bengaluru real estate developer prestige estates projects reported a 35 drop in quarterly profit hurt by lower income from sale of apartments net profit on a standalone basis fell to rs 648 crore for the third quarter ended december 31 from rs 995 crore a year earlier operating income fell 167 to rs 4937 crore while expenses rose marginally to rs 441 1 crore higher volume of sales from projects which are yet to reach revenue recognition threshold impacted revenue chief financial officer venkat narayana told toi the results of prestige one of the biggest listed developers in the bengalurur real estate market mirror that of its competitors such as sobha and brigade sobhas profit for the reported quarter nearly halved while brigades fell 16 due to higher finance costs brigade however saw a rise in net sales a contrast to prestige and sobha puravankara and nitesh estates report their results later this week during the third quarter prestige launched one project of about 15 million sqft compared to about four projects in the first to quarters of the fiscal in the current quarter the company said it plans to launch two projects covering 2 million sqft sobha did not launch a single new project in the third quarter builders have been going slow on launches according to data from independent property consultants knight frank and jll the number of new unit launches in bengaluru dropped to a fiveyear low to 49684 units last year compared to 63261 in 2011 knight frank said in a recent report the residential real estate market in india has been negatively affected over the past few quarters due to weak macroeconomic data high interest rates and inflation leading to slowdown in sales that in turn affected the cash flow of the players who along with huge debt in their balance sheets had no option but to stall numerous projects midway