Kolkata tops institutional real estate investment growth in 2025
Times of India | 9 January 2026
Kolkata: The South City deal with Blackstone by a consortium pushed Kolkata's growth in institutional investment by 400% in 2025 as compared to 2024, the highest in the country. According to a study by Colliers India, Kolkata was followed by Bengaluru (277%) and Hyderabad (44%).
"Kolkata recorded investments of nearly $0.4 billion (around Rs 3,500 crore) in 2025, marking over 400% year-on-year growth, primarily driven by large deals in the retail segment. This marquee deal played a decisive role in boosting annual inflows, underscoring growing investor interest in stabilized, income-generating retail assets in the city," said a spokesperson. The institutional investment in real estate in Kolkata was Rs 650 crore in 2024.
As per the Colliers study, institutional investments in the Indian real estate sector witnessed an all-time high of $8.5 billion in inflows in 2025, marking 29% year-on-year growth.
Domestic institutional capital emerged as the primary driver of real estate investments in 2025, with inflows more than doubling year-on-year to $4.8 billion, accounting for 57% of the total investment volume during the year. The strong growth in domestic investor participation underscored rising confidence among Indian institutional investors, supported by improving asset quality, stable returns, and greater market transparency. While foreign capital deployment in 2025 moderated by 16% year-on-year to $3.7 billion, cross-border investments showed signs of recovery in the final quarter, indicating a gradual improvement in global investor sentiment.
Badal Yagnik, chief executive officer and managing director of Colliers India, said, "Private equity investments in Indian real estate reached a new high in 2025, totalling $8.5 billion, supported by record capital deployment in the last quarter of the year. Q4 alone witnessed investments of $4.2 billion, the highest ever in any quarter. During the year, office assets continued to attract the bulk of the investments, accounting for 54% of the annual inflows, followed by residential, industrial, and warehousing assets."
Saket Mohta, MD, Merlin Group, said, "2026 will witness new momentum in real estate growth. Private equity and REITs are expected to record significant growth and play a much bigger role. India's real estate sector will see strengthened growth in 2026 due to sustained demand across housing, commercial, and alternative asset classes. In a nutshell, the institutional role in India's real estate is gaining momentum."
Siddharth Pansari, former president of Credai Bengal and director of Primarc Group, said many funds and institutional investors are taking an interest in Bengal. "South City was one such example. There are also talks of another shopping mall and a very large IT complex taken over by institutional funds. I think this is just the start, and this ecosystem is bound to grow in Bengal," he added.