The cash-strapped realty industry can finally see good days, as there are many Private Equity (PE) firms keen on investing in this market
The liquidity flow to Mumbai's real estate market has witnessed some deep crisis in the last few years. With higher interest rates and squeezed funding from banks and Financial Institutions (FI), the real estate market got the helping hand from Private Equity (PE) funds. They are wellknown funds, which undertake intense project evaluation and analysis, and invest only when they are assured of a good return. Therefore, it would be interesting here to check the trend of a PE fund's interest in the Mumbai realty market. “The slowdown over the last two years was perceived as a threat by banks who substantially reduced credit supply to builders and this is where, real estate based PE funds sensed an opportunity. Over the last 24 months, there has been a steady pickup in PE investments in real estate, especially in metros where the risk of capital loss was slightly lower than in the smaller tier-I and II cities. Even within metros, the bulk of these investments took place in NCR Delhi and Mumbai. The private equity investment in India's realty sector jumped over twofold to Rs 15,410 crores in 2014, highest since 2008, signalling a renewed interest by domestic and global investors in the Indian real estate space, according to property consultant Cushman & Wakefield. Location-wise, Delhi-NCR's property market witnessed the highest PE investment of Rs 5,910 crores during 2014, followed by Mumbai at Rs 4,680 crores,“ says Debopam Chaudhuri, chief economist and vice-president research, ZyFin Research.
PE FUNDS' INTEREST IN MUMBAI'S REALTY MARKET
According to experts, Mumbai continues to lead the real estate markets, despite the slowdown and the reason is the actual demand from the endusers, which may have gotten subdued for a short period but has the potential to recover in the short-to-medium-term. So, it continues to generate interest from the PE funds. Most of these funds are interested in the residential segment, focusing on the affordable and mid segment projects where the apartment cost is less than Rs 2 crores. The average tenure for a fund is between 35 years.
Ramesh Nair, COO business and international director, JLL India explains, “The PE funds are showing their interest in Mumbai's realty market because of the intrinsic demand for real estate from the growing middle class working population. Mumbai, being the centre of the economic activity, creates a lot of demand from occupiers and retail customers. Focus is mostly on the midmarket residential and core assets. The average investment tenure of PE funds in Mumbai's realty market would be four-five years.“
PE FUND'S RETURN EXPECTATION AND LOCATION CHOICE IN MUMBAI'S REALTY MARKET
“The expected IRR has gone down from 23-27 per cent, five years ago to around 17-18 per cent now.However, given the volatile market scenario, the investors also prefer debt deals, which ensure a fixed rate of return, approximately 18-20 per cent.Investors are pumping in funds mostly in the western and central suburbs of Mumbai since a lot of development of the physical and social infrastructure is happening in these pockets,“ suggests Sandeep Ahuja, CEO, Richa Realtors.Experts suggest that a PE fund's return expectations for equity investments are at least 20 per cent plus and for mezzanine investments, it's usually around 18 per cent plus upside sharing.Locations in Mumbai, wherein PE funds are most active: Eastern suburbs and western suburbs have seen a lot of interest from the residential in vestment's perspective; BKC has seen investments from a core com mercial asset's perspective; Thane, Navi Mumbai are attractive from an ITITeS' perspective.
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