Land of plenty

On the heels of Salim Group of Indonesia's foray into West Bengal's realty arena, the UK-based REIT Asset Management, which manages real estate assets valued at over $6.8 billion (Rs 27,880 crore) globally, has teamed up with a local developer, Eden Realty Ventures, to build at least two projects with a capital outlay of Rs 465 crore. This sets the stage for fresh foreign direct investment (FDI) in the city's realty space. Says a REIT representative: "This is just the beginning and we have bigger commitments in this part of the country, where opportunities are enormous." REIT has offices in London, Mumbai, Munich, Stockholm and Tel-Aviv to identify and take advantage of opportunities in the global real estate market.

Eden Realty's De: Boom time

If Salim Group had come through its association with NRI businessman Prasun Mukherjee, another NRI entrepreneur hailing from the city, Indrajit De, has been instrumental in bringing in REIT. The UK-based asset management firm, which had set up office in the country two years ago in Mumbai, has so far invested only in one project in Pune and identified three more (two being in Kolkata) after looking at nearly 140 offers. Eden Realty Ventures jointly with REIT will build more than 5,000 flats on the northern and southern fringes of the city.

REIT-Eden Projects will have active participation from various state government agencies; the first project at Bonhooghly in North 24 Parganas will be a public-private partnership with the Refugee Relief and Rehabilitation Department of West Bengal; in the other project, Maheshtala Municipality (a local Civic body) will be the partner, says De.