Indian investors lapping up UK properties

Property investments by Indian buyers in the UK could touch £10-15 billion (Rs 81,829-1,227,44 crore) in the next 10 years, according to a report by property consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle. Though the consultancy did not provide the current numbers, it expects the value of investments to grow 10 per cent every year.

The report expects the number of UK apartments bought by Indian buyers and people of Indian origin to grow to 20,000-30,000 flats over the next 10 years from 500-600 now.

''With no restrictions on Indians investing in UK residential property and strong growth in housing prices, the market will continue to see the current investment size of £0.6-1.2 million grow exponentially over the next 10 years,'' the report said.

The number of such Indians with the propensity to invest in the UK residential market is likely to increase to 583 million by 2025 coupled with another 400,000 high networth individuals (HNIs) by 2017, the report said. The high growth of Indian buyers is due to a spurt in the number of Indian students studying in the UK, Indian families, corporates and HNIs buying houses there, according to the report.

"The UK-based developers are increasingly interested in attracting investors from India. They are targeting not only the high net individuals but also the upper middle segment as the market there presents very amenable conditions for Indian investors - the pound being far more stable than the rupee, far greater transparency, UK tenants sign long leases of up to 25 years and their an extremely stable long-term income generation capacities, not to forget the London Olympics in 2012," said Raminder Grover, managing director of Homebay Residential, a subsidiary of Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj.