Real estate investors' confidence remains intact: Savills

Private equity investment inflows into the Indian real estate sector amounted to USD 2.7 billion (about Rs 14,300 crore) during H1 2021, according to Savills India's latest research report.

Equivalent to 41 per cent of investment inflows that the sector witnessed in entire year 2020, this indicates that investors' confidence remains intact despite the pandemic-struck slowdown period.

"However, with USD 865 million (Rs 6,300 crore) of inflows during Q2 2021, we witnessed a decline of 54 per cent QoQ," said the report.

Despite the prevalence of remote working culture, commercial office assets remained the frontrunner during Q2 2021, garnering about 40 per cent share of the investment pie.

This is backed by resilience displayed by investable grade office assets in these difficult times, as reflected in the successful listing and operations of three REITs in India.

While occupancy levels in Embassy Office Parks REIT and Mindspace Business Parks REIT declined marginally by one to two percentage points at the end of March as compared to December 2020, the rents remained stable during this period.

Brookfield India REIT executed a successful IPO with an 8x subscription and witnessed strong participation from a diverse mix of marquee investors.

During Q1 2021, the consumption pattern across investable grade retail assets improved and recovered swiftly to pre-Covid levels of Q1 2020.

"We witnessed renewed interest in retail segment by private equity institutional investors as the segment accounted for the second highest share (33 per cent) of investment inflows during Q2 2021," said the report.

Foreign investors such as CPPIB and GIC formed platforms to invest to the tune of USD 285 million (Rs 2,100 crore) in retail assets in the cities of Kolkata, Mumbai, and Pune.

( With inputs from ANI )