Donald hopes to play Trump card in Indian realty

MUMBAI: Donald Trump Jr, whose father built the 72-storey Trump World Tower costing $300 million (Rs 1,200 crore), is mulling an investment in Indian real estate.

“There is a huge opportunity in the tourism business with hotels and resorts in places like Goa and Bangalore in addition to high-end luxury homes in Mumbai and Delhi,” said Trump Jr, who is the executive vice-president, development and acquisitions, Trump Organization, which is in talks with domestic developers to enter into a pact soon.

Trump was speaking at the inaugural session of a real-estate conference organised by Cityscape. The New York-based Trump Organization may start investing in the next 18 months, he said.                                                               

Donald Trump junior, 30, is the eldest of the three kids from the much-married billionaire and real-estate developer Donald Trump and his first wife Ivana. Trump Jr works with his sister Ivanka as executive vice-president of Trump Organization.

“We feel it is now time to invest in Indian realty projects as the quality has moved up and we see emergence of some high-end developers with a product level that will support our brand,” he said.

Donald Trump is a part of American corporate folklore for the way he came back from bankruptcy and hit upon novel ways to keep him in the spotlight. Currently, Trump Sr is building a $1 billion golf resort.

Each of the residential projects could be spread over 250,000 sq ft to 1 million sq ft which could either be greenfield or acquire existing projects which is at a nascent stage of conception.

Trump has no intention to enter the middle or low income segment. “While I don’t expect to get high premiums like 400% we got for our condominium project at Panama or 50-75% in New York in India, we would like to keep our focus in building apartments for the niche luxury segment. I believe that as India’s young continue to grow wealthy, they are going to appreciate and pay a premium because they want better product,” said Trump.

The company plans to enter the market either through a joint venture (with a local developer) or through licensing format (permitting use of the company’s name).

Although Trump feels property prices in India have risen sharply, he believed they are not much high compared with global realty prices.

“Apart from the country’s fast-moving GDP, a reason is the need of more real-estate as the family size shrinks. There is another trend of people from outer regions entering the city,” said Trump, whose company’s portfolio includes several prominent projects in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and in countries like Mexico and Dominican Republic.

Underscoring the key attributes that global investors would look for, prior to investing in India’s booming property market, Trump said revealed the complex strategies required to attract high net-worth individual investors as well as major international institutional investors, issues crucial if India is to realise its mid- to long-term growth potential.

Trump said the key challenge for Indian property developers is to ensure they continue to meet the expectations of high net-worth global investors.