When he was asked how recently he had shown a property to an Indian client, DJK Residential sales associate Kent Pahlajani answered, “Is yesterday recent enough?”
He had just shown a two-bedroom condominium at 53rd and Third Avenue in the Veneto building to an Indian man looking for an investment property in Manhattan, and was fairly sure the client would buy in the new 34-story building being developed by the Related Companies. The client’s price range was between $1.3 and $1.8 million.
It wasn’t the first such deal for Pahlajani. India’s strengthening economy has propelled its wealthier citizens to invest in the United States, where many are dealing with American companies.
“It’s a second home and an investment for them,” says Pahlajani, who has many clients from Mumbai and Delhi. “They want a nice building, and are willing to pay top dollar for services and security, a place they don’t have to worry about when they’re away.”
Like other foreigners before them, Indian buyers are attracted to Trump buildings. For one of Pahlajani’s clients, who lives most of the time in Hong Kong, Trump World Tower at United Nations Plaza, with its abundance of luxury amenities and round-the-clock security, fit the bill nicely.
Many Indian buyers work in the garment business and often look for homes in Midtown, where many Indian businesses are concentrated, so they can easily conduct business when they visit the city.
“They want a place where they don’t have to check in and check out, and where, if their families visit, they can stay for a month if they like,” Pahlajani added.
Adrienne Albert, president of the Marketing Directors, which specializes in marketing new residential developments, has also seen an increase in Indian buyers coming to her office.
“India is very quickly becoming a serious world power even though Americans don’t think of it as anything other than a poor country,” Albert said. “It now has a big, wealthy middle-class. Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen a steady increase in Indian buyers of luxury condominiums. There are now Indian buyers in a range of professions purchasing in every part of the city, whether for investment or for their own use.”
Apartments are not the only area of interest for Indians investigating the New York real estate market, however.
Ilan Bracha, an executive vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman, deals with many Indian clients who want to invest in projects that need financing. The investors who approach him come from all over India, he said.
“The market in India is very strong, and people are making a lot of money there and coming here and looking for investments,” Bracha says. “These clients want to develop and buy income-producing properties, such as buildings or development sites. But they’re looking for bargains, for ventures that are already started but are in trouble and need capital. They’re looking to spread their money.”
For Bracha’s Indian clients, this often translates into finding residential projects, condominiums in particular, where banks will not provide further funding for them.
“Right now banks don’t give a lot of money; they’ll give more for rental and commercial properties but not necessarily on a condo development,” Bracha said. “There are projects that are supposed to take a year-and-a–half, but, suddenly, they will take two or three years and the numbers change, so the banks lose money and don’t want to support the project. Foreign investors know the banks are tougher, so they’ll go to a developer who needs backing.”
New York City developers’ seemingly bottomless appetite for new condominiums means that there is currently no shortage of potential investments for this group of foreign clients. “Indian investors are checking around,” Bracha said. “They want us to check on any project that’s taking a long time, because they’re ready to pull the money.”