China’s slump gives India a head start in becoming the world’s next real estate powerhouse. India has quietly pulled ahead of China in a sector long considered Beijing’s home turf—real estate. While China battles a historic property meltdown, India is seeing record-breaking home sales, accelerating foreign investment, and a regulatory overhaul that’s reshaping its property market into a global magnet for capital.
According to Aayush Puri, Head of ANAROCK’s Channel Partner (ACP) vertical and PropTech platform ANACITY, the shift is structural, not cyclical. “China built too much, too fast—resulting in ghost cities,” he says. “India, on the other hand, is building smarter—with technology improving transparency, approvals, and scalability across the value chain.”
China’s Loss, India’s Opening
China’s property crisis has shaved trillions off its GDP prospects, with new home prices were down 4.5 per cent from a year earlier, hitting the lowest since June 2015, deeper than a 3.9 per cent slide in May, according to Reuters calculations based on National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data out on July 15. The country’s once-booming sector, which contributed nearly 30% to GDP, is now caught in a prolonged slump marked by falling homeownership, cash-strapped developers, and investor flight.
India, in contrast, Anarock Research data indicates that housing sales in the top 7 cities have created a new peak in 2023, breaching the previous high of 2022. Approx. 4,76,530 units were sold in 2023 against 3,64,870 units in 2022 across the top 7 cities – rising by 31% Y-o-Y, marking its highest-ever annual sales. Institutional capital inflows crossed $5 billion, with foreign investors warming up to a sector once seen as opaque and unorganized.
Reforms and Real Returns
The foundation of India’s real estate turnaround is a mix of demand-side growth and supply-side reform. With initiatives like the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA), digitized land records, and Smart City projects, the government has laid the groundwork for a more transparent and scalable sector.
On the ground, brokers and developers are also upgrading. Puri, who heads both a nationwide broker aggregation platform and a SaaS platform for community management, sees technology as the biggest differentiator in India’s real estate transformation. “Real estate is one of the last great industries to be disrupted by tech,” he says. “India is finally leading that transformation.”
PropTech Surge
As per HDFC Capital, Brigade REAP, and Knight Frank report, proptech investments in the country are projected to grow at a robust 15 per cent CAGR, rising from $6 billion in 2023 to $16 billion by 2030. Tools like AI-driven transactions, digital documentation, and broker analytics are driving operational efficiency and investor confidence.
“India’s twin engines—brokerage innovation and operations tech—are creating a fundamentally more resilient market,” Puri adds.
The Demographic Dividend
While China’s urban population begins to shrink, India’s continues to rise. By 2035, India is expected to have over 600 million urban dwellers. First-time homebuyers, institutional investors, and modern developers are feeding a growing ecosystem that’s moving beyond brick-and-mortar to become digitally enabled and globally investable.
China’s playbook of large-scale urbanization and aggressive developer-led growth may have run its course. India, riding a wave of regulatory clarity, digital innovation, and demographic strength, is now scripting its own.
The world’s real estate investors are taking notice—and increasingly, redirecting their bets.