DLF quarterly profit falls 29 pct on lower home sales

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - DLF Ltd, India's top real estate developer, reported a 29 percent fall in quarterly net profit, hit by slowing home sales in Asia's third-largest economy as high inflation and interest rates continued to deter home buyers. DLF, which builds homes, offices and shopping malls, said late on Thursday that net profit for the June quarter was 1.28 billion rupees ($21.1 million), compared with 1.81 billion rupees a year earlier. Income from operations fell 25 percent to 17.25 billion rupees, the company said. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election triumph two months ago and his promises of economic revival buoyed business confidence and India's financial markets, home buying has been slow as consumers remain anxious about the future. Sales in DLF's home market in northern India fell 22 percent in the April-June quarter while countrywide sales rose 5 percent over the same period from a year ago, according to Mumbai-based real estate data analysis firm Liases Foras. Founded by billionaire K.P. Singh, DLF, which is valued by the market at $5.9 billion, has been selling non-core assets to reduce its net debt, which was $3.15 billion as of end-June. Shares in the New Delhi-based company have risen about 19 percent since the beginning of the year, but underperformed the wider real estate index that has surged 31.1 percent during the same period. ($1 = 60.5500 Indian Rupees) (Reporting by Aditi Shah; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)