Britain seeks investments from India in housing, realty sector ‘beyond London’:

Britain seeks investments from India in housing, realty sector ‘beyond London’:

Introduction:

• The British government is seeking Indian investment to to support its drive to create more affordable housing across the country.
• The Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Greg Hands,  is keen on getting investment from India beyond London particularly in real estate, infrastructure, and energy infrastructure.

Affordable Housing Agenda of UK

• Real estate trends across the U.K. continue to be strong from offices in London to logistics in the Midlands to urban regeneration projects in Edinburgh.
• Investors from across the U.K. are seeing stable and profitable opportunities to seize business opportunities after Brexit.
• The UK Government has estimated that at least 250,000 new homes are needed each year to keep pace with demand.
• The UK government has vowed n their recently published White Paper  to build more affordable houses and help people buy and rent, after admitting that the current real estate market of UK  is “broken”.
• The new housing strategy for England includes to pressurise developers to start building on land they own.

Opportunity for India and UK:

• While foreign investors including from China and Qatar have made big inroads into the U.K. real estate market, the country has seen limited investment beyond private investments in housing or hotels from India.
• The exception is the Lodha group, which has two luxury housing projects in London and has expressed its confidence about moving to new price categories and beyond the residential sector.
•  Recently, at an event at the House of Lords for delegates of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI), the Department for International Trade highlighted infrastructure and property development opportunities in northern England and the Midlands, including in and around Birmingham.
• During next round of the U.K.-Indian joint economic and trade committee (JETCO) talks due to take place in London later this year, UK has expressed confidence in efforts to boost bilateral trade and investment.