Global Real Estate Transparency Index 2024: India ranks 31; UK leads list

India's tier-I real estate markets have entered into the 'transparent' zone for the first time, driven by institutionalisation of commercial assets and improvement in access to diverse real estate dat

Global property consultant JLL on Tuesday released its ‘Global Real Estate Transparency Index, 2024’, revealing that India has climbed to the 31st position, reflecting enhanced governance within the sector.

India’s Tier-I real estate markets have entered the ‘transparent’ zone for the first time, driven by institutionalisation of commercial assets and improvement in access to diverse real estate data sets, the consultancy firm said.

A total of 89 countries featured in the list, with the United Kingdom topping the chart with a score of 1.24. India’s score stood at 2.44.

Which countries have the best real estate transparent zones?

As many as 13 countries featured in the ‘high-transparency’ zone. After the UK, France, the United States, Australia, Canada, Netherlands, New Zealand, Ireland, Sweden, Germany, Japan, Belgium and Singapore followed next in the queue.

On the ‘transparent zone’ criteria, Finland topped the list with 21 other countries making the cut. Other names included Spain, South Africa, China Tier-1, Thailand, Romania, Norway, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Denmark, and Switzerland among others.

The remaining countries are in semi-transparent, low transparency and opaque zones.

How can India further boost its score?

For India, other factors that helped its markets enter the transparency zone were proactiveness of the financial regulator (Reserve Bank of India), digitisation of records, new climate risk disclosure guidelines, streamlined building regulations among others.

The company credited the role of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code in enhancing governance and safeguarding investor interests. India has eight Tier-1 cities: Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Pune, and Kolkata.

Karan Singh Sodi, senior managing director (Mumbai MMR & Gujarat) and head - alternatives, India, JLL said that for the Indian real estate market landscape, improvements in areas like dispute resolution mechanisms can boost the country’s prospects further.

The report also emphasised the need to democratise data access, bolster institutional participation in public markets, and focus on sustainable development.