UAE expats drive boom in luxury India property

India Dispatch: One of the UAE's biggest Indian property brokers has sold Dh1.1 billion worth of property to expatriate Indians in its first year of operations.

One of the UAE's biggest Indian property brokers has sold Dh1.1 billion (US$299 million) worth of property to expatriate Indians in its first year of operations.

Investors Clinic said that it planned to double the number of its staff from 15 to 30 as it predicts the sales boom will continue next year.

Investors Clinic, known to many for glitzy advertisements featuring the cricket star Yuvraj Singh, said the falling price of the rupee against the dirham meant that Indian property prices were 10 to 15 per cent cheaper for Indians living in the UAE than they were a year ago.

"Over the past few months we have seen an increased demand for properties where almost 80 per cent of investors opt for properties in the pre-launch phase," said Nishant Singhal, the company's director of strategy and international operations. He added that luxury Indian properties were selling for between Dh1.5m and Dh4m.

Experts predict that the number of expatriate Indians investing in property on the subcontinent will remain high over the coming months.

"Total returns of between 18 and 25 per cent are achievable in India at the moment," said Hariharan Ganesan, the research manager at Jones Lang LaSalle's office in Mumbai. "However, over the coming year we expect property price inflation to slow and we expect to see more Indians looking the other way and investing in property in Dubai."