Indians buying homes abroad

In February, chartered accountant Archana and husband Prabhakar, an engineer in Dubai, planned to buy a flat in Mumbai where they want to shift jobs in two years. They were aghast that all they could get for their budget of Rs 2 crore was a one bedroom flat in south Mumbai. For the same price they settled for a two-bedroom villa a few minutes’ drive from Dubai.

Property in Dubai appreciates (thirty per cent last year) less than in Mumbai but rents are nearly double at twelve per cent,” says Prabhakar. Like Archana and Prabhakar, who have an ancestral home in Bangalore, an increasing number of Indians are queuing up to buy real estate in places like Dubai, London, Malaysia and Bangkok. Some want to flaunt a second home with a foreign address, others for holidaying or returns on investment. Some find that property is as expensive or even cheaper in some foreign locations. Some are encouraged by the Reserve Bank’s doubling of the amount an Indian can invest abroad to $100,000, which means a couple can invest $200,000 or Rs82 lakh every year.

“Many are buying property in Dubai because it has no taxes and it’s only two and a half hours from Mumbai,” says Syed Miraj, the India agent in Mumbai for Dubai’s real estate firm Better Homes. “I get 15 inquiries a month and four or five of them end up buying.” The availability of easy bank loans and residence visas in UAE for property buyers are additional attractions. Many brokers are armed with CDs on “hot properties” in UK and UAE.

“Demand (from Indians for property in London) is particularly high in the mid-range price sector 400,000-700,000 pounds (Rs 3.2 crore to Rs 5.7 crore) which means that relatively more affordable locations such as St John’s Wood and Kensington are being considered,” says a study by Knight Frank, the global property consultancy firm. It estimates that this demand from Indians (along with the Chinese) will go up by seven per cent annually for some time.

“Many buyers see a snob value in a London address,”’ says Gulam Zia, Knight Frank’s National Director in Mumbai, pointing out that property in London is still more expensive than in Mumbai. “You can get a top of the line property for Rs5 to 8 crore in Mumbai but not in London.” It’s not just the mid-range properties that the Indians are eyeing. They are even lapping up top-end real estate, says Daily Express (London) in a report last month with the headline: “Wealthy Indians buying their own British Empire.” This, it said, has resulted in spiralling property prices there. It said that Northwood in West London has now become “the most expensive place in the world, thanks to Indian investment.” Knight Frank as well as Hamptons and Savills, UK’s top-end estate agencies, have despatched staff to India to sell London property.

“Malaysia has one of the highest standards and the lowest costs of living with all the modern facilities in place,” is how the Malaysian government is promoting its “Malaysia My Second Home” project to lure the wealthy from across the world. All you need to be eligible for the programme is to deposit in a local bank 300,000 Malaysia Ringgits (Rs36 lakh) from which up to Rs29 lakh could be withdrawn after one year for purchase of a house there. A Malayasian tourism department official has been quoted by the local media as saying that some 700 Indians have registered for the programme.

“Realty markets abroad are stabilised and offer steady returns,” points out Gautam Vohra, Senior Manager (Capital Markets) in Mumbai of Jones Lang Lasalle, a global real estate consultancy.