PE investment increases 2.5 times in realty in first quarter of 2014

Amid the gloom in the realty sector, Private Equity (PE) investors are still pinning their hopes on the sector and in the first quarter of 2014, have invested Rs 2,800 crore which is 2.5 times higher than the amount invested in the same period last year, according to a report by real estate advisory firm Cushman & Wakefield. Notably, the total private equity funding is the highest quarterly investment since the second quarter of 2009. Out of the total, Bangalore received the maximum of nearly 70% of which important deals were of Rs 1,150-crore by Blackstone, Standard Chartered and Embassy India in Bangalore’s Vrindavan Tech Village, and Rs 250-crore by Peninsula Brookfield in Mantri Developers. In its earlier report Cushman & Wakefield had recorded that, there has been a 43% increase in Q1 2014 new residential unit launches from the previous quarter. The total estimated unit launches were recorded at 55,500 units across major eight cities of India with Bengaluru recording the largest number of units launched, an increase of 22% from previous quarter.