About 49 per cent of non-resident Indians, or NRIs, are looking to buy property in India purely for investment purposes, according to a study.
Mumbai and Delhi grab the top spots as the extremely viable options for property investments amongst NRI’s since the cities continue to be the most robust real estate markets in India.
The study, conducted by Sumansa Exhibitions amongst 15,000 NRI’s across UAE, said Pune, Gurgaon and Noida have emerged as hotspots for investments making it to the top five list of favourable cities. It further indicates that NRIs are not necessarily looking at their hometowns for investments.
“The survey result is not surprising as Mumbai and Delhi are the most promising markets as far as rate of investment and net profitability is concerned. Both these cities enjoy commercial prominence, location advantage and increasing wealth, as such the growth momentum either has continued or is stable even if the world markets have experienced economic crisis,” Sunil Jaiswal, Chief Executive of Sumansa Exhibitions, says.
“Pune, Gurgaon and Noida are in the top five as they enjoy the advantage of being in close proximity of the main cities,” Jaiswal adds.
Honey Katiyal, Chief Executive, Investors Clinic, India’s leading real estate consultancy, says, “NRI’s are choosing other cities apart from their hometowns and especially Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Gurgaon and Noida, which reflects the sentiments that the investors are looking for good investment options for increasing their wealth.”
Katiyal also emphasised that NRIs stand to gain from the sharp slide in rupee over last two weeks. The rupee has depreciated more than 16 per cent against the US dollar since July 2011. This has made homes in India increasingly cheaper in dollar price terms, an attractive proportion specially at a time the real estate sector in the developed markets remain depressed. Little wonder then, NRIs have been looking at the homes back home with renewed interest.
