Realty tycoon Menda pushes back global foray to double down on booming India

One of India’s largest privately-held developers is doubling down on investing in the domestic real estate market after pushing back a planned overseas foray.

RMZ Corp. is going back on plans unveiled in 2021 to develop offices in key gateway cities in US and Europe. That bet was made before the property rout hit those markets and India remains a safe spot amid these global commercial property headwinds, according to its chairman.

“Factors including macroeconomic growth, the influx of companies, and availability of capital keep development deals healthy in India,” Manoj Menda, billionaire chairman of the Bengaluru-based company said in an interview. “The builder yields, or margins that you get for developing in this country, cannot be matched anywhere in the world.”

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The South Asian nation is posting one of the fastest growth rates among major economies, fueling demand for office and commercial buildings. It makes the market a safer bet for property tycoons like Menda as prices for commercial properties are plummeting worldwide, from midtown Manhattan to Hong Kong and Paris.

Development yield, a metric used to measure returns on building a property, is more than 9 per cent on office spaces in Indian cities compared to about 6 per cent in London or New York, Menda said. The 18-year-old company owns buildings offering about 67 million square feet in India and is planning to grow it five-fold over the next decade, according to its website.

“The right time to start evaluating acquisition or development in overseas markets is toward the end of this year or early next year. We’ll be ready to invest in 2024 if the pricing is right for us,” Menda said.

The firm controlled by Manoj Menda and his brother Raj Menda sold commercial properties worth $2 billion to Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. in 2020, in India’s biggest real estate deal so far. The firm turned debt free through the deal and has been on an expansion drive since then, foraying into the industrial, warehousing, and hospitality sectors.

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The developer, which has already tied up with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Mitsui Fudosan Co. for commercial offices in India, is in conversations with two more sovereign funds to form partnerships, Menda said. Some clients in RMZ’s $10 billion worth of income-yielding technology and business parks include Accenture Plc, Alphabet Inc and HSBC Holdings Plc., according to its website.

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