In UK, Indians chase high-end properties

LONDON: After making giant strides in the global business turf, Indian entrepreneurs and Non-Resident Indians in the UK have been eyeing prime properties worth millions of pounds.

The number of prosperous Indians seeking to buy high-end property in London and elsewhere in Britain is growing exponentially, and most are willing to pay well over £1 million for a place under the British sun.

Thanks to a growing economy and globalisation of enterprise, more and more Indian companies are opening offices in London to leverage its geographical, historical and financial advantages. This has resulted in swathes of prime property being bought by Indian entrepreneurs either for themselves or their companies.

While India-born steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, President of world's largest steel company Arcelor Mittal, paid a whopping 57.1 million pounds for his mansion at the Kensington Palace Gardens in 2004, the Hinduja Group, headed by S P Hinduja bought the prestigious Carlton House Terrace near the Buckingham Palace last year for an estimated 60 million pounds.

Joining the chase is Shilpa Shetty, winner of reality show Celebrity Big Brother, who is reported to be buying a home in the trendy Hoxton area of north London.

Simultaneously, Northwood in west London suburb is being transformed into UK's first "Millionaires' Row" for a single ethnic minority -- Indians.

Homes worth over 1 million pounds on Astons Road are being snapped up and then demolished to make way for mansions worth up to five million pounds, complete with indoor pools, sweeping marble staircases and extravagant landscaped gardens.

According to estate agents, Indian businessmen now rival Chinese and Russian plutocrats in chasing prime property in the UK. They say that such is the interest from Indian buyers that many agents have now set up a separate desk to deal with Indian buyers. These include Savills, a top-end estate agency, Hamptons and Knight Frank.

London is said to be particularly attractive to the global super-rich because of its accessibility, stability, low taxation and global standing of its financial institutions. It is seen as a magnet to the world’s billionaires.

According to Sheetell Halai, who runs Savills’ India desk: “The question (for Indians) used to be, ‘How big is your house?’ Now it’s, ‘How many do you have?’” She says the majority of her clients are looking for flats, with a budget of 1 million to 6 million pounds.

She told local media that Indians in search of houses were prepared to pay £7 million to £8 million. Savills is also planning to target expatriate Indians based in Hong Kong, Shanghai and the US, keen to invest in London.

Such is the pace of acquisition by Indians that estate agents are already talking of a new ‘Asian arc’ stretching from Watford, Hertfordshire, through Beaconsfield and Gerrards Cross in Buckinghamshire to St George’s Hill in Surrey.

Jaideep Singh of Knight Frank said: “2007 is going to be very big for Indian buyers. The rich are getting richer and now the middle-class Indians are coming here to set up offices and buy a place — but they are shocked that their 2 million pounds will buy so little.”

According to 2001 Census, NRIs constituted 1.8 per cent -- 1,054,000, of the total UK population of 58,800,000.

Indians are the largest single ethnic minority group in Britain, making up almost a quarter of the total ethnic minority population.