Despite slowdown, realty sector gets $2.7 bn fund inflows in first half of 2019: Report

Despite the continuing slowdown in the real estate sector driven mainly by various regulatory changes, the industry saw amongst $2.7 billion flowing into the market in the first half of 2019, says a report.

According to a report by Vestian-Ficci, the momentum of investment in the realty sector between 2015 and 2018 continued in the first half of 2019, with nearly $2.7 billion flowing in.

Between 2015 and 2018, fund inflows stood touched $25.7 billion.

"The year 2019 has started on a positive note with about $2.7 billion flowing into real estate recorded in the first half. Improvement in infrastructure, roads, and the metro networks coupled with the increased speed of technology implementation can further boost investor interest," the report said.

One of the major trends observed in the last decade has been the rise in institutional investment in real estate, particularly PE investments that has been a key factor in keeping the market confident about its revival, said the report, adding nearly 80 percent of institutional investments are accounted for by PE investors.

With 50 percent of total investments, commercial assets has seen highest amount of investments. The investment value in the segment was recorded at $14.2 billion during 2015-18, depicting several large-scale deals. This was followed by warehousing and logistics sector.

Despite occupying the least share, investment into industrial assets, mainly comprising warehousing and logistics sector, has observed considerable interest in 2018 and 2019, notes the report.

Some of the major deals into the logistic space is Logos India investing nearly $100 million in Casagrand Distripark in Chennai and Embassy Industrial Parks pumping around $50 million into DRA Projects in Bengaluru.