Jhumur Ghosh welcomed the panelists, following which Ravi Sinha questioned the global competitiveness of Indian real estate in the wake of thousands of abandoned projects waiting for the funds, the debt-equity ratio imbalance, lending issues, pre-launches without RERA sanctions, and the developers’ defending the indefensible.
Lack of affordability in the larger cities is the primary hurdle to the largest investor base, and property investors are now looking at smaller towns and cities. However, their increasing bullishness on Tier 2 & 3 cities as against their tier 1 counterparts is not just on account of their relatively more affordable property prices, but also because of their better growth prospects.
Various Government-driven policies including ease of doing business in India are attracting both Indian and global companies, squarely benefiting commercial real estate. Big-bang boosters like the start-up revolution and the Make in India and Smart Cities missions have created a very lucrative environment for businesses to work and expand in India.
This policy ‘trishul’ brought about a paradigm shift in the way Indian real estate does business and laid the groundwork for improved transparency and efficiency in the sector. However, while end-user and investor confidence were rekindled for real estate, it did not exactly set the industry on fire with renewed interest.
The low consumer confidence has been linked as much to peoples’ lack of confidence in their own ability to pay as with the employment uncertainties. Collectively, the buyers’ risk aversion in today’s economy as well as the developers’ unfair business practices have eclipsed real estate like never before.
Year 2018 was a veritable roller-coaster ride for the Indian real estate. Despite signs of recovery across segments, the liquidity crunch – further exacerbated by the NBFC crisis – put all industry stakeholders on tenterhooks.
The Indian residential market volumes spiraled down in terms of demand and supply almost every successive year in this decade. From a high of 480,000 units in 2010, the supply last year stood at mere 103,000 units across the top 8 cities.
The International Real Estate and Investment Show (IREIS, a B2C sales and networking platform where spot sales are permitted, the 10th edition is bringing leading local and foreign real estate developers under one roof will reflect the attractiveness of UAE‟s real estate sector and will attract investors from various parts of the world.
Till a decade back such was the mad rush for raising money in the capital market that even the real estate companies with limited presence in select micro markets started launching projects across the country to showcase a pan-India presence. Significant increase in housing demand, organized retailing and liquidity boom from 2003 to 2008, led to huge increase in land prices and real estate values and most real estate companies had a great run.
MORE till date has invested capital in the real estate sector through three real estate funds and PMS/ Prop investments. Today, cumulative AUM under MORE stands at more than INR 2,100 crore spread across IREF (INR 200 crore), IREF II (INR 500 crore), IREF III (INR 1030 crore) and balance under PMS / Prop Investments.