Tier II cities hot property for Indian diaspora

By agencies   |   Wednesday, 07 June 2006, 19:30 IST
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AHMEDABAD: Tier-II cities have become “hot property”, propelling real estate developer’s fly across seas to woo the Indian diaspora. Cities like Chandigarh, Pune and Ahmedabad have been attracting foreign buyers in flocks with increasing investments every year, pushing Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata taking to the rear. The Confederation of Real Estate Developer’s Associations of India (CREDAI) stated that the number of customers being wooed in Dubai has doubled in the past three years. Buyers who have heard about the growth stories of the Tier II cities are keener to invest in property deals there, says an Ahmedabad-based developer who recently set up a marketing office in London. CREDAI’s property fair has been a fillip to property dealers and the business settled at a whooping $8.1 million in just three days in Dubai last year and turnouts are expected to be much better this year, said a CREDAI official. “Though Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore continue to remain the favorites with the expat Indians, this time there is a lot of interest in tier II cities such as Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Pune. We have a lot of enquiries for these smaller cities,” stated a CREDAI executive in charge of the events in London and Dubai. However, the president of CREDAI, Ramani Sastry, feels that the value and branding of their companies is more the cause for wooing companies rather than the volume of business. He said that there was a necessity to create a global branding for the construction industry in India. Developers in Gujarat have stated that the NRI share in the real estate business has almost doubled in the past year.