Blackstone says data centres and hospitality sector are on top of its investment list

Blackstone Real Estate is the largest office space owner in India with a commercial real estate portfolio valued at USD 20 billion.

The top management of the investment firm told CNBC-TV18's Nisha Poddar that it is bullish on investments in India and sees an all-round recovery in office rentals, malls and logistics to pre-COVID levels.

Tuhin Parikh, Head of Real Estate at Blackstone India said that he expects office rentals to firm up going ahead as higher inflation is restricting supply of new office space.

“Inflation is increasing the cost of producing the assets, high interest rates are reducing the amount of development people can do. Therefore we actually see rentals firming up in India because replacement costs are going up. The same office building takes 20-30 percent more to develop than it took 3 years ago. So that is good underlying fundamental for existing stock that we own.”

Kenneth Caplan, Global Co-Head at Blackstone Real Estate said that hospitality and data centres would be on top of their investment list in India.

“Hospitality and data centres are definitely two areas on the top of our investment list. Hotels is an area that we have been investing in since the beginning of our existence. We have been investing in real estate for over 30 years. In data centre we bought a company called QTS in US last year, we have had great initial success not only with the portfolio but in growing that business and we look for similar opportunities here in India.”