Bengaluru in top 20 commercial realty investment cities globally

Mumbai - After emerging as one of the top 20 technology-rich cities globally, Bengaluru has made debut in the list of top 20 commercial real estate investment cities in the world, says a Jone Lang LaSalle report. Bengaluru features in the property consultant JLL’s latest Asia-Pacific city investment intensity index at the 20th position. The index compares volume of direct real estate investment over a three-year period relative to the current economic size of a city. [caption id=“attachment_2509558” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image[/caption] While the cities like New York, London and Tokyo nearly always rank at the top in commercial real estate investment volumes by virtue of their sizes, the top five cities across Asia-Pacific region are Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul, Sydney and Hong Kong, ranked by three-year rolling direct real estate investment volumes ended June 30. Within Asia Pacific, the index sees Sydney and Auckland at the top two spots in terms of real estate investment relative to city size. Bengaluru is at 20th position while Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore still rank among the top ten but Seoul ranks lower at 13th. “Due to lower market transparency, foreign investment into India is often through debt or at the entity level. Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Taipei still rank among the top ten with their transparency scores close behind while the less transparent markets of China, India and emerging Southeast Asia are under-represented among the league,” said JLL Chairman and Country Head Anuj Puri. It noted that this provides opportunity for investors with local knowledge to find deals; the size of the cities’ GDP shows there is capacity for real estate investment to increase. “Foreign investment interest in Bengaluru and other Indian cities may be underrepresented in the index as these figures reflect equity investments at the asset level.” It noted that this provides opportunity for investors with local knowledge to find deals; the size of the cities’ GDP shows there is capacity for real estate investment to increase. “Foreign investment interest in Bengaluru and other Indian cities may be underrepresented in the index as these figures reflect equity investments at the asset level.” Direct real estate investment is generally difficult for foreigners in India, and investors looking to take part in market growth may need to go through routes such as debt deals and joint ventures with local partners. “The index advises investors to continue to seek core business park/ office investments in Bengaluru,” Puri said. New Delhi and Mumbai figure at 34 and 42 positions, respectively. The reason for these two bigger cities figuring so low is the index wants to highlight only those dynamic, mid-sized cities that are punching above their weight in terms of their attraction for investors. “The two cities have enough investments coming in but their sheer size being far bigger than Bengaluru and the index being a ratio, they figure lower here. Bengaluru is a smaller city than the political and financial capitals of India and yet manages to attract a lot of investment in comparison of its size,” Puri said. On an average, commercial real estate assets worth 10 percent of a city’s gross domestic product (GDP) change hands every three years. PTI