Grand Finale of Global Real Estate Investment Summit Presented by Realty+ in assoc. with BW Businessworld

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Realty+ Masterclass in association with BW Businessworld presented VC World Convergence - Global Real Estate Investment Summit 2021 Virtual Edition on July 17, 2021</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">The inaugural edition of the summit was India’s largest &

BY Realty Plus
Published - Aug 10, 2021 7:20 AM

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Realty+ Masterclass in association with BW Businessworld presented VC World Convergence - Global Real Estate Investment Summit 2021 Virtual Edition on July 17, 2021 The inaugural edition of the summit was India’s largest & best investment focused event that brought together leading investors, policymakers, advisors & industry professionals to discuss, investment opportunities in the real estate market. Dr. Annurag Batra, Editor-in-Chief & Chairman, exchange4media Group & BusinessWorld in his opening address expressed, "Over the past few years real estate sector has transformed in many ways presenting a matured sector to the investors. Rising E-commerce has increased demand of professional warehousing and residential especially saw huge end user interest during the pandemic. The way we work has changed and so re workspaces and office realty needs are changing. . Retail and online are coming together to provide enhanced retail operations. All in all, golden years of real estate are ahead." Arpit Singh, Managing Director, Xander Investment Management representing one of the largest investor’s organization in Indian realty mentioned, "Real estate indeed plays a significant role in the development of Indian economy though investment in real estate still faces difficulty on execution and compliances level. However, the asset class remains an interesting market to watch out for by international investors." Next was a vibrant conversation between Dr. Annurag Batra and Vipul Roongta – Managing Director & CEO – HDFC Capital Advisors Ltd, who discussed the trends defining growth of real estate in India. Vipul said, “Real estate became the most attractive asset class amongst individual investors during pandemic. With the prices and home loans become the lowest in the recent history, it boosted the homebuyer’s interest.”The speakers shared a cautious optimism for the future as the country still is not out of the pandemic. The first panel discussion of the day titled, “Alternative Real Estate Debt - Risks & Prospects” was moderated by Shobhit Agarwal, MD & CEO, ANAROCK Capital Advisors, The speakers were Amit Diwan, Managing Director and Country Head, Hines India, Chetan Shah, Executive Director, Kotak Realty Fund, Gaurav Karnik, Partner Tax and Regulatory Services, Ernst & Young LLP and Ritesh Vohra, Partner & Head, Real Estate, Investcorp India Asset Managers Pvt. Ltd. Panellists concurred that both lenders and borrowers need each other and there is enough liquidity in the market available for organized players. For last mile funding, the track record of the developer was one of the main consideration for the investors. The next panel discussion on Investing in Distressed Residential Properties – Concerns & Opportunities moderated by Ramesh Nair, Real Estate Expert & Former CEO & Country Head JLL had the presence of speakers Amit Bhagat, CEO & MD, ASK Property Investment Advisors, Amit Goenka, MD & CEO, Nisus Finance Services, Ashwinder R Singh, CEO Residential, Bhartiya City, Irfan A. Kazi, Chief Investment Officer- SWAMIH Investment Fund, SBICAP Ventures Ltd and Sharad Mittal, CEO, Motilal Oswal Real Estate. While the speakers agreed that lot was being done by the government as well as the private sector to get stalled projects executed, more incentives were required for private financial institutions. Next were the Prop-tech focused sessions. The talk presented by Summit’s Knowledge Partner Sunder Jagannathan, Co-founder and Head of Products, PropVR focused on the Technologies Transforming Real Estate.” Sunder emphasized that with buyers mind set and buying patterns changing, the real estate community too will have to change to reach out to potential customers through tech interventions The next speaker, Govind Rai, Co-Founder & CEO, Totality informed about “Reducing Customer Acquistion Cost for Realtors: Sales & Marketing Automation” and offered case studies on how digitization was transforming all aspects of consumer touch points and has the potential of raising bottomline of the realty firm. The seasoned real estate developer, Sanjay Dutt, MD & CEO – TATA Realty And Infrastructure Limited shed light on, "Prop-tech Ventures- From the Hype to Hyperdrive. He was of the view that technology has now become an integral part of real estate and is not just a hype. Those who do not adopt technologies will be left behind in the race to enhance their businesses." Next was the session on one of the most talked about topics, “REIT in India- Present and the Future.” Briefing on the opportunities and the challenges in the segment Vinod Rohira, CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT briefed on his experiences and forecasted that we will very soon see REITs in other asset classes as well. The following panel discussion on Commercial Realty Investing- Fund Raising & Deal Restructuring was led by Neeraj Bansal, Partner & COO, India Global, KPMG in India with panel comprising Ambar Maheshwari, CEO, Indiabulls Asset Management Co. Ltd., Arshdeep Singh Sethi, Managing Director- Executive Board, RMZ Corp, Khair Ull Nissa Sheikh, Executive Director, WTC Services & Board Member of WTCA, Vinamra Srivastava, CEO, Business Parks, India – CapitaLand and Yash Gupta, Founder & Managing Partner, YGR. Panellist agreed that pandemic has created a bump in the bullish run of the commercial realty but it is a short term hiccup and commercial real estate will soon be back to seeing more volumes of deals and transactions. The panel discussion themed Investors Betting Big on Warehousing was chaired by Piyush Gupta MD, Capital Markets & Investment Services, Colliers. Speakers were Rajani Sinha, Chief Economist & National Director – Research, Knight Frank (India) Pvt. Ltd., Rajat Garg, Head of Investment ESR India, R K Narayan, Chief Operating Officer, Allcargo Logistics and Industrial Parks and Yash Ravel, Executive Director, Fund Management & Corporate Strategy, Welspun One. The speakers predicted a bright future of the segment going by the rise in online shopping during the pandemic and stated it will soon catch up with the commercial real estate and will see large scale developments and investments. In his next exclusive conversation of the day Dr. Annurag Batra spoke to Khushru Jijina Exec. Dir. Financial Services, Piramal Enterprises Ltd. & MD, Piramal Capital & Housing Finance Ltd on the “Role of Real estate in $5 Trillion Economy”. The eminent thought leaders deliberated on all asset classes of the Indian real estate. Khushru Jijina was of the view that Indian real estate has progressed from being just a brick and mortar to becoming a service industry with ‘hotelization’ of commercial realty and residential segment becoming even more organized. Following the stimulating chat was yet another exciting discussion on Investor Ready: Tech Areas That Will Attract Funding that was moderated by Sandeep Sethi, Managing Director, JLL Work Dynamics, West Asia, JLL and had speakers Amit Ramani – Founder & CEO – Awfis Space Solutions Private Ltd, John Kuruvilla. Chief Mentor, Brigade REAP, Renuka Rajagopal, Senior Director, Workplace, VMware| VMInclusion India Co- Lead, Varun Mohan – Founder and CEO, Definite and Aryaman Vir, Founder and CEO, MYRE Capital. The experts agreed that one of the major contributions of technology in real estate has been of making it accessible to all, transparent and cost-efficient. The next very eminent speakers of the summit was the renowned industrialist Snehdeep Aggarwal, Founder-Chairman, Bhartiya Group. He elaborated on his own journey in realty business and explained "The Nuances of Housing Market in India.” He was of the view that the cities need bicycle and pedestrian friendly developments and houses that fit a family rather than trying to fit a family in a house. He emphasized that if we do not buy cars or designer clothes by per inch why the mid set for housing should be such as homes reflect a lifestyle too. The final discussion of the day had developers deliberating on Real Estate Recovery & Investment Opportunities. The session was moderated by Gautam Saraf, Managing Director, Mumbai & New Business, Cushman& Wakefield and the speakers were Dhaval Ajmera, Director, Ajmera Realty & Infra India Ltd, Ram Raheja, Director, S Raheja Realty, Ravi Ahuja, Head Commercial Leasing, L&T Realty and Vivek Soin, CEO, Westcourt. The developers were very bullish on a speedy recovery of housing market and were hopeful that other segment s too will see steady growth in coming years as the country progresses with its vaccination drive, The day indeed was of high energy with presence of the renowned experts from the field of finance and real estate sharing their honest views and opinions. The inaugural edition of Realty+ masterclass presented Global Real Estate Investment Summit 2021 concluded on a high note with expression of huge amount of optimism leading towards the bright future of real estate.