property in India

HONG KONG India will have at least 50 property-related initial public offerings in the next year as the real estate industry booms, according to Anish Jhaveri, the head of equity sales at HSBC Holdings in
India.

“With the opening of the real estate sector, there’s a lot of need for funds,” Jhaveri said in a recent interview in
Hong Kong. “The government has been giving very proactive support to the whole sector.”

The real estate market in
India is worth about $12 billion and is growing at about 30 percent a year, Ernst & Young said in a report last month commissioned by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Rising incomes, easy financing and population growth are driving demand for housing and luring overseas investors.

“The appetite for real estate IPOs will be there,” K.K. Mital, chief investment officer at Escorts Asset Management in
New Delhi said a phone interview Friday. “The young work force is looking for real estate investment, and the financing is available, the banking system is supporting this growth.”

Jhaveri said that venture capitalists and overseas investors were poised to invest over $5 billion in the Indian real estate sector, without providing more details. “People are seeking more clarity” on possible changes to property regulations before investing, he said.

His forecast takes into account the possibility that
India could allow real estate investment trusts, or REITs, to invest in the nation’s property industry. Still, of the 50 real estate related IPOs that he predicted would take place in the next year, he only expected a “small” number to be REITs.

In the past year,
India had eight initial share offerings by engineering and construction companies, which raised $478 million, according to Bloomberg data. That compares with the six initial public offerings raising $304 million in the previous 12-month period.

Indian billionaire Kushal Pal Singh’s real estate company, DLF Universal, is seeking to revive the biggest Indian share sale once regulators decide on a complaint by shareholders. The New Delhi-based company plans to submit offer documents to regulators, paving the way for an offering by early December, Saurabh Chawla, the finance vice president of DLF, said in a phone interview Friday.

India is short of 20 million housing units, according to a study by Housing Development Finance. That shortage will get worse, according to UBS analysts, citing the growing population and increasing affluence.
Asia’s fourth-largest economy grew 8.9 percent in the three months to June from a year earlier.

ICICI Home Finance expects Kolkata to contribute in a big way to the residential financing market in the next 3 years.

“Although the residential financing market space in India is about Rs 1 lakh crore and the market in Kolkata is around Rs 2,000 crore, it is expected to grow at a much faster rate compared to the other metros in the next 2-3 years,” said Sunil Rohokale, the managing director and CEO of ICICI Home Finance.

Saturation in other markets will give a boost to the market in Kolkata. Mumbai leads the residential financing market with a share of 10 per cent, followed by
Delhi and Bangalore with 9 and 7 per cent respectively.

“Slowly, but steadily, the other markets are getting saturated and the Kolkata market, being relatively cheaper, provides a better alternative,” he added.

Rohokale also attributed Kolkata’s rise to the state government’s proactive role in promoting lower and middle income segments, where affordable housing is possible.

“The West Bengal government is looking for inclusive growth and by providing incentives, by encouraging public private partnerships not only in the higher-end segment like commercial buildings but also in the middle and lower segments as well, which consist of mostly small housing projects,” he said while talking to Business Standard on the sidelines of an interactive session at Credai Bengal Real Estate Conclave.

It would be in the affordable housing segment, where most of the private investment is going to come, feels Rohokale.

In the last two years, the real estate market attracted an investment of around $7 billion, including $3 billion from equity. Of this, the share of Kolkata was around 3.5 per cent, amounting to $150 million.

“There is a huge demand in Kolkata for affordable housing flats, which range between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 25 lakh, but the developers are most active in the premium-range flats between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 50 lakh. Hence with the state government providing incentives, affordable housing space looks most attractive in Kolkata,” Rohokale added.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com