The CEO of Palm Hills Developments in Egypt, Hazem Badran, expected an increase in the rate of delivery of units within the projects implemented by the company to 2,000 units in the second half of 2023.
Badran added, in an interview with Al-Arabiya TV, that the company was able to deliver 580 units in the first half, most of which were villas.
Regarding the impact of the depreciation of the pound against foreign currencies, Badran said, “The depreciation of the pound’s exchange rate affects us through an increase in the cost of production, and we hedge against this decline through 3 things. The first is buying building materials and building stocks for a period of 6 months, and the second is taking this decline within our pricing policy.” In selling to keep up, we change prices almost every week in our new sales.
As for the third matter, it is the allocation of 20% of the project units, which will be sold after the project is handed over.
Badran pointed out that the company’s unit prices increased in the first half of 2023 by 60 to 70%, compared to prices in the first half of 2022.
“So far, there has been no increase in default rates among the buyers of the company’s units, and these remain within the normal ratios, because with the high prices, the buyers keep paying on time to avoid withdrawing the units from them in light of the high prices,” according to Badran.
The profits of Palm Hills had grown by about 9% on an annual basis during the first half of this year, to reach 608 million pounds.
The company’s sales increased by 84% year-on-year, to EGP 19.6bn, during the first half of 2023.
As for net loans, they amounted to 3.1 billion pounds during the first half, compared to 1.5 billion pounds in the previous year. The company said that this increase reflects the growth of spending on construction activities to mitigate the impact of the high cost of building materials on profit margins.
