Indian real estate tops 10 key global markets

According to John Forrester, global president, Cushman and Wakefield, a slew of reforms introduced in the Indian real estate sector in the recent past have helped the market move towards greater transparency and is attracting more and more foreign institutional investors. RERA, GST, insolvency & bankruptcy law, have brought more sophistication and ease of doing business. Driven by the investment appetite for commercial properties, private equity inflow into Indian real estate sector has been strengthening mainly on account of foreign funds' direct exposure and platform alliances. Private equity firms have invested over $4.2 billion into India‘s realty market in the first half of 2019, up 10% from a year ago. There are a lot of demographic and economic tailwinds for India that don't necessarily exist in other markets, said CEO Asia-Pacific, Cushman and Wakefield, Matthew Bouw. While both Forrester and Bouw agreed that the residential segment is going through a sluggish phase, affordable housing continues to perform better in the backdrop of the government's objective of Housing for All by 2022. Given the issues of delayed deliveries and instances of rising consumer activism over the past few years, real estate developers' business models are changing because the capital infusions have become more capital-heavy, and because of the regulations. According to them, India is standing amongst the top 10 markets in the global scheme of things.