-income houses, net profit of property developers, such as Unitech and Puravankara Projects, rose in the first quarter of FY09, beating analyst expectations.Unitech, the country's largest listed developer, posted a 15.7 per cent growth in net profit during the quarter, mainly due to higher realisations the company made in the mid-income segment housing, in the range of Rs 40-45 lakh apartments.The company posted a net profit of Rs 423.31 crore in the first quarter of financial year 2009 as compared to Rs 365.67 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Total income went up by 17.19 per cent to Rs 1,054.37 in the first quarter of FY09 as compared with Rs 899.67 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.DLF, which is scheduled to announce its results on Thursday, also entered into affordable segment in cities such as Chennai, and Kolkata.Bangalore-based Puravankara Projects posted 40.62 per cent growth in year-on-year profit during the quarter due to higher realisations from the sale of apartments and income tax exemptions on its residential projects under section 80 IB.

The company sold 1,000 apartments during the quarter.The company posted a net profit of Rs 61.89 crore as compared to Rs 44.01 crore recorded in the corresponding quarter last year. The company's revenues went up by 30.88 per cent at Rs 157.58 crore as compared with Rs 120.40 crore in the last financial year.Pune-based property company Kolte Patil's net fell nearly 7 per cent mainly due to lifting of tax exemption on IT parks under section 80 IA. The company posted a net profit of Rs 31.46 crore in the first quarter of FY09 as compared with Rs 33.87 crore in the comparable period last year. However, the company's revenues rose 17 per cent at Rs 104 crore from Rs 89 crore due to higher realisation from housing projects.Hyderabad-based IVRCL Infrastructure posted a 15 per cent rise during Q1 due to higher realisation from infrastructure projects, on a year-onyear basis. Net profit increased to Rs 43.50 crore from Rs 37.87 crore in the comparable period. Total sales increased by 38 per cent at Rs 948.34 crore (Rs 688 crore).IVR Prime Urban Developers, the group's real estate firm, posted a 263 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 5.44 crore during the Q1 period as against Rs 1.5 crore, while the turnover went up by 55 per cent at Rs Rs 32.25 crore.