Asian Real Estate Society (AsRES) International Conference
August 9-12 2004, Delhi, India
Real Estate In India
India, the fourth largest economy in the world, has been maintaining a GDP growth rate of around 5.5% for more than a decade. Analysts have projected that India has potential to almost double her present rate of growth with labor and capital productivity improvements. Real estate and infrastructure plays an essential supportive role in improving labor and capital productivity. Real estate investment is also a leading indicator of economic growth in all market economies.
Reform process in Real Estate Sector has garnered unprecedented momentum and with vast untapped opportunities, India could well be the desired location for real estate developers/investors in the not-too-distant future. A parallel can be drawn from China, which receives almost three times of the FDI inflows in India and almost half of this FDI inflow in China is in the Real Estate sector compared to minimal in India. Despite fundamental differences between these two countries, i.e., government was the sole owner of land in China and has started to privatize recently compared to private sector ownership of most of the land in India, the potential gains from real estate sector in India are also undeniably tremendous. Two major steps taken by Indian government – allowing foreign direct investment and setting up real estate mutual funds or Real Estate Investment Trusts – would catalyze real estate sector in India in not too distant future.
In the past, archaic regulations, unclear titles, low property taxes, low user charges, constrained mortgage finance and lack of quality standards have been the barriers to real estate development in India. Because of this land supply curves have almost been vertical and land costs are disproportionately high. According to a study by Girish Despande and Madhurima Das of Pricewaterhouse Coppers titled “Indian Real Estate: A Radical Shift”, if the ratio of land cost/sq. m. to GDP per capita in 1999 for New Delhi is considered as the index at 100, the rate would be two in Kuala Lumpur, six in Sydney, seven in Bangkok, nine in Tokyo, 12 in Singapore, 13 in Jakarta and Seoul, 22 in Taipei, 52 in Bangalore and 115 in Mumbai. With important reforms during last five years such as repealing of Urban Land Ceiling Act, modification in Rent Control Act, rationalization of property taxes and with many other proposed for the real estate sector such as computerization of land records etc., this anomaly is expected to be corrected.
According to Gail Lyons, Chairman of National Association of Realtors, “There are an estimated 3 million real estate agents, of whom only about 10 percent are full-time. Although real estate plays a vital role in the economy, development of best practices standards in areas such as brokerage, commissions, licensing, and code of ethics will be important as the real estate industry in India modernizes its practice”. Commercial banks are new players in traditional domain of specialized housing finance companies. This has not only enhanced competition in mortgage finance market but is also leading to development of secondary mortgage market for asset-backed securities.
