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28 March 2024

Falling Rupee: Is it good time for NRIs to buy property in India?

Published
By Parag Deulgaonkar

With the Indian rupee depreciating by over 20 per cent since the past two years, the Indian real estate market now offers one of most lucrative investment option for non-resident Indians (NRIs).

The 1,000-odd developers, showcasing nearly 500 projects at the three-day India Property Show, which opens today (Thursday) at Dubai World Trade Centre, it’s time for business.

“Although the depreciating rupee is not the finest news for the domestic market, but for NRI’s the weakening rupee in conversion provides a good opportunity to park their spare funds in India now,” Alok Anchan, Sales Manager, Rajesh Lifespaces, a premium developer in Mumbai, told Emirates 24|7.

“Now, is a wonderful time to be a NRI if you invest in the country. The decline in rupee by around 20 per cent against the dollar since August 2011 gives a NRI more hammer for the fate. The NRI category stands to gain from the weak currency as they would receive more rupee funds on conversion which means that they buy the property approximately 10 to 20 per cent cheaper (depending on the currency) in this market.”

The rupee hit an all time low against dollar of Dh16.03 against a Dh1 early Wednesday.

“We expect that the NRI market shall contribute around 35 to 40 per cent of the total investments in real estate in India this year,” he states.

Sunil Jaiswal, Chief Executive Officer, Sumansa Exhibitions, organizers of Indian Property Show (IPS), says: “Buyers whom have been considering buying a property will speed up their decision and people who have not thought of buying will now start thinking and researching their investment option in Indian real estate market.”

So is it all cash deals?

Property experts say that NRIs prefer to buy on home loan since it provides a safety cushion in a way that the mortgage provider already has done the due diligence on the property and the developer.

Anchan of Rajesh Lifespaces says:” NRIs prefer buying on mortgage as they know that the financial institution in picture does thorough due diligence before approving the product under their belts.”

Jaiswal reveals: “As per our survey conducted recently 65.23 per cent of our buyers take finance and 34.77 per cent are self-funded.”

-Freebies on offer

In order to sweeten up the deal for NRIs, exhibitors at the exhibition will be offering special discounted prices, rebate on registration charges to air tickets to India.

These, however, are a bit to less audacious than what developers were offering in December which ranged from luxury cars (BMWs) to expensive bikes (Harley Davidson) and cash discounts of up to Rs1 million.

A Sumansa Exhibitions survey, earlier this month, revealed that Mumbai, the financial capital of India, was the favourite property investment destination for UAE-based NRIs followed by Bengaluru and Chennai.

A new Cushman & Wakefield report has ranked India among the top 20 real estate investment markets globally with investment volume reaching $3.46 billion in 2012.

(Home page image courtesy Shutterstock)