India is booming!

Although UK property investors have traditionally opted for nearby and well-known locations such as Spain and France, some of the more adventurous have recently been attracted to the earnings potential of some of the world's emerging markets.

One such market is India, which has seen rapid growth in real estate prices in recent years, particularly in major cities such as Mumbai, where a new breed of affluent young entrepreneurs and business professionals has emerged.

According to a recent article in the Daily Telegraph, the country has experienced massive economic growth, with a level of nine per cent recorded last year - the second fastest since Britain relinquished its hold and India became independent. The demand for new homes in the country is also expected to be healthy, with 20 million properties sought over the next five years, according to the paper.

Furthermore, the publication predicts that by 2015 the real estate market will have experienced a seven-fold growth - potentially offering a number of very lucrative opportunities for Britons who are willing to invest.

Ashish Jagnani, a Mumbai-based real estate analyst for Citi, says:

"India's real estate opportunity is genuine, large and will last a long while - a prospect not lost on developers and capital providers," he told the publication.

Certainly one developer is looking to take advantage of this trend, as US real estate management giant Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) recently confirmed details of a merger with India's Trammel Crow Meghraj. The move, one which is set to boost JLL's interests in a burgeoning market, is perhaps proof of the potential on offer in India, or at least the confidence in it that the big firms hold.

India is a country that has "huge potential" as far as its property market is concerned, according to one delegate at the recent Real Estate Summit that was hosted by news agency Reuters in Singapore.

Seek Ngee Huat, president of GIC Real Estate, said his company is "trying to invest in India - we only pick the markets where we can do significant deals and India certainly has huge potential". His comments were echoed by Kurt Roeloffs of Deutsche Bank's property investment arm.

Mr Roeloffs said that his bank was impressed with the various aspects of the property boom that India is currently experiencing. He described the residential market as "a very strong story" with developers facing "a backlog of at least 20 million units" which they "are having problems keeping up with".

He added: "We also like the commercial story for outsourcing. It's bringing a lot of office demand to India, mostly happening in suburban nodes. As a result, we're going to see a lot of office demand on that front. More selectively we like the retail story in India … we're looking to invest in developers who have large land banks - it's early days in India and we're just going in."

Foreign investors have been ploughing money into Indian property in recent years and prices are shooting up all over the country. Most investment is restricted to the large urban centres such as Mumbai and New Delhi and as a result, property prices in major cities have doubled since 2005.

According to Reuters, the price of the average 100-square-metre Bangalore flat has risen by more than 50 per cent in two years and now stands at £50,000. The news agency reports that "prime residential prices" in the major cities of Mumbai and New Delhi are now just 20 per cent lower than Shanghai and 40 per cent below those of Singapore and Hong Kong - seemingly a large gap but one that has narrowed considerably in recent years.

Part of the attraction for the overseas investor may be the holiday homes market. The Indian government recently relaxed rules regarding foreign investment and has also been engaged in a campaign to push the attractions of India as a tourist destination. Millions of pounds have been spent on the Amazing India campaign and the Indian tourist minister has recently pledged more money to promote package holiday trade.