Having identified this fundamental fact, the government have issued brand new legislation to liberalise the laws of FDI with regard to the property sector in India and immediately the Indian real estate market has embraced a record amount of overseas investment which has been committed by US based investors to new housing projects in the cities of Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata and New Delhi.
The housing market in India is already oversubscribed - demand exceeds supply as stated - and the divide is growing by up to 34% a year. There is therefore room for substantial growth and impressive profits and returns and these facts have been identified by Nevada based Royal Indian Raj International Corporation who have teamed up with the New York based investment banking company Greenwich Group International to jointly announce a one billion US dollar initial investment into India’s property sector.
The initial project being undertaken by the conglomerate is Royal Garden Villas, a seventeen acre residential development on the outskirts of Bangalore and just 25km away from the brand new Bangalore International Airport. The first phase of villa development will be released Autumn 2005 and feature a variety of Mediterranean styled homes for freehold purchase.
The initial one billion dollar investment may well be record FDI for the real estate sector in India but it heralds merely the start of Royal Indian Raj International Corporation’s commitment. Royal Garden Marina City and Financial Harbor are the next two projects on line to be developed in Mumbai which is India’s financial capital. Over sixteen billion dollars of investment will be raised to develop the projects which will cover over five thousand acres of prime real estate in Mumbai.
Royal Garden City in New Delhi and Royal Garden City in Kolkata will follow with project start dates targeted to commence on schedule in the Summer of 2006, and in total the company have committed to the Indian real estate market for the next ten years during which time they will aim to create 10,000 new direct jobs and 40,000 new indirect jobs in India.
This overseas investment commitment is understood to have been built off the back of the overall strengthening of the Indian economy, the rise in personal wealth levels being enjoyed by many Indian citizens and the associated rise in consumer spending, together with the improvements being made in local lending facilities and of course the growing demand for housing units that cannot be met by local constructors in the short to medium term.
Of this, the bulk�"around $200 million�"would go into real estate proj-ects spread across commercial, residential and retail spaces, while the remaining would be for setting up 40 budget hotels across the country. The fund also made a foray into equipment rental business by picking up around 90% stake in a Mumbai-based company for around $10 million. It also invested a similar amount for its car rental business.
For its foray into education business, Berggruen Holdings has partnered with a group of hospitality professionals to offer short and long term specialised programmes through 50 training schools across the country. Apart from the hospitality sector, the education business would also focus on offering specialised training in sectors such as retail, aviation and tutorials.
Kabir Kewalramani, managing director, BH Advisors, which manages Berggruen Holdings’ investments in India, told ET that the fund has already made investments worth $60 million in the real estate space. It has recently co-invested in an 125-acre mixed-use property in Mohali, near Chandigarh, and is part of an IT park project in Hyderabad. A typical deal size in the real estate space is likely to range between $30-50 million. “We hope to invest around $200 million in the real estate space in the next two years," Mr Kewalramani said.
Earlier this year, the fund had announced plans to launch its budget hotel brand in India, Keys, with an investment of around $100 million over a three-year period across 40 sites. The first property is expected to be operational by the year end at Goa. Construction is currently on in at least three sites, including Trivandrum, Bangalore and Kovalum.
Berggruen Holdings is a private company, with interests in private equity, stocks and bonds, hedge funds, art and real estate, which manages funds of the Berggruen family.
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