Financial Times

Gulf Arabs primed to pour billions into Indian real estate sector

October 05, 2006
 

    Gulf Arab investors are looking to pour billions of dollars into Indian real estate, as Indian regulators ease restrictions on foreign capital flowing into the sector. The Gulf's oil-fuelled current account surplus will hit $227bn (£120bn) this year, according to the Institute of International Finance, and that money is looking for a home. With domestic real estate markets saturated and the west seen as increasingly hostile by some, Gulf investors are turning to India's emerging property market.

    "The opportunities in India are immense," said Rakesh Patnaik, head of real estate investment at Global Investment House, a Kuwaiti investment bank. "India is still a new market. It is only in the past 12-24 months that it has opened up." Gulf investors know India well. The country's financial centres are a short flight away and many of the -professionals managing Gulf money are Indian expatriates. Their intention is to develop the projects in which India's fast-emerging middle class will live and work. So far the Reserve Bank of India, the country's central bank, has restricted foreign investment in property, fearing that an influx of funds could stoke inflation.
 

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