“It is one of the most wanted places in India for European and American
companies,” said S. Raghuraman, an official of the Greenbase industrial park,
near plants run by Apple supplier Foxconn and truckmaker Daimler.Inquiries for leasing space in the park,
run by Blackstone and real estate tycoon Niranjan Hiranandani, have gone
through the roof, he added. “We are in talks with at least three clients
looking to shift their base from China.”
Companies in the booming e-commerce and manufacturing industries also
see India as a hub for exports while looking to boost sales to industries and
domestic consumers amid a population of 1.4 billion. “We thought this is the
right moment to enter India as there is
a huge potential runway for growth over the next 15 to 20 years,” said
Sandeep Chanda, the India managing director of one of the world’s biggest
developers, U.S.-based Panattoni.
India’s infrastructure drive
fuels high demand for land, leaving few plots in good locations, so that
surging prices hit developers’ returns as rentals fall behind, executives said. Real estate consultants CBRE say land prices around the Greenbase park
rose a fifth in 2023 to $3.6 million for 10 acres (4 hectares), or an area half
the size of Buckingham Palace, with increases of more than 50% for some plots
near New Delhi.
Sometimes a single piece of
land can have as many as 50 owners.
Panattoni needed eight months to complete acquisition formalities for
its complex near the capital “Land takes its own sweet time,” Chanda said,
referring to the period spent untangling ownership concerns.