The rupee’s sharp dip against the US dollar has tempted non-resident Indians to buy property with realtors expecting an increase of 35 per cent in business enquiries from the expatriates this year.
According to recent findings of the Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), Dehradun has emerged the fifth most favourite property investment destination for NRIs.
After releasing the ASSOCHAM paper on “Falling Rupee sparks property boom from NRIs” the chambers’ secretary general DS Rawat said, “With the rupee riding low against the dollar, NRIs are looking to accelerate investment plans back home. The rupee has fallen by about 34 per cent against the US dollar since August 2011 and crossed 65 against the dollar.”
The survey highlighted that Bangalore is the most favourite property investment destination for NRIs followed by Chennai (2nd), Mumbai (3rd), Ahemdabad (4th) and Dehradun (5th). A lot of Punjabis settled in Canada and UK are expected to invest more in Chandigarh sub-urban like Dera Basi, Mohali and Panchukla. This time, there is a lower demand for the Delhi-NCR market, reveals the survey.
ASSOCHAM conducted a random survey of nearly 1250 real estate developers in Delhi-NCR, Dera Basi, Mohali near chandigarh, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahemdabad, Pune, Dehradun, Chennai etc. The survey reveals that interest for buying property by NRIs have increased due to favourable exchange rates.
Rawat further said, “It’s definitely not good news for people back at home, but for an NRI, this is definitely the best time to invest. At the moment any NRI buying a property in India can save around 20-30 per cent on his/her property value. The property enquiries may go up further if rupee continues to slide, according to majority of the real estate developers,” he added.
The majority of real estate developer said, the NRI traffic is coming primarily from the UAE/Gulf region, US, Singapore, Australia, UK, Canada, South-Africa etc. The demand is more for high end properties and commercial buildings.