2008-Predicted to be a Golden Year for Indian Real Estate

2008 is going to be a successful year for Indian Real Estate Industry. According to industry body Assocham the Real Estate sector saw a 30-35 per cent 2007 growth in retail and 40-45 per cent in real estate sectors respectively. Predictions are that the boom will continue even in 2008.

The following figures were revealed in a report issued by Assocham. Organised and unorganised retail sizes in 2007 has been estimated at US$300 billion which is likely to grow to US$365 billion in 2008 and will further reach the size of US$440 billion by 2010. “Out of (India’s) retail industry, worth over US$300 billion, the organised retail segment is less than 5 per cent which works out to be slightly more than US$16 billion,” said Assocham President Venugopal Dhoot.

Also to be noticed are the growth rate fugures of 2007, in the year, the retail sector ended up with a growth of 25-28 per cent whereas the real estate industry saw a growth of 35-38 per cent, according to report. As predicted by Assocham, the organised retail segment should witness an additional investment of US$25-28 billion by 2008 and in 2010 the investment size would be around US$70 billion.

Organised retailers occupied a space of one million sq ft in 2002, which shot up to nearly 14 million sq ft in 2007. “In 2008, the space occupation in the organised retail sector is likely to be 16 million sq ft as retailers like Reliance, Plaza, DLF and even Aditya Birla Group will witness their major expansion drives in the retail sector,” said Mr Dhoot.

With respect to the real estate sector, the market-size is estimated at US$15 billion which has been growing at a pace of 35-38 per cent in the last couple of years and is likely to touch US$90 billion by 2015. As a result, huge investments are coming into the sector.