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MidnightCall Magazine
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News From Israel MagazineIndians Will Buy Up Half of London by 2017
Globe-trotting Indians could spend as much as Rs 128,000 crore or £15 billion on residential property in the UK in the next decade, one of the world’s leading real estate companies has predicted in the first tabulation of its kind.
The estimate of 21st century Indians’ buying power comes from Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj (JLLM), the Indian wing of the multi-national property management firm named by Fortune and Forbes magazines as one of the world’s 100 and 400 best big companies.
Times of India has learned that JLL is among a growing band of high-end property companies in the UK and elsewhere to believe Indians will regard property as their main investment asset even as their disposable income rises.
The perceived level of Indian purchasing power can be gauged from the starting prices of £235,000 or Rs 2,006 crore and £399,950 or Rs 3,424 crore quoted for The Berkeley Group’s India launch of two developments.
The new research points out that London is increasingly becoming the international hub for higher educational learning and the number of Indian students studying in the British capital has quadrupled since 2005 to nearly 20,000. This trend can only continue, it predicts, with an increased thrust towards collaborative programs between Indian and London universities.
The research says that 1.9 million Indian households are expected to have wealth above US$500,000 in the next 10 years, giving globe-trotting and globally engaged Indians the money to buy property overseas, mainly in London. Indians could own 20,000-30,000 UK residential properties by 2017, predominantly in and around London, it says.
-Times of India, 22 July 2008, pg. 17
While much of the news is bleak about Europe and the United States, the Asian giants are awakening in contrast. This should not be surprising since a global world requires global mobility for those who travel; subsequently, real estate becomes an attractive investment for those who have a great volume of cash at hand.
The so-called first world, Europe, will not lose its dominant position, but those who were considered “third world” will arise to the camp of the elite and be competitive. Welcome to the One World.
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