NEW DELHI: India’s real estate investment market posted its strongest quarter on record in July-September, helped by a sharp revival in overseas capital and a surge in institutional investment, with equity inflows across real estate, data centres and hospitality reaching $9.5 billion, CBRE said.The quarterly inflow was more than twice the $4.4 billion recorded a year earlier and rose from $3.8 billion in the April-June quarter, according to CBRE’s India Market Monitor – Investments for Q3 2026, as cited by ANI.The latest investment surge takes capital deployed across the three segments in the first nine months of 2026 to $18.6 billion, nearly double the corresponding period last year. The nine-month tally has already crossed the $14.2 billion invested during the entire 2025.A key feature of the quarter was the return of foreign capital. Overseas investors accounted for about 59 per cent of total inflows, with US investors contributing nearly 90 per cent of foreign investment. Canada, Singapore and Japan were the other major sources of overseas capital.Institutional investors were behind nearly 79 per cent of the quarter’s inflows, up sharply from about 28 per cent in the previous quarter. Developers accounted for around 13 per cent of investments.The investment pattern also showed that institutional capital is increasingly moving beyond conventional office and land transactions. Data centres, built-up office assets and land/development sites together accounted for nearly 91 per cent of capital deployed during the quarter.Data centres alone attracted 57 per cent of the total investment, reflecting the growing importance of specialised real estate assets as demand for digital infrastructure expands. Rising AI-related computing requirements, along with continued expansion by hyperscalers and colocation operators, are expected to keep the segment on investors’ radar.Office assets, meanwhile, continue to form a major part of institutional portfolios, particularly income-generating built-up properties. CBRE expects demand for such assets to remain supported by private equity funds, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds, as well as acquisitions by real estate investment trusts.The concentration of investment in established property markets remained high. Mumbai, Delhi-NCR and Chennai together accounted for about 53 per cent of quarterly inflows, while transactions involving multiple cities made up another 15 per cent.Land and site acquisitions were also directed largely towards sectors where investors expect sustained development demand. Office, residential and data centre projects together accounted for about 72 per cent of investment in land and sites. The remainder went into mixed-use developments, hotels, retail and industrial and logistics projects.“This is a landmark quarter for India’s real estate capital markets,” said Anshuman Magazine, chairman and CEO, India, South-East Asia, Middle East and Africa, CBRE.“Global investors have returned with conviction, and institutional capital is now flowing well beyond offices and land into data centres. It reflects how deep and diverse India’s real estate market has become, and we expect this confidence to carry through the rest of the year,” he said.The strong third-quarter performance is expected to keep investment activity elevated through the rest of the year. CBRE said continued deployment into completed assets as well as new projects across traditional and emerging real estate segments should support the market in the coming quarters.The consultant expects data centres to remain an important destination for capital, backed by institutional allocations, expanding hyperscaler and colocation capacity and the growing requirement for computing infrastructure.At the same time, investors will continue to monitor geopolitical uncertainty and movements in interest rates, which could influence the pace and cost of capital deployment.With nine-month investment already exceeding the full-year 2025 figure, CBRE expects India’s real estate investment activity to end 2026 on a strong note.
