India has had its own economic problems as of late with the well-documented trouble with taking some of the lower denominations of currency out of circulation, that had people worried for a short time, but it is still a force to be reckoned with.
The strength of the Indian economy is good news for the United Kingdom as India is now the second largest overseas investor in Central London property after it snatched the spot from the Middle East.
The data is courtesy of residential property advisers London Central Portfolio (LCP), which confirms that investors hailing from India are on the rise in the UK capital, with a staggering 22% of prime property sales in the year 2016-17, compared to just 5 percent of sales recorded in the last audit conducted two years ago, Albawaba reported.
The Middle East is next on the list at 21 percent of sales.
This data shows a gigantic shift is Gulf investors who in the 2014-15 audits were the biggest property buyer in the UK capital with 43 percent of all sales.
“The 2014 audit took place during the height of oil prices when Middle Eastern investors were flooding into the prime Central London market,” said Lauren Kemp, senior manager, investment and communications at LCP.
“On the other hand, over the last year, whilst the numbers of Middle Eastern investors remain relatively strong, some buyers may now be feeling less well off with decreases in oil prices, coupled with increased uncertainty in the region with sanctions and credit rating cuts,” Kemp said, adding that tax changes on residential property have also been a factor in the decline.
The upsurge in Indian investors is in direct response to changes made in 2015 to the Liberalized Remittance Scheme which allowed the amount of capital buyers can bring into the UK rise to $250,000 per person.
Investors from India account for a third of the total spend on London Prime property. A number of high levels acquisitions included:
Sahara Group chief Subrata Kumar Roy buying Grosvenor House.
The Lulu Group’s M A Yusuff Ali’s purchase of 1-5 Great Scotland Yard headquarters.
These purchases have seen Indian investors make their mark as premium UK property players.
Abu Dhabi-based retail billionaire Yusuf Ali, one of the wealthiest Indians in the Middle East, made a $170 million agreement in 2015 with property developer Galliard Homes to build a luxurious five-star hotel at Scotland Yard in London’s Whitehall.
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