During PBD, the mood was once again positive among NRIs to invest in India in the realty sector. Even the economic slowdown failed to dampen their spirits. They could be seen thronging the stalls of banks as well as realty firms to know more about home loan possibilities for them as well as in new real estate properties. However, unlike the previous years not many realtors had opened their stalls at the venue. During the PBD, Anil Sharma, CMD of Amprapali Group, was seen interacting with NRIs all the three days. According to Sharma, many NRIs from America, Australia and the Gulf region have booked their properties this time too. NRIs were very positive in investing in Indian realty properties. "More than 300 NRIs have booked flats in various projects in NCR region this time," he informs. According to Ashish Jindal, Head, Knight Frank India Pvt Ltd, "The NRIs have always been active in the Indian realty sector. They have always bought into built up units in major cities or land in their ancestral city or town. The global boom till 2007 witnessed a lot of investment by NRIs into India. The global recession, which also hit India, saw some NRIs scouting the Indian cities for distressed assets. Some experts also say that since the realty market has started its upward movement and the prices would definitely harden over the next few months, this is the right time for NRIs to invest in properties. They have also a word of caution for them. They must invest in projects of only those developers who have a proven track record."

Meanwhile, Ansal API is aggressive in promoting their properties in various asset classes to both NRIs and PIOs (persons of Indian origin). A spokesman of Ansal API says that the responses from overseas Indian investors have always been very good in their various housing and township projects. However, last year, due to the global economic slowdown and the subsequent change in market sentiment, there was a fall in both the number of overseas buyers and also in their quantum of investments. Discussing the investment pattern of NRIs during the last couple of years, Avinash Aggarwal, Marketing Director, Orange County, said, "During the boom of realty market in 2005 and 2006, like others NRIs were also buying properties in various parts of the country in a big way. They were really taking lot of interests in properties in NCR. As realty market faced the

heat in the year 2007 and 2008, overseas Indians also stopped investing here the way they were investing earlier. Hopefully, they would be back in the market as the market is again seeing lot of activity." he says "After a sedate period of around 18 months, the tide has changed now and all the big ticket realty firms are again getting good response from overseas Indian investors, both from traditional overseas markets (countries like the UAE, UK, US and Canada) and also from some new countries like South Africa and Malaysia," says Sanjeev Srivastva, MD, Assotech Group. Meanwhile, an official of the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs told Mail Today that they have received some complaints of real estate deals going sour, illegal encroachment and unauthorised occupation of properties. They are looking into the matter and they would very soon set up a dedicated cell in the ministr, which would look into such complaints. Sanjay Singh, Head, Marketing, DGS Realtors, which took part in last year's Chennai PBD, says, "As NRIs are pretty affluent, they can give huge push to realty sector. So, their concerns have to be looked after nicely. The good thing is that they are still investing in realty. My advice to them would be to stick to metros and major cities only. And before investing in some project, please check the credential of the realty firm."

source: Mail Today By Vivek Shukla AN NRI DREAM