MUMBAI, May 2 – Indian property investors are aiming lower- to mid-end house owners in the booming economy now that sales of luxurious apartments have slowed.
With the number of families earning more than five thousand dollar per annum set to double to around twenty million in the coming two years, demand for small and simple apartments is set to mushroom.
“We haven’t touched the tip of the iceberg,” Niranjan Hiranandani,founder of Mumbai-based Hiranandani Group, said about the potential demand for homes.
“Young people don’t have housing open to them,” Hiranandani told a property conference in Mumbai this week, where talk of mass housing was a hot topic.
The property market has boomed since India eased rules on inward investment in the construction industry in early 2005, partly fuelled by pledges by foreign investors that they will drive up to twenty billion dollar into the country.
But government figures show only about two billion dollar has actually been spent in the preceding three years. Real estate prices have cooled in the last six months.
Developers had piled into the top-end of the housing market where profit margins are highest, for example, building 2,000 sq ft apartments in New Delhi suburbs that sell for $250,000.
But a young couple working in the media or software industry, who together bring in $25,000 a year, would need something half that price.
Developers are targeting the young workforce in a country where double-digit salary hikes are common in sectors such as real estate, information technology and financial services.
With the number of families earning more than five thousand dollar per annum set to double to around twenty million in the coming two years, demand for small and simple apartments is set to mushroom.
“We haven’t touched the tip of the iceberg,” Niranjan Hiranandani,founder of Mumbai-based Hiranandani Group, said about the potential demand for homes.
“Young people don’t have housing open to them,” Hiranandani told a property conference in Mumbai this week, where talk of mass housing was a hot topic.
The property market has boomed since India eased rules on inward investment in the construction industry in early 2005, partly fuelled by pledges by foreign investors that they will drive up to twenty billion dollar into the country.
But government figures show only about two billion dollar has actually been spent in the preceding three years. Real estate prices have cooled in the last six months.
Developers had piled into the top-end of the housing market where profit margins are highest, for example, building 2,000 sq ft apartments in New Delhi suburbs that sell for $250,000.
But a young couple working in the media or software industry, who together bring in $25,000 a year, would need something half that price.
Developers are targeting the young workforce in a country where double-digit salary hikes are common in sectors such as real estate, information technology and financial services.