Indian Real Estate back on the radar of NRIs and PIOs

With the India Realty Expo 2009 opening in Dubai on Thursday, Indian real estate is back on the radar of NRIs and PIOs, says Zubin Mehta, CEO, MCHI. The reverse is also true, says Sandeep Joshi, CEO of EventPro International. Global property investments are making a comeback, searching for Indian HNIs, who would be willing to buy property abroad.

With slick presentations and smart brochures, backed up by an even better sales pitch, projects in Mauritius, Australia, Thailand , UK and even the USA, are being offered to the Indian HNI willing to buy property abroad, says Joshi.

"With media reports talking of sales picking up in the residential segment, in the past five months, the global property market feels that the Indian HNI has money to invest and their aim is to get a piece of this. The only question is whether the sales pitch would be interesting enough," says Joshi.

At the Gulf Real Estate Conference in Bahrain last year, Manju Yagnik, vice-chairperson of Nahar Group, who pitched investments in Indian real estate, to GCC-based developers, had a co-speaker in her session, who pitched Australia and Thailand real estate options.

"When a Bahraini delegate asked him about returns on investments in these locations, he was candid enough to admit that they were merely projected returns and that no one could guarantee that these would actually happen, within the time-frame suggested in the presentation. The same issue comes up, when Indian HNIs are wooed by global property consultants," she says.

The post-election political stability and continuation of existing pro-reform economic policies, has been a positive for global property sellers, says realtor Bharat Malik. "The global market scenario is bad. India is seen as being economically better off, plus there is the realisation that Indian HNIs have money to invest. So, logically , you would have global projects pitching for Indian investments," he says.

In line with this, Abdul Majeed Ismail Al Fahim, chairman, Pearl Dubai FZ LLC, which is developing the 'Dubai Pearl' , in the UAE, maintains that India would be 'an integral part of our growth strategy'.