Goldman Sachs plans to invest $2 billion to $3 billion in India’s real estate over the next three years. The move is part of the global investment bank’s plan to put in $30 billion in alternative investments in Asia over the next five years. Goldman Sachs is looking to come back to India’s property market amid a revival in residential real estate after going slow on this sector in the past decade following the global financial crisis. Goldman has about $2.5 billion of real estate investment in China. Peers KKR and Blackstone have stepped up investments in Indian real estate. KKR has built a sizable loan book in real estate, while Blackstone and its partners have become the largest owner of commercial property in India.
Goldman is in talks with two developers in Bengaluru for platform deals and a similar one with a Mumbai developer for commercial and residential property. Though GS is looking to buy real estate loan books, not many books are available for sale. The US investment bank is also considering investing in data centers in the country. Goldman invested in Mumbai-based student housing operator Good Host Spaces, in which Warburg Pincus picked up a 24.48 percent stake early this year. In 2015, Goldman invested Rs 978 crore in Piramal Realty, the real estate company of the Ajay Piramal Group. It put in Rs 441 crore in SAMHI Hotels in 2016. Another US investor, Apollo Global Management, has also become active in Indian real estate in the past couple of years, according to the people cited earlier. Apollo lent $500 million to Piramal Capital & Housing Finance last year and invested Rs 300 crore in a premium real estate project of a Mumbai developer.