India: Massive Growth in Real Estate
The booming Indian Real Estate has made Property developers billionaires overnight, with profit overflowing in the sector. Office and shopping mall rentals continued their upward trend, the pace being very vigorous in Delhi and Mumbai. At present Mumbai is at the second place in the list of most expensive office markets in the world with Delhi at eighth.
The real estate industry is estimated to reach $60 billion by 2010 with a growth rate of 30 per cent. The industry entered the Dalal Street in a big way and floated 12 public issues in the year, making it a leading sector in terms of fund raising.
India�s biggest realty developer, DLF continued its supremacy over others. The firm launched the country�s largest IPO of over Rs 9,000crore, followed by HDIL�s Rs 1,700 crore and Puravankara Projects� Rs 850 crore.
The fact that India�s seven Real Estate biggies are their in the Forbes list of 54 Indian billionaires crystallizes the sector�s strenght. DLF�s K P Singh, Unitech chairman Ramesh Chandra and Omaxe�s Rohtas Goel were among the richest Indians.
�Kushal Pal Singh is fourth on the 2007 Indian rich list with a net worth of $35 billion, making him the world�s richest real estate developer,� Forbes said in November.
Industry was able to attract significant interest from domestic and foreign investors keen to be a part of the real estate growth story that started from 2005 when the foreign direct investment norms was liberalised for the sector.
Investor�s participation was not restricted to only public offers as many private equity deals were struck. For instance, DLF sold 49 per cent stake in its seven townships to Merrill Lynch and Brahma Investments to raise Rs 1,675 crore.
Source: indianrealtynews.com
