With one billion people in their home market, it may seem a little surprising Indians would look abroad for investment opportunities.
But Mumbai’s Kapil Wadhawan is one such person, and says Australia is an attractive place to expand his business.
Mr Wadhawan is chairman of Wadhawan Holdings Private Ltd, a diversified company with interests in real estate, food, hospitality and dining operating in India and United Arab Emirates.
Mr Wadhawan, who was in Australia this week to work on a real estate project in Melbourne’s inner city, said there was merit in doing business internationally.
He said Australia and India had been long-term trading partners, and was encouraged by the willingness of those in Australia to engage further with India.
“There is a growing sense when we talk to the people here – the policymakers within Australia – that you would like to get more aligned with India,” Mr Wadhawan said.
“Trade has been growing between our two nations over the last couple of years right across different areas.”
Mr Wadhawan’s focus is on a potential site in Melbourne’s inner city, where he plans to build between 800 and 1000 apartments, a small retail precinct and hotel.
He described Melbourne as the “fashion capital” of Australia and a city with great potential, given the diverse population and large number of foreign students.
And he was unconcerned about recent indicators of a slumping Australian property market.
“The city centre lends itself to good development irrespective whether there is a lull in the demand,” Mr Wadhawan said.
Austrade senior trade commissioner for South Asia, Peter Linford, said he expected the number of Indians coming to Australia for business to increase.
“It’s broad based and becoming more broad,” Mr Linford said from New Delhi.
Initially, the investments were mainly in the resource sector, but had diversified to include to banking, information technology, hotels, manufacturing and biotechnology.

The real estate sector in India has now become one of the most important sectors in the recent times, thanks to the rising prices of land.
Today real estate sector has become a reckoning force in the economy of India. This sector which till few years back were unknown to most of the investors and people suddenly has become a hot topic to discuss about in a group. The evidence of popularity of real estate in India can be determined from the fact that now to buy a piece of land in the metropolitan cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai requires a person to shell out a huge sum of money probably in crores. Nariman point, in Mumbai is the most expensive place in India. If that is about the Mumbai, then even New Delhi is not far behind. Yes most of the real estate developers have now shifted their focus on New Delhi and to the NCR areas.

These real estate developers are now investing huge amount of money to buy the large pieces of land in New Delhi and in the National Capital Region areas like Noida, Haryana and Ghaziabad. Ghaziabad is currently ruling the list of these real estate property developers as according to a recent survey that was organised across the whole world Ghaziabad is the sixth most dynamic city to live in the entire world. This has caught the imagination of all the real estate developers and hence now they are not shying away from the idea of investing more and more capital into this potential sector.
Thus it is quite evident that not only the metropolitan cities but the areas near to them are now fast catching up with them. This is why, the real estate property owners are now making merry by investing endlessly into it. Another symbol of this real estate boom in India can be seen with the emergence of more and more shopping malls in the cities across the world. According to a report there are around 21 shopping malls in the city of Ghaziabad alone while more projects are in the pipeline. Another pure example of this is the opening of more and more private engineering and management colleges in Ghaziabad, Noida and Haryana. Most of these colleges are of real estate property owners which are why the area near the capital has now turned into an ‘EDUCATION HUB’ and there are more to follow the trend. Not only that Special Economic Zone i.e. SEZ’s are now the hot favourite option among these real estate developers. But it is still to be seen whether these SEZ’s will have a positive or negative effect in the coming years. However the recent Nandigram issue has put a big question mark on the development of real estate in India. But still then real estate property sector continues to be a hot proposition for the new and budding investors who are looking forward to earn huge returns on their investment.
Thus it is quite obvious why more and more investors are willing to invest in the sector of real estate property in India. But due to this tremendous rise in the field of real estate it also has drawn some unwanted attention of the land mafia and the encroachers. Yes its true since nowadays law bodies have adopted a more stringent approach towards these people, therefore these people are now looking for new alternatives to raise capital to finance their dangerous motives and plans, which is why government has now made the laws stricter for the investors of real estate in India. But even then there is a lot of thing that needs to be done in this direction.
Overall real estate property owners are now playing an important role in the sector of real estate in India.

The savvy Indian investor is no longer content with restricting his investment horizon to the equity or property markets at home. A growing number of Indians are now buying property abroad and also taking an exposure to stocks of foreign firms and debt products. Hard numbers are a testimony to this fact.

From a mere $9.6 million in FY05, when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) eased the norms for investing abroad by individuals, overseas remittances topped $440.5 million in FY08, according to recent data released by RBI. And there are signs that the momentum on outbound flows could well be carried forward. In April alone, individuals remitted $50 million abroad.

Wealthy Indians have been buying property in Dubai, a favorite location. Malaysia is another hot spot fascinating Indian investors. Those flush with funds are diversifying their portfolio to include either shares of global blue-chip firms or units of MF schemes, which have an exposure to several emerging markets. A host of firms now offer structured products to high net worth investors here.
Besides, more Indians are gifting to their relatives abroad and loosening their purse strings to see the world or to educate their kids overseas. Much of this has to do with increasing liberalization and economic well-being. For years, RBI and the government had followed a tight policy on overseas remittances, given the weakness in the external sector. But over the past five years, the pile up of forex reserves has prompted an easing of norms.

Used to close monitoring of outflows, RBI has since 2004 progressively encouraged outflows to neutralize the impact of the torrent of capital inflows. The annual limit for remittances by individuals was raised from $25,000 three years ago to $2,00,000 with leeway for investing in stocks, property and other assets.

The RBI data shows that of remittances, the amount spent in acquiring property abroad, rose from $0.5 million in FY05 to $39.5 million in FY08. Investment in overseas debt and equity went up seven-fold from $20.7 million in FY07 to $144.7 in FY08. Remittances in the form of gifts to relatives increased almost 10-fold to $70.3 million in FY08 from $7.4 million in FY07.

However, the outbound remittance figure pales in comparison with inward remittances, which is now over $30 billion, reckoned to be the highest in the world. But going by the current trend, outbound investments by individuals is gathering steam. The higher outward remittances figure may also be because of the fact that investing abroad is now a legitimate activity. It also helps that a new generation of economically well-off Indians are not hesitant to display their wealth unlike their parents.

Realty firms seem to have lost their appetite for properties in Kolkata, where developers such as Emaar MGF Land Ltd and DLF Ltd were fighting to secure plots for building luxury hotels.
For the first time, a tender to lease out a prime 10-acre plot on the western fringes of the city is being scrapped because there was only one bidder. The Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) had invited bids for two more properties, but the response to each was poor.
KMDA officials had claimed that developers such as Emaar MGF and DLF had enquired about the properties, but none of them bid even for the 10-acre plot, which was to be leased for building a five-star hotel.
Less than a year ago, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) had set a new benchmark by buying a five-acre property on the eastern fringes of Kolkata for Rs276.20 crore, or Rs55.24 crore an acre. LIC has since announced it would build 50-storey towers on the plot.
A KMDA official, who didn’t want to be named, confirmed that the tender for the 10-acre plot would be cancelled, but he wasn’t sure what would be done with the bids for the other two plots one measuring five acres and the other 2.7 acres. “The bids aren’t attractive, but we haven’t decided yet,” he added.

It could well be termed a lottery with a difference. Anyone who has chanced to buy a lottery ticket at some point is aware that the rewards are huge for an almost minimal charge. Matheran Realty is banking on this for its first phase of 2,000 flats. Situated about 100 km from Mumbai in picturesque Karjat, this project will have apartments at 300 square feet each.
So, how will this work? The mechanism is pretty simple actually, with a person having to fill an application form which is priced at Rs 100. To make sure there is no unfair advantage, a person can fill in just one form ensuring everyone is in with an even chance. Besides, there is no question of picking and choosing since you just take the flat that comes your way. All the 2,000 apartments will be given to the winners through the lottery method. The price tag is Rs 999 per sq ft.

Matheran Realty is working with UK’s Eredene Capital and Philippines’ Sterling Construction Systems (SCS). The township, called Tanaji Malasure City, is now witnessing the first phase of construction. The plans by any yardstick are gargantuan—in all, there will be 2 lakh houses with each having an area of 300-500 sq.ft. Come January 2009, the first set of owners will be ready to move into their dream home.

SCS is banking on the paucity of affordable housing in Mumbai to drive its mega township. SCS president (marketing) Harinder Bhalla said, “We expect a huge response to the scheme”. There seems to be hope for those who do not get their allotments in the first phase. They will get preference when booking starts for the second phase.

That effort may be worth it since the project will be home to schools, colleges, hospitals and a retail centre. The entire exercise is expected to be completed over the next 10 years. All this will be over 100 acres. Eredene Capital will fund the project to the extent of Rs 131.2 crore with SCS offering technical support.

The big worry for most people is what the house will eventually cost? At the end of it, it will work out to Rs 3 lakh. Those who opt for the monthly payment option will need to shell out Rs 2,000. Speaking of construction technology, SCS will use prefabricated Hardiflex fibre cement boards. This has been used with some success for housing projects in the Philippines, Australia, Jordan, Vietnam, and in India. Importantly, it lowers construction cost by 15-20%, and construction is much faster.

With a price tag of Rs 3 lakh, this form of housing could work well for those in the Rs 8,000-10,000 salary bracket. In terms of profitability, there is always a question mark. Park Lane Property Advisors managing director Akshaya Kumar said, “Such projects are profitable though the margins may be lower than what premium property developers get” . Others tracking the industry think that low-cost housing will have acceptable levels of production quality and succeeds in cutting down frills such as high quality paints, open space and parking.