India's property market may continue to grow due to 'robust' economy

The property market in India may continue to experience growth in 2008, but it offers only limited accessibility to foreign investors.

That is according to Jaideep Singh, head of the India desk at Knight Frank, the independent global residential and commercial property consultancy, who maintained that the Indian economy was currently "quite robust".

He said that people in India now had greater spending power and that the country had seen the emergence of a mortgage system.

Mr Singh commented: "The Indian economy is much better. The middle classes have made some money now so they can spend money.

"All this time there was no such thing as mortgages in India but now the mortgage system has started [to develop] in India and people have money to spend."

However, he went on to underline the difficulties faced by foreign investors looking to buy property in the country, stating: "Foreign investors of non-Indian origin who are non-residents can not buy property in India.

"The only way foreigners can invest is by buying through local people, so there are a lot of foreign investors joining up with locals, waiting for opportunities for ownership to come up."

Overseas Property News posted on 27/03/2008 12:11:05