India's real estate market pegged at $14 billion

India's domestic real estate market is worth about $14 billion, experts observed at a conference in Chennai. Amid the whopping growth in the sector, the experts also suggested that a regulatory authority be in place to enhance transparency in the real estate business in India. 'Currently growing at 30 percent per annum, the domestic real estate market is estimated to be of the order of $14 billion,' said Manoj Vaish, president and CEO, Dun & Bradstreet, India, which provides global business information. 'Last year it was sort of a gold rush for the Indian real estate sector. A massive influx of FDI was witnessed into this sector,' he added. As a part of its ongoing efforts to educate and update market participants in India, Dun & Bradstreet this week hosted an interaction on the 'Dynamics of the Real Estate Market: The Investment Perspective'. Speaking at the conference, S. Sridhar, Chairperson and Managing Director, National Housing Bank said, 'There is a huge funding gap for infrastructure development in special economic zone's (SEZ) commercial and domestic space.' 'The financial solutions providers, especially the domestic capital markets, should look into filling this void,' he suggested. Sridhar said the real estate community should think out of the box and needs to offer wide range of products, which suits the pockets of even people in the low-income group. According to former Planning Commission advisor Tarun Das, housing is an important asset in the Indian economy with strong backward and forward linkages. 'The high volatility in the housing market requires that the price movement is adequately tracked for smooth functioning of the economy,' he said. 'For a house price index to be meaningful, it must compare prices of equivalent houses from one period to the next. This is difficult, as no two houses are identical,' he added, stressing the need for a system of measurement that allows for differences in the sample houses traded. 'The real estate market is not a bubble and thus I don't expect it to burst. I expect the market to grow for the next 20 years. We need to enhance transparency and build trust,' said M. Murali, chairperson and managing director of Shriram Properties Ltd.