By IANS
Mumbai : Cityscape, an international property investment and development event, has made its maiden foray in Mumbai. The three-day Cityscape expo, currently underway here, has attracted 80 major participants from around the world, including around 35 from India.
A survey by industry body Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) has said that the Indian realty market is growing at 30 percent per annum and estimated to exceed $90 billion by 2015.
With additional demand for nearly 370 million sq ft in urban areas by 2010, real estate is providing handsome returns to investors and entrepreneurs, according to the survey.
A spokesman for Cityscape told IANS that organised retail alone has potential to add business worth around $50 billion in the next three years.
Investments of around $10 billion are expected in this sector by 2008, likely to touch $15 billion by 2010, he added.
A prominent participant at Cityscape, currently on at the Bombay Exhibition Centre, is the Tanmiyat Group, one of United Arab Emirate’s leading realty players.
“We are keenly considering opportunities to work with serious players in India. We consider this market as capable of providing value products and investments options,” Tanmiyat managing director Bharat Thakker told IANS Monday evening.
Tanmiyat will not restrict itself to the metros alone. It will also look at emerging cities and tourist destinations with the aim of providing optimum value to all participants, Thakker said.
However, the business model it will adopt and the kind of investments it will make are yet to be finalised, he added.
Explaining why realtors in the Gulf consider India a major market, Thakker said that substantial growth across all the key sectors of the Indian economy, which is demonstrably sustainable based on trends and market data, is amply evident.
“The recent Reserve Bank of India guidelines virtually opening up the opportunity to invest overseas in real estate is a further demonstration of the high level of confidence that the Indian government has on the growth ahead,” he said.
Added are factors like the rapidly expanding middle class and its desire for quality housing coupled with the growing potential for people upgrading their existing lifestyles.