Indian cities go places in world’s luxury property rankings

MUMBAI: The city’s luxury property market is booming

MUMBAI: The city’s luxury property market is booming. In 2022, the city leaped from 92nd position to 37th in the Prime International Residential Index that tracks luxury housing prices in the world’s top 100 cities.

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The Wealth Report, 2023, released by international property consultants Knight Frank on Wednesday revealed a 6.4% appreciation in the city’s prime property market as compared to 2021. Other Indian cities that moved up the index include Bangalore which registered a 3% hike in prices of luxury homes taking it to the 63rd place from 91st while an appreciation of 1.25% in Delhi’s luxury housing took the capital to 77th place in the global ranking.

The luxury housing prices is further slated to appreciate by 3% in 2023 in Mumbai. As per the Wealth Report, Monaco continues to be the world’s most expensive real estate in the world where only 17 square metre of space can be bought for USD1million. For the same price in Mumbai one can buy 113 sq. m of space while in Delhi it would be 226 sq. m and in Bengaluru USD 1 million will buy you 385 sq. m.

Another highlight of Knight Frank’s flagship report is that in 2022 private investors had higher investments as compared to institutional investors in global commercial real estate. According to the company’s capital flows tracker, of the total USD 1.12 trillion investments in commercial real estate, USD 454.8 billion came from private investors, USD 440.1 billion from institutional investors, and USD 122.4 billion from public investors

A separate survey of Indian Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNWIs) by the same company revealed that UK has toppled Singapore as their favoured country for property investments in 2022, with 47% UHNWIs choosing it as their favourite investment destination. Another 41% of UHNWIs said they would opt for a home in UAE, while 29% preferred to invest in homes in the US, and 18% chose Canada.

Compared to global choices of investments in art, luxury cars, and jewellery, Indian UNHWIs said their preferred investments of passion would be in art, watches and designer handbags.

21% Indian UNHWIs said they would consider direct investments in commercial property. This is 2 % higher than the global average of 19%. 41% of Indian UHNWIs said they would invest in office space.

Investments in residential properties emerged as the safest asset class for investments by UHNWIs followed by bonds, gold, commercial property and equity. 100% of the Indian UHNWIs surveyed said they expected wealth growth in 2023 compared to the 69% globally.