Hyderabad realty attracts $2.24-bn equity investments

Hyderabad: Hyderabad attracted $2.24 billion of equity investments into the real estate sector during 2018-22, accounting for seven per cent of the cumulative investments in India, says a report.The overall investments in the real estate sector across the countryduring the period stood at $43.3 billion. The equity investments over this period stood at $31.8 billion while debt investments were $11.5 billion.

With the closure of 24 land deals and the acquisition of around 970 acres of land, Hyderabad saw investments totaling $0.9 billion in 2018-22, said CBRE South Asia Pvt Ltd, real estate consulting firm, in its report 'Indian Real Estate: Betting on a 'Capital' Future'. The city recorded second highest land acquisition activity in India, accounting for over 14 per cent of the total land acquired since 2018.

According to the report, a majority of the capital deployment made since 2018 has been through core and core-plus investment strategies.

However, the city has been witnessing a growing number of bets being made through opportunistic route for Greenfield developments.

Cross-regional investors (outside APAC region) pumped in nearly 47 per cent of overall investments in India since 2018. Domestic investors (mainly real estate developers) have invested over $13 billion, accounting for around 42 per cent of the total investments during this period. The remaining fraction of investment flows in India was eventually accounted for by intra-region (within APAC) movements.

The report highlights that more than $17 billion have been invested by institutional investors over the past five years, with North American investors continuing to make up most of these investments. On a cumulative basis, the top three investors in India have pumped in over $10 billion, accounting for a staggering 60 per cent of the total institutional investments during this period.

In terms of favoured sectoral bets, the office sector has received more than 56 per cent of institutional inflows (about $10 billion). Pent-up demand for the office space and an improvement in employee occupancy levels in business parks drove a solid rebound in office leasing. As a result, institutional investments in the office sector remained strong in 2022 as well.

Acquisition of land parcels was another preferred bet, with total institutional inflows being recorded at over $2.5 billion, representing a nearly 15 per cent share. Retail got over $2 billion in capital infusion, or more than 11 per cent of total institutional investments, making it one of the top three preferred sectoral bets.