India’s commercial office segment has been the favourite asset class of institutional investors over the years. They have allocated USD 17.6 bn in the form of direct investments during 2005-2019. JLL research indicates that 294 mn sq. ft. of office stock would be eligible for REIT. This would translate to an additional investment opportunity of USD 35 bn in near term.
Colliers International foresees robust demand from GICs, with leasing by GICs across six major cities in India to be in the range of 32.5 million sq ft between 2019 and 2021. Over 2014-2018, occupiers leased about 53.0 million sq ft of office space in multi-tenanted buildings for their GICs. Bengaluru led the demand with about 20.1 million sq ft, followed by Delhi NCR and Hyderabad. Further, we found that companies from the engineering, energy and manufacturing sectors favoured Bengaluru, which accounted for 32% of GIC demand between 2014-2018.
Institutional investments increased in the last ten years and have improved investor confidence, risk appetite and transparency. Enhanced use of technology across asset classes have changed the outlook of investors towards Indian real estate. As a result, investments have more than tripled to INR 1,400 bn during 2014-18 as compared to INR 465 bn during 2009-13, says the latest CII-JLL report ‘Innovation Led Opportunities – Changing India’s Real Estate Landscape’, released on Wednesday, Aug 21, at the 11th Edition of CII Realty & Infrastructure Conclave.
GIFT City is located on the banks of Sabarmati River, connecting the business capital (Ahmedabad) and the political capital (Gandhinagar) of Gujarat State. It is spread over 886 acres of land. It features world-class infrastructure such as district cooling system, underground utility tunnel, automated waste collection which are being implemented first time in India. The city is designed for walkability and includes commercial, residential, school, club etc. Presently, around 200 companies are operational at GIFT City, employing around 9,000 people.
Better returns, a mature and transparent market are some of the factors that have made investors flock to the country’s commercial real estate. With commercial segment remaining the most favoured among all kinds of asset classes, high-net-worth investors and the uber-rich are now looking at pre-leased assets, primarily office assets, with hope.
Steady economic growth, favourable policy environment, growing preference of global occupiers for Indian offices and listing of first Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) in the country have put the India office market on a growth path, according to the half yearly update (H1 2019 – January to June 2019) by JLL India.
Let’s get straight into this question, which has been a concern among all stakeholders – financial planners, property owners, investors and prospective buyers – over the last few years. And only because real estate, particularly residential, did not yield the same returns as it did during its Golden Era of the early 2000s.
In terms of the overall brand gain for the year, Embassy has been way ahead of the competition curve post the REIT listing. Embassy has jumped from its last fiscal ranking at Number 5 to now at Number 2. As a matter of fact, Embassy is just 0.4 brand score behind Sobha Limited. Moreover, Embassy has taken a lead ahead of Sobha in terms of NRI perception. Moving forward, Embassy Group with diversified portfolio could have an edge over Sobha Limited.
The laws like U.P. Apartment Act 2010 and the RERA prohibits any such alteration of original plan after allotment without consent, but the development authorities take help of Govt. orders which are not applicable on Underdevelopment projects to eclipse the law and help private developers to earn windfall profit and delay the projects.
According to a World Bank report, India received USD 79 billion in remittances in 2018 – with a sizeable portion going into real estate. NRI investments into Indian real estate are led Indian expatriates from UAE, USA, UK, and Canada. In terms of Indian cities, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and Delhi-NCR currently attract the lion’s share of NRI investments.