India is the ninth largest construction market in the world according to a Global Construction 2020 report by Oxford Economics. Growing at an estimated cumulative annual growth rate of 8.9%, it is expected to become the third largest market by 2020 and is globally acknowledged as an extremely lucrative business opportunity.
High property prices coupled with continued increase in home loan interest rates over the last six months and inflationary pressures will keep transaction activities restrained.
Bangalore-based property firm Century Real Estate Holdings is reportedly setting up a venture capital fund with a corpus of around Rs.100 crore.
The real estate sector has welcomed the CRR rate cut by the RBI and said it will help revive demand in the housing segment.
Analysts are worried and do not see a rosy picture ahead in 2012. According to them real estate companies planning IPOs in 2012 may experience a lack of enthusiasm on the part of investors.
In 2011 six big ticket real estate IPOs was expected to raise over $2.9 billion or Rs.13,000 crore. Emaar MGF, which could not raise money in the capital market in consecutive attempts even when market conditions were conducive.
Indian developers will borrow about $1 billion from private equity funds this fiscal year at rates higher than banks, which are cutting loans to builders, Knight Frank assessment suggests.
A recent industry report shows that FDI in 2010-11 was the lowest in the last four years. According to the FICCI-Ernst & Young real estate report, the FDI in the sector declined to 6 per cent of the total direct investment coming to India in 2010-11.
Rising cost and falling transactions are taking their toll on the property market in both the Delhi-NCR and Mumbai.
The ever-increasing housing needs in urban centers have caused home prices to shoot up to extremely unaffordable levels.