India’s property market has pulled in almost $80 billion in institutional investments over the past 15 years, highlighting its rise as a favoured asset class for global and local investors, a report by Colliers and CREDAI said.Foreign investors have played the bigger role so far, contributing 57% of the total inflows since 2010. Yet, the study points out that domestic capital has been gaining ground, particularly after the pandemic, suggesting a notable shift in the way different asset classes are funded.According to the report, institutional funds have flowed in from a wide spectrum of sources: including family offices, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, private equity firms, foreign corporates, NBFCs, listed REITs and developer-backed real estate funds.A series of policy reforms has helped build this momentum. The introduction of RERA, the roll-out of GST, and the launch of REITs have improved transparency, efficiency and institutional confidence in the sector, the report said.By 2047, when India marks 100 years of Independence, the sector could be valued between $5 and 10 trillion, up from the current market size of around $0.3 trillion, Colliers and CREDAI projected.The transformation of the industry has been marked. From being mostly fragmented and unorganised in the 1990s, real estate has become a more structured and accountable contributor to economic growth. Its share in GDP has gone up from under 5% before 2010 to about 6–8% in recent years, while in 2025 alone it added nearly $0.3 trillion to the economy.REITs are emerging as another important trend, offering Indian investors yields of 6–7%, higher than global averages. By definition, REITs are firms that own and manage real estate assets to generate income, making them a growing option for investment.
