India real estate PE investment hits $6.1 bn in 9 months, data centres attract 40 pc: Report

New Delhi: Private equity investment in India's real estate sector reached $6.1 billion across 55 disclosed deals in the first nine months of 2026, nearly matching the $6.9 billion recorded in the whole of 2025, a joint report said on Thursday.

Data centres emerged as the largest investment destination with a 40 per cent share, while domestic funds contributed 42 per cent of the total inflows, according to a joint report by FICCI and Anarock.

The report, titled 'The Changing Landscape of Real Estate Investment in India,' found that data centres attracted $2.5 billion, accounting for about 40 per cent of total private equity investments during the period, while office assets secured $1.7 billion.

The inflow of capital in the first nine months of the year is already close to the $6.9 billion recorded during the entire calendar year 2025.

If the current momentum continues, 2026 is expected to become the strongest year for real estate private equity investment since 2007, as per the report.

A major trend highlighted by the report is the rapid rise of domestic investors. Investments by Indian funds climbed to $2.6 billion during the January-September period, compared with just $400 million in 2020.

As a result, their share of total private equity investments increased to 42 per cent from 8 per cent six years ago.

The report noted that domestic capital accounted for nearly 48 per cent of total inflows during the first half of FY27, three times its share in FY25.

At the same time, foreign investors have continued to expand their presence, with overseas capital growing at an average annual rate of about 19 per cent between 2021 and 2025, reaching $4.9 billion.

Investor confidence in ownership-based investments has also strengthened. Equity investments formed 83 per cent of total inflows in the first half of FY27, while the share of structured debt fell sharply to 16 per cent from 32 per cent in FY23, as per the report.

According to the report, India's operational data centre capacity is expected to increase by around 30 per cent to 2,200 MW in 2026 and exceed 6.7 GW by 2030.