Real estate major Unitech on Wednesday said it will invest Rs 2,000 crore this fiscal - 33 per cent more than last year - in construction of new projects, mostly housing, across the country.
The announcement comes a day after the Reserve Bank increased the short-term lending rate which may make home loans costlier by up to one percentage point.
Unitech has also fixed a target to achieve a 20 per cent growth in sales booking this fiscal to about Rs 5,500 crore as it plans to launch more projects this year in cities where it is already present as well as new locations.
“We have a land bank of about Rs 7,500 acres across the country. We want to monetize our land bank and therefore the company has decided to focus this year on getting approvals for more projects and then launching it,” said Mr R Nagaraju, Vice President (Corporate Planning and Strategy), Unitech.
He said the company has earmarked an investment of Rs 2,000 crore in the current fiscal year on construction against Rs 1,500 crore during last fiscal. He added that the company has launched 14 projects since January and plans to bring more this fiscal.
In February, Unitech had announced that it would launch 10 million sq ft of area in next six months, out of which the company has so far launched three million sq ft.
“We are aiming for about 20 per cent growth in sales booking in 2011-12 fiscal from about Rs 4,500 crore last fiscal,” he said and claimed that the company’s sales booking have not been affected because of controversies related to 2G telecom scam.