Bangalore honchos on property-buying spree in the US

The year ended March, 2014 saw a huge surge in residential property investments by Indians in the US. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) data, followed by Canada, Indians are the third largest community who are buying properties in the US. Chinese investors are the ones who top the list in property investment in the US.

The most sought after cities in the US by the Indian citizens are New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, Las Vegas and the Bay Area.

Indians with a specific work visa, normally for a period of almost six years and a good rating by credit agencies qualify to purchase a property in US without much hassle. They easily avail loans from the banks at an interest rate of 3% to 4%, which not only speeds up but also smoothes the process of property purchase.

There are a number of reasons for this increase in the property purchase in US. Some of them are a good valuation and portfolio diversification. There are a number of Indians who prefer to buy property in US with a view of settling abroad since their children are already pursuing higher education in the US. Also there is a large section of Indians who work for US based companies or IT companies whose major client is US, hence they have easy access to the market information of the property in the US and consequently consider investing in US property and not in premium properties in the metros of India.

As far as prices are concerned, investors find it profitable to invest in US properties since the prices of premium apartments in the metros including Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai are comparatively higher than that in the US.

Bangalore based honchos are not only on a property purchasing spree in the US but also consider other overseas markets like the UK, , Australia , Malaysia and Singapore as equally attractive. Considering the increase in Indian investment in the US market by almost 50% to approximately $5 billion by 2014, March end as compared to the previous year, it is evident that US is the first choice of location for property purchase for Indian honchos.