Sales of hom
es and office space have been falling as Asia's third-largest economy falters under the impact of 13 interest rate hikes to curb inflation and the weight of the global economic slump.
DLF, controlled by billionaire Kushal Pal Singh and his family, said net profit in the three months to December fell to 2.6 billion rupees ($51 million) from 4.6 billion a year earlier.
The figure undershot analysts' expectations that DLF would post a 4.6 billion rupee profit.
"The macro environment continues to remain unfavourable" and it may "take a few more quarters for the company to regain full momentum," New Delhi-based DLF warned in a statement late Friday.
On top of slowing sales, interest charges on the company's heavy debt surged 45 percent to 6.20 billion rupees. DLF has been selling off $650 million worth of non-core assets to help reduce its $4.6 billion debt load.
DLF's tumbling earnings are a far cry from a few years ago when it announced a full-year profit of $1.5 billion for the financial year 2007-08, and the company boasted a market capitalisation of around $40 billion.
As DLF's fortunes sagged, this has since shrunk to about $7 billion.
Despite the downturn, analysts believe in the longer term India is still a good property investment bet -- one of the last few major countries where there is primary demand for real estate rather than individuals trading up.
