from what i know (and i'm fairly sure), the government allows 49% foreign direct investment in real estate and development in the country. which means you'll have to find yourself a local partner.

i'm not sure how much complicated or exhaustive the legislation and the paperwork is, but given india's ancient and terrible bureaucracy, its a fair bet that its a painful route to take. however, that being said, i also suppose that if you're bringing enough money to the table, the local government will do cartwheels through hoops for you. i mean, it IS mumbai...

i do know for sure that several large international (some of whom are american) are taking a serious look at entering the indian market. the 49% law was only passed a couple of years ago, so most people (to the best of my knowledge) are still examining the market.

in my former office in mumbai, i met with a one contingent of people from a particularly large american development company early this year. i'm sorry, i'm not at liberty to give you any more detail. the gist of the discussion was that while mumbai was certainly an interesting option as an entry point into the indian market, due to the sky-high real estate values, it was also a very hard urban condition to break into. the initial capital investment would have to be enormous, good sites are hard to come by, and the political tippy-toe would also be somewhat inconvenient. easier to hedge your bets by making a soft entry into some of the newer 'sunshine cities' like pune or surat or ludhiana.

another point that was brought up was that while the outskirts of mumbai, i.e. thane, mulund etc. had the land available, they had poor market presence and brand value. any high-profile developer coming in from abroad wants visibility first and foremost. and the only places where you can get that sort of visibility are already completely saturated with almost no sites available.

hope this helped.

Thanks Ticker Tocker. What if we are aiming at the middle-income household ? Isn't there a sortage of housing in Mumbai in general ?bY the way, do you know Mumbai well ?

i'm no authority on mumbai, but i lived and worked there long enough to have a broad idea of the workings of the place. to answer your questions:

1) yes, there IS a shortage of housing in mumbai. there's also a shortage of housing in most other cities in the world. the bigger issues in mumbai are its weird geography, the shortage of land, artificially rigged real estate values, and a complete politicisation of every aspect of the housing + construction process from land grabbing to price fixing to social housing and slum rehab.

so yes, all of these things add up to a severe housing shortage, to answer your question.

2) yes, there's huge demand for middle income housing. again, getting space near likely places of work, entertainment etc. will be hard. most prime locations have already been snapped up. the capital investment required to acquire those sites may not make it cost-effective for a developer to construct middle-income housing.

there is land available on the borders of the city's metropolitan limits, and there has been a huge exodus of city-based professionals to these parts over the last 3 years or so (Mulund, Ghatkopar, Goregaon, Kandivli, Thane). this is because quality housing in the heart of the city is unaffordable for those born without the proverbial silver spoons in their mouths.

again, to answer your question, there IS great demand for middle income housing, evidenced by the rate that prices are rising and the sheer amount of construction activity going on. but the logistics and means of pulling off a good project need to be looked at very carefully.

nonarchitect,

housing in mumbai is a huge and complex issue, and hard to convey on archinect. if you're seriously looking to get into real estate development in the city, my advice to you would be to spend some money, talk to the right people and really, really do your homework.