Bengaluru May 17 (FN Agency) Millennial investors, known for their higher risk appetite and asset-light financial approach, are increasingly investing in Indian commercial real estate (CRE), a survey conducted by MYRE Capital said on Tuesday. The second edition of Neo-realty survey, which assessed the investment appetite of around 5000 NRIs across 13 countries, has revealed that 53 per cent of NRI investors are millennials. Commercial Real Estate (CRE) growth drivers for NRI investors include passive Income for family, portfolio diversification, lack of other safe alternatives, tax-efficient returns among others.
Properties in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune are the top three investment hubs for NRIs wherein office spaces remain the most sought-after asset and school spaces emerge as a new CRE asset. According to the survey, a whopping 53 per cent of the NRI investors choose CRE as their favourite investment vehicle over ETFs (21 per cent), Mutual Funds (19 per cent), etc. with the average ticket size for an NRI being higher, at Rs 38 lakh as compared to a resident CRE investor. Interestingly, 82 per cent of the NRI investors did not have any previous investments in India, owing to the accessibility issues, lack of transparency and trust. MYRE Capital’s first edition of the survey in 2021 had revealed that more CAs and lawyers in India aspire to invest in CRE.
However, the second edition’s NRI investor profile shows a broader investor base with increasing traction and participation from engineers, tech experts, and consultants. Originally hailing from Bengaluru and Mumbai (a combined 45 per cent of the respondents), investors have shown a geographical interest in investing in cities they belonged to. MYRE Capital’s Founder and CEO, Aryaman Vir said, “We conducted this survey to understand if the new-age investor faced the same entry barrier as the GenX investor. We were pleasantly surprised to find that investors are now keen on investing in assets such as office space, student housing, and schools. 40 per cent of our NRI user base are women, we believe increasing awareness and access to Grade-A properties will make more NRIs explore this asset class.” “Since millennials and high salaried senior professionals comprise a large subset of these NRI investors, there is a natural inclination to invest in fractional CRE which is very easy to manage versus any other form of traditional real estate ownership.”