They are not coming home as much as buying homes. NRI investors never had it so good while investing their money in ‘sweet home’. By 2022, when India celebrates the 75th year of Independence, NRI investment in real estate sector, according to estimates will be around 30-35 per cent of total NRI remittances. In 2018, according to a World Bank report, India received $80 billion in remittances, which included nearly $13 billion worth of investments in the real estate sector.

The overall NRI investment into primary real estate market in India is estimated to grow to nearly $25.7 billion by 2022, Deepak Vazirani, Head of International Business, Rustomjee Group, told BusinessLine . He said this is due to two factors. Firstly, since the last few years, India’s property market has been down by almost 10-15 per cent in most cities, including Mumbai. Secondly, the depreciated rupee has increased their buying capacity, which means an additional 10-15 per cent advantage. Thus, the NRI investor in real estate sector is getting an average edge of 25 per cent on bookings right at the time they enter the property market here.

With increased transparency and ease of doing business, as also the implementation of GST and the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, popularly known as RERA, investors’ interest has increased further. “Earlier, they mostly invested in luxury segment. Now they are investing in mid-segment as well as affordable segment. However, they take care to keep their investments safe with well-known and transparent real estate developers, and often have a local connection,” he said.

According to global and local real estate observers, NRIs are mostly buying properties in major cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Nagpur, sometimes in bulk through consortia. Currently, NRIs own about 8-10 per cent of the total real estate market in the country, particularly in Mumbai, as per Liases Foras, an independent market analyst. Key source countries of NRI investment are the UAE (20 per cent), the US (18 per cent), the UK (7 per cent) and Canada (6 per cent).

Related Topics