India’s HNI population at second position
New Delhi: As per a global wealth and investment report, second highest increase in high net worth individuals (HNI) has been recorded by India. People possessing investable assets worth above $ 1 million are categorized under HNI. This is good news for the country’s real estate sector.
In 2011, the HNI population of India had witnessed a steep decline, however by 2012 the figures grew by 22.2 per cent, while the collective wealth increased by 23.4 per cent. As against 2008 when 84,000 HNIs were recorded, in 2011 India witnessed 1,25,000 HNIs while in 2012 the numbers rose to 153,000 HNIs.
Impact on real estate:
The investment patterns and behaviors of the HNIs category which together is worth more than $589 billion approximately, would bring cheer to the realty sector.
In line with the investing patterns and behaviors existing within the entire Asia-Pacific region, Indian HNIs too have chosen real estate as the most preferred asset class to invest in.
HNIs investment distribution:
Real estate – 26.5 per cent.
Cash and deposits – 22.7 per cent.
Fixed income – 17.7 per cent.
Equities – 17.4 per cent.
Alternative investments – 15.8 per cent.
(Allocation of 15.8 per cent to alternative investments was the highest in Asia-Pacific).
World Wealth Report:
World Wealth Report of 2013 (WWR) suggests that the global equity benchmark known as MSCI benchmark index increased by 13.2 per cent, India at 23.9 per cent comes third behind Germany and Mexico.
As per the report, reform measures along with the monetary easing helped the Indian equity market to gain 23.9 per cent.
On a global scale in 2012, ahead of India, the most significant gains in HNI population and wealth was witnessed by Hong Kong. Throughout the world, the Asia-Pacific region recorded the strongest growth of wealth at 12.2 per cent.
With a growth of 22.2 per cent India benefited from gross national income, the positive trends within equity market capitalization, consumption as well as the real estate sector. Both India and Hong Kong, which are notoriously volatile, overcame their poor performance in HNI population growth In 2011 — Hong Kong lost 17.4 per cent while India lost 18 per cent.
More than half the global HNIs population continued to be concentrated within three countries of the United States, Japan and Germany. For the last three years, individuals within these countries have accounted for about 53 per cent of all HNIs, which is down from 54.7 per cent in 2006. However, the market share of the top three countries is expected to erode over time as emerging markets increase in prominence.
Additionally, the report also suggests that by as early as 2014, Asia-Pacific is expected to become the largest HNI wealth market. Asian markets are expected to expand annually by 10.9 per cent and 9.7 per cent respectively (in 2013 and 2014) through 2015.
