Mumbai, Oct 10 (IANS): Top eight listed real estate developers in India have reduced their net debt by over 54 per cent in the first quarter of current fiscal (FY25) from the previous peak in FY19, a report showed on Thursday.

The net debt of these companies collectively reduced to about Rs 20,808 crore in Q1 FY25, from over Rs 44,817 crore in Q4 FY2019 when the overall debt of these listed players was at its peak, according to data by Anarock Group.

With residential sales creating a new peak across the top seven cities in the last one year, buyer demand is heavily in favour of branded developers. In Q1 FY25 alone, the booking value of these eight listed developers stands at Rs 26,832 crore.

According to their investor presentations, FY19 saw these top eight listed players with a collective booking value of Rs 27,144 crore.

In FY24, it increased to about Rs 90,573 crore, thereby rising by a whopping 234 per cent in this period.

Notably, the first quarter of this financial year alone saw their collective booking value at Rs 26,832 crore - nearly 99 per cent of the total value clocked in entire FY19, and 30 per cent of the total value in the whole of FY24.

“This is significant, considering that there are three more quarters left in the ongoing financial year,” said the report.

Dr Prashant Thakur, Regional Director and Head–Research, Anarock Group said that data shows a significant rise in their sales revenue.

“Some players even saw their net debt rise in this period. However, these developers also saw a high jump in their booking values over the year,” said Thakur.

The rise in debt is mainly due to their aggressive expansion across the geographies and many have been on a land buying spree across cities.

The net debt decline of the other players is due to the significant jump seen in the booking values over the last few quarters, said the report.