About
My fascination with real estate and India emerged from the same experience: as a teenager I visited Dharavi, one of Asia's largest slums with a possible population of one million people living within a space of around 500 acres. But even within the informal economy of Dharavi, I could see how much scope there was for renewal and regeneration, with its huge internal capacity for enterprise and creativity. Inevitably, though, Dharavi and similar places throughout India's vast urban spaces are hamstrung by lack of investment, flawed (in some senses non-existent) infrastructure and unexplored real estate opportunities. The failure of real estate to respond to such challenges is causing terrible hardship and a huge extent of missed potential.
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Redevelopment in India is a world of opportunity. Existing buildings in southern Mumbai are crying out for the innovative and dynamic real estate development that has already shown transformational potential across India. Affordability is rising and there is now an opportunity to cater to middle class appetites for these developments, as well as student accommodation, office spaces and buildings to accommodate much-needed services such as healthcare and education.
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Funds are pouring into this sector globally: Abu Dhabi has committed $1.4 trillion to the US over the next five years and Saudi Arabia has committed $600 billion. Moreover, the funding for the Stargate Project and its ambitious AI infrastructure has been set at $500 billion. In a context where the Trump administration is pushing countries to increase domestic production, there are self-evident opportunities for tapping into the vast funding that governments are making available for real estate projects.
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The era of buying buildings, sitting on them for years, flipping them and cashing in capital appreciation feels outdated; now, it is about how to operate the asset and to drive value through renovations and the revamping of existing, dilapidated sites - repurposing these sites for a new age and a new generation, with an emphasis on both economic growth and socio-urban renewal.
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