Indian real estate holds great potential

New Delhi, Feb 11: Direct investments in the Asian real estate sector has the potential to grow robustly in the long term, but infrastructure and lack of transparency would pose a challenge for the global investors, especially in India, a study said.

"With an asset base directly exposed to the macro growth story that draws so many institutional investors to the region, Asian real estate offers a gamut of possibilities at every stage, from nascent market to mature developed economy," a Asian Venture Capital Journal report on Asia real estate sector said.

However, the sector's progress is hindered by volatility, immaturity and market opacity, which could act as a deterrent to the potential investors from entering the markets, the report said.

"At the moment we've got about USD 800 billion market cap of real estate stocks in this region," World's leading real estate services and money management firm, Jones Lang LaSalle CEO - Asia Pacific Peter Barge said.

Barge said rising GDP in the region is spurring trade, which in turn is a key driver for infrastructure, logistics, warehousing, research and development parks.

"Equivalent trends appear in office assets, and above all residential and retail, playing to the urbanisation and consumer growth stories," he said.

--- PTI