As property prices tumbled all over the world, a Harrods Estates team flew into India from the UK a couple of weeks ago, hawking high-end wares.
It was an interesting, almost ludicrous time to visit, but yet another sign that downturn or not, property developers everywhere are looking to Indian millionaires as prospective buyers.
“At a time when the US is in doldrums and Europe is shaky as well, we have come to India to save the world,” said Raine Spencer, a director of Harrods Estates, a property agent that deals in “ultra luxe” residential and commercial spaces. Spencer, who is incidentally the late Princess Diana’s step-mother, was trading on more than her royal connections to interest Indians.
Harrods says it closed three big deals on its India visit. Though exact figures are not available, these must have been big-buck deals, considering a mere two-bedroom apartment was on offer for anywhere between $2 and $3.5 million. Spencer said one of the Indian buyers was a hotelier and the other two industrialists. Harrods says the India strategy makes good sense. “We are targeting high net worth individuals and would offer them properties in the best locations in London and its vicinity.”
Overseas property developers’ interest in India is based on pointers that this strategy will probably pay off. Buyers from the Indian subcontinent have flocked to Deira and Burj Dubai, ever since Dubai allowed foreign investors to offer attractive and “exclusive” property schemes to the world.
Reeba Ahmad, an estate agent based in Dubai, says the downturn and Dubai’s sliding property prices means great deals are there to be had. “With a slowdown hitting the market, there are mega deals waiting to be sealed. House prices are very reasonable here judging by international standards. A four-bedroom flat may just be available for around Rs 1 crore while a seaside villa can be taken for Rs 5 crore, the kind of prices that you pay in Delhi and Mumbai,” she says.
In Singapore too, the real estate sector is badly hit and agent Zeng Yushan of HSR Property Consultants, the city-state’s largest real-estate agency, confesses she is struggling to find buyers for luxury apartments.
With property prices falling in North America and many parts of Europe as well, overseas dealers say high net worth individuals from India and elsewhere are heading for both exotic and business locations in Singapore, Italy, Hungary, Spain, the UK and the US.
They’re going cheap, says Mumbai-based property consultant Praful Prasad as Europe and America’s real estate market is down at least 25-30% in the last month. For those with surplus cash, perhaps the best option is still prime property, in the hope of reaping the dividends later.
India Investment news, November 2008
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