Real estate accounted for more than a third of the total assets under management by the world’s 100 largest asset managers, according to a survey of the investment industry by Towers Watson, the consultancy.

The real estate sector of India is projected to post annual revenues of US$ 180 billion by 2020 against US$ 66.8 billion in 2010–11, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.6 per cent. The demand is expected to grow at a CAGR of 19 per cent in the period 2010–2014, with Tier I metropolitan cities expected to account for about 40 per cent of this growth. As of now, Mumbai, Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) and Bengaluru cater for 46 per cent of total office space demand in India. This demand is expected to be rise sharply in Tier II cities such as Kolkata and Chennai in the period 2010–14.

Today, Delhi-NCR accounts for about 30 per cent of the total mall supply in India. About 53 per cent of demand for total mall space is projected to come from the country’s top seven cities, namely Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad, and Chennai, in the period 2010–2014.

The Indian retail realty sector is projected to grow at around 15 per cent year-on-year over the next 3–5 years as against a 12–13 per cent nominal growth of India’s GDP estimated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). If the sector does indeed manage the aforementioned growth, it will touch Rs 34 trillion (US$ 544.73 billion) by 2016.