Ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala said that the stock market has no king. Stock market is the only king. The ones who thought they were, landed up in Aurthur jail, Jhunjhunwala said while speaking at an event of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on February 17.
Nobody can predict weather, death, market and women, the ace investor further mentioned. “Market is like a woman, always commanding, mysterious, uncertain and volatile. You can never really dominate a woman and likewise you cannot dominate the market,” he said.
Sharing the outlook for Indian economy, Big Bull said that India will grow at 10 per cent by 2025-26. The ace investor added that he made a presentation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi where he had said, “India ka time aayega nahi, aa gaya hain.”
Optimistic Jhunjhunwala said that growing information technology (IT) industry will employ 50 lakh new employees in the next five years and the demand for the residential houses will only grow.
The seasoned investor is very optimistic about real estate industry in the country. With the development of infrastructure comes urbanisation. Urbanisation plays an important role in housing and commercial real estate property, he mentioned.
“You go to London, wherever the metro goes, housing has developed. So, Mumbai is making 40 kilometer of metro and it has been made — as the transport systems come, the potential for housing is going to go through the roof. Your cities are going to get decongested and urbanisation in India is today half of China-45 percent, as urbanisation comes, housing has to come,” Jhunjhunwala said.
Consolidation in the real estate sector, all-time low interest rates on home loans, rising employment in the Indian information technology (IT) industry are some of the key triggers to boost real estate sector going forward, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala mentioned.
India should focus on affordable housing. The regulatory framework has to evolve further to keep up with the pace of growing real estate market in India. “Digitisation of land records and certification of titles being done digitally and this will boost real estate market in India,” he said.
Jhunjhunwala is also very bullish on commercial real estate. Logistics sector is at a nascent stage and very attractive, he said. “If India has to develop, real estate has to develop,” he said.
The real estate investment trusts (REITs) has great scope, he mentioned adding that the units of three REITs that are listed on local stock exchanges being well received by the investing community. He would prefer REIT listing rather than listing real estate companies. Jhunjhunwala further said he is not a big fan of new developers getting listed. “If I was a developer, I would not list. It’s not a business suitable to listing. Blue Chip companies have high return on capital of 18-25 per cent, but unitl now realtors have only burnt capital,” Jhunjhunwala said.
