NRIs seem to be excited about the prospects of investment in Indian real estate. A recent report states that NRI investment in Indian real estate has doubled in the last four years.
As per the findings of a survey done by 360 Realtors, NRI investment in Indian real estate has doubled from $5 billion in 2014 to $ 10.2 billion in 2018. In fact, NRIs from countries like the US, UK, MEA, and Singapore have accounted for a quarter of real estate sales happening in the country during this financial year.
“A dwindling rupee along with the transparency that has ensued due to good regulatory decisions like RERA has emboldened the confidence of NRIs in the Indian real estate sector,” IIFL quoted Ankit Kansal, co-founder and CEO, 360 Realtors, as saying. “They are looking to make the most of the opportunity by buying property, both for personal use as well as investments.”
In fact, this upward trend in NRI investment in India real estate might just be the beginning of a new phase. Now that the market is more regulated owing to RERA and GST in place, the increased transparency has only helped the NRIs to think about investing back in their homeland.
The developers and promoters are also targeting the NRIs home buyers market with renewed interest. To add a cherry to this cake in the dwindling rupee that has made the Indian real estate more affordable.
The report also states that the NRI investment in Indian real estate stabilized during 2016-18. However, the market again gained momentum recently, powered by a depreciating rupee, high yielding rental returns and capital appreciation.
The report also mentions that the NRIs’ investment growth is largely driven by five cities – Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Gurugram, and Noida.
Coming to city-wise growth, Mumbai continues to be the most popular investment destination not just for NRI buyers originally from Mumbai, but also from North and South India. Over the last five years, NRI investment in Mumbai has grown by 74 percent.
However, the winner in this genre seems to be Noida, where NRI investment has grown by an unprecedented 350% since 2014, raking almost $1.4bn in 2018-19. This has happened due to facts like the place offers a better price and growing rental yields in whole NCR.
The major national developers are also heading for the Noida market, thereby giving buyers more options to choose from.
It seems that developers are also realizing the rising significance of the expatriate buyer base. Omkar, Godrej, Sobha, Alphathum, Vatika and Raheja, among others, are coming up with exciting offers such as subvention and assured rentals to attract NRI buyers.