NRIs eye southern realty for investment: Report

Mumbai: Non-resident Indians (NRIs) are increasingly showing interest in the southern markets, especially Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, for real estate investments, with over 75 per cent of searches in these markets during 2020, according to a report.

The maximum search or demand comes from those NRIs living in the US, followed by the UAE and Britain, said the report by Commonfloor, a Quikr platform that offers home-seekers, sellers and realty professionals an online ecosystem.

The report said that over 75 per cent of the NRI searches are directed towards the southern markets and Karnataka tops with the most searches (31 per cent) for properties from NRIs, followed by Tamil Nadu (20 per cent), Kerala (11 per cent) and Telangana (9 per cent).

Significantly, Andhra does not figure despite tens of thousands of techies based in these foreign markets.

On the property pricing trend, the report has found that Bengaluru saw a dip in prices especially at Whitefield, the Electronic City, Devanahalli, and Sarjapur Road in 2020, while locations like Kanakapura Road saw an increase thanks to the metro.

Pune also saw a dip in key markets. In Mumbai, which is the most expensive realty market in the country, properties across Vasai, Titwala, Chembur and Vartak Nagar saw a dip but Virar saw an 11 per cent increase, maybe because of the development of Versova-Virar coastal road.

Overall, properties across Hyderabad, Delhi and Chennai saw a dip in the pricing. Due to the sluggish nature of the economy, the stock of unsold inventory needed an extra push through discounts and offers which could explain this dip.

The searches were mostly for apartments for rent (39 per cent), followed by plot for sale which got 17 per cent of the search volume.

While 29 per cent of the NRI searches were about plots, about 45 per cent were looking for apartment/villa, of them 82 per cent were looking to invest in ready-to-move-in properties and rest for under-construction properties.