Over-Investment by Affluent Indian in Real Estate Market

From Africa to The United States, the rich world-over have their wealth where their heart is in their homes. A third of the wealth held by the super-rich (those with over $30 million of assets) in Europe is locked in actual estate assets worth $2,391 billion, according to knowledge from Savills, a worldwide property consultant. The Asians are second, with $1,800 billion, or 27 per-cent of their wealth, in property.

The super-rich in India, as expected, beat the global averages by a massive margin. Very 44 percent of wealth of the super-rich Indians is invested in property. Of this, very half is invested in residential property and 30 percent in commercial property. Many rich Indians hold a gigantic proportion of their wealth in actual estate as there is a belief that the cost will seldom go down. As historically in the past, it was not simple getting a bank loan for business & property was often used as collateral for the loan.

The allocation also tends to be higher in the South when compared with the Eastern and Western regions. For example, while 80 percent of the wealth in property is not unusual in the southern states, the average is closer to 60 percent in the eastern region and only 40 percent in the western zone. Land cost increase has been seen not in cities such as Mumbai, where land is scarce, but also in cities such as Bangalore. In the work of December 2011 to 2013, the Prime Residential Development Land Index for Bangalore witnessed an appreciation of 26 percent, slightly lower than 35 percent for Mumbai.

Sales in the luxury home market have not been robust either. In regions such as Mumbai, Pune and NCR, the idea of “branded luxury homes”, wherein the developer tie-up with international luxury hospitality or lifestyle brands to generate differentiated offering, was launched a few years ago. These homes boast of professionally designed interiors & exteriors, centralised management of facilities & various additional features such as concierge services, high-grade electronic surveillance & security & valet parking. These factors have high appeal value, to buyers who have seen such homes abroad & aspire to live at such levels. Demand in the housing segment is likely to stay tepid in cities such as Mumbai, Chennai & NCR. In the last one-two years, there has been an increase in deals with developers who are unable to source money & are willing to offer stunning rates of interest & additional sops.