India’s top listed real estate developers are strategically shifting towards pan-India expansion, aggressively diversifying their portfolios beyond traditional home markets to capitalise on burgeoning demand in key residential hubs and foster sustained growth.
Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff
Key Points
- Top listed Indian developers are strategically expanding across major cities like MMR, NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, and Chennai to reduce dependence on home markets.
- This geographic diversification aims to tap into broader housing demand and mitigate risks associated with single-city market cycles.
- Developers with significant premium and luxury housing portfolios, such as Godrej, Lodha, Prestige, and Sobha, are leading this expansion strategy.
- The top 11 listed developers reported a combined pre-sales growth of 18% year-on-year in FY26, driven by aggressive multi-city presence.
- While most developers are diversifying, NCR-focused players like DLF and Signature Global continue to concentrate heavily on their home market.
All-India expansion is emerging as a major strategic focus for India’s top listed developers, with most rapidly reducing dependence on their home markets and expanding into high-demand residential markets such as the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the National Capital Region (NCR), Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, and Chennai.
New supply trends across listed developers, including Godrej Properties, Prestige Estates, DLF, Lodha, Signature Global, Brigade Enterprises, Puravankara, Oberoi Realty, Kolte-Patil, Keystone (Rustomjee), and Sobha Ltd, also point to a growing push toward geographic diversification, as these firms seek to tap broader housing demand, reduce dependence on single-city cycles, and establish national-scale residential platforms.
Leading the Diversification Trend
The most prominent players pursuing this strategy are Godrej, Lodha, Prestige, and Sobha, according to data from Anarock.
“The strongest growth was witnessed among developers with significant premium and luxury housing portfolios,” said Anuj Puri, chairman, Anarock Group.
The top 11 listed developers reported combined pre-sales of Rs 1.48 trillion in 2025-26 (FY26), marking an 18 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) increase, as developers aggressively expanded their presence across key cities beyond their home markets, the data showed.
Prestige Estates led the chart with a sharp 76 per cent annual growth in pre-sales, followed by Puravankara at 48 per cent, Rustomjee at 33 per cent, Sobha at 30 per cent, and both Godrej Properties and Lodha at 16 per cent each.
Only 32 per cent of Godrej’s FY26 pre-sales came from its home market MMR, compared to 55 per cent in FY21.
Of Godrej’s total new supply across the top seven cities in FY26, only 10 per cent was launched in MMR.
Impact on Key Developers
Prestige Estates also significantly reduced its dependence on Bengaluru, with the home market’s contribution to pre-sales declining from around 90 per cent in FY21 to 40 per cent in FY26, as Mumbai, Hyderabad, and NCR gained prominence in its new launch pipeline.
Of its total new supply in FY26, 33 per cent was in Bengaluru.
Lodha continued to reduce its dependence on MMR as well, with nearly 32 per cent of FY26 pre-sales generated from the Pune and Bengaluru markets.
Sobha’s expansion beyond Bengaluru also accelerated in FY26, with nearly one-third of its launches and sales contribution coming from other markets.
Brigade Enterprises and Puravankara also expanded their footprint across Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, and Mumbai.
Exceptions to the Trend
Bucking the trend, NCR-focused DLF remained heavily concentrated in its home market, with nearly 90 per cent of FY26 pre-sales originating from the region.
Signature Global also remained entirely NCR-centric during FY26.
“There is sound logic involved in India’s leading developers transitioning from regional brands to national residential platforms.
“Players diversifying their geographic exposure are better positioned to capture demand across multiple high-growth corridors while reducing dependence on single-city market cycles.
“The data clearly highlights that multi-city expansion, particularly in premium and luxury housing, is emerging as the key growth driver for listed developers,” Puri added.
