The Hindu Business Line : `Kolkata poised for high cross-sector realty growth'

`Lower land acquisition costs in Kolkata - compared with most other metros, lower asset pricing and availability of scaleable infrastructure had made the city a favoured destination for corporates and developers alike.'

Advertisement

Kolkata Feb. 9 Kolkata is poised for high cross-sector growth in the arena of office, retail, hospitality and residential real estate infrastructure, according to a report released here on Friday by Jones Lang LaSalle, one of the world's leading real estate services company.

Real estate market

Addressing a news conference here today, Mr Vincent Lottefier, the Country Head for Jones Lang LaSalle in India, said the real estate market in Kolkata was set for high growth fuelled by demand from the IT/ITES sector. An increasing corporate presence in the city was also triggering the growth for retail, hospitality and residential properties.

Mr Lottefier said the lower land acquisition costs in Kolkata - compared with most other metros - attractive Government initiatives, lower asset pricing and availability of scaleable infrastructure had made the city a favoured destination for corporates and developers alike.

To service this growing market, Jones Lang LaSalle has opened its 7th India office in Kolkata.

Services on offer

The services on offer include transaction management services, retail advisory services, strategic consulting, capital markets, property management, integrated facility management and project management and development services.

Already, in Kolkata, the company has clients - including IT companies and banks — who together occupy six lakh sq. ft of infrastructure space. This figure was expected to surpass the one-million mark within the next two years.

Investments

Foreign investors who were keen to look at the infrastructure sector in India as an opportunity to invest "will come through Kolkata", Mr Lottefier said.

According to him, foreign investment of an estimated $10 billion has been allocated for investment in the real estate sector in India. However, of this, only $2 billion has been deployed. This has been attributed to issues pertaining to transparency in the real sector sector in India, the lack of information availability, sources of funds, etc.

He, however, said that, with regard to transparency, India was improving and had now been rated better than China. Foreign investors who were keen to invest in India were looking at a "project return" of 20-25 per cent and an "annual yield" of 9-11 per cent on their investments in India, he said.