A young demographic, large and dynamic talent pool, and continued economic growth is giving India an advantage over others in attracting investment, Shaw said in an interview.
Wars, protectionist policies, and interest rate uncertainty have slowed investment decisions across markets, making global capital flows more selective. India, on the other hand, is benefiting from growing investor preference for countries with stronger long-term fundamentals rather than immediate yields.
“We are seeing a lot of capital that may have traditionally gone to other parts of the region come to India,” said Martin Fidden, CEO, Asia Pacific (ex-Greater China) at Savills. Some of this is flowing into investment platforms rather than directly into real estate, he said.
Infrastructure investments, access to a large base of skilled workers, and strong occupier demand are all helping India compete for capital at a time when other Asian economies, including South Korea and Taiwan, are also attracting major investments.
Shaw believes that the rise of global capability centres, or GCCs, would continue to be a structural driver for India’s office market.
“The GCC trend comes back to India’s extraordinarily large, well-educated and ambitious population,” he said. “It is very difficult to point to an alternative location where those things are all equally true.”Capital movement is also expanding beyond outsourced back-office functions to middle- and increasingly front-office responsibilities, indicating a long-term trend, said Shaw.
Investors are increasingly diversifying assets beyond offices, into logistics, data centres, hotels, and living spaces. Shaw said there is significant headroom in data centres, arguing that India remains underrepresented in capacity even without factoring in AI-driven demand.
The migration of conventional corporate computing to the cloud “alone would justify a doubling or tripling of India’s data-centre capacity, regardless of AI,” he said.
Shaw however underlined that while India offers growth, it remains a market where investors need patience and local expertise. Regulatory and other hurdles will create “bumps in the road,” he said, but investors remain committed because of the potential prize.
Anurag Mathur, CEO, Savills India, said the complexity can itself act as an entry barrier. “You have to put in the hard yards,” he said. “You have to study the market. You have to understand its rhythm and dynamics,” he said, adding that a “hot-money approach doesn’t work here.”
Savills, which started its India operations in late 2018, currently has about 1,000 employees across eight cities, nearly twice the pace Shaw had initially expected. India is now “without doubt” among the consultancy’s fastest-growing large geographies, he said.
Savills’ Indian operations are profitable, and it is looking to deploy more capital, including through acquisitions. It recently acquired hospitality consultancy Hotelivate, and is open to inorganic opportunities in other segments, including property and facilities management.
“I’m keen to carry on supporting and deploying capital in this country,” Shaw said. “If we see interesting opportunities to grow inorganically in India, we will look at them very seriously.”
He, however, dismissed suggestions that AI would dramatically reduce the need for people and offices, pointing instead to strong demand for prime space and a broader flight towards quality.
“The return-to-office trend has unquestionably become stronger,” he said. Companies are increasingly favouring high-quality buildings with better amenities even as flex and co-working continue to expand.
The repricing triggered by the sharp rise in global interest rates has also largely run its course in most major markets, according to Shaw. Values have recalibrated while rental growth in prime properties has helped offset higher financing costs.
Sustainability, meanwhile, has “slightly lost steam” as a headline theme in some markets after dominating the real estate conversation a few years ago, but Shaw said the underlying shift has not gone away.