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Real Estate Gets Selective
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Good Morning. After three years of great gains, India’s housing market is finally slowing, but not evenly. In 2026, the real story won’t be about which city is hot, but which neighbourhood is. From airport corridors to tech hubs, infrastructure and jobs, and not city names, are now deciding where prices rise and where they stall.
India's benchmark indices made gains on Monday. The BSE Sensex closed at 85,567.48, adding 638.12 points or 0.75%. The NSE Nifty50 index closed at 26,172.40, gaining 206 points or 0.79%.
In other news, India signs a trade agreement with New Zealand. Meanwhile, India’s nuclear energy dreams have a long road ahead.
In 2026, Micromarkets Hold The Edge In India’s Real Estate
What?
After three years of an unabated bull run, India’s real estate market is entering a more measured phase in 2026. The sales momentum has cooled, launches are no longer accelerating, and growth is fragmented across cities. This, however, doesn’t signal a downturn but shows that the market is reshaping in terms of where and how value is created.
Residential sales across India’s top seven cities declined 12% year-on-year in the January-September period, while new launches fell 1%, the first annual drop since the pandemic. The slowdown, however, masked a shift from city-wide performance to localised demand pockets.
The Indian housing market will no longer be focused on city-level growth in 2026. Experts point to a different emerging trend.
“In 2026, real returns will come from choosing the right micro-market, not the right city. In fact, 2025 was the year of concentrated micro-market outperformance,” said Harsha Reddy Ponguleti, founder and managing director of Raghava Constructions.
Why Does It Matter?
This fragmentation is expected to amplify in 2026 with developers, investors and homebuyers continuing to prioritise connectivity, long-term livability and proximity to workplaces for speculative appreciation.
The pivot towards premium housing has been one of the strongest signals for 2025, and will likely continue in 2026. Even as overall residential sales softened in 2025, premium segment homes priced between Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 3 crore grew by around 10%.
According to Knight Frank’s outlook, financially stable end-users replaced speculative investors as the primary market drivers, contributing to sustained demand even as prices rose across key metros.
“In 2025, the residential real estate market in India demonstrated a varied performance across important micromarkets. While some locations experienced remarkable sales activity, others solidified their status as upscale neighbourhoods,” said Rahul Purohit, co-founder & chief business officer of India Real Estate at Square Yards, a real estate platform.
Developers, too, are recalibrating. JLL data shows that launches in the Rs1–3 crore bracket rose 9% year-on-year in 2025 YTD, even as overall launches declined. This selective supply approach is expected to define 2026.
India Energy Week returns for its 4th edition from 27–30 January 2026 in Goa, held under the patronage of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas and co-organised by FIPI and DMG Events.
As India advances its role in the global energy transition, the event will bring together policymakers, industry leaders and innovators to shape practical pathways toward a secure, sustainable and affordable energy future.
IEW 2026 will spotlight India’s leadership in balancing energy access with decarbonisation, while showcasing strategic investments, emerging technologies and global partnerships driving the next era of energy progress.
A New Law And A Long Road For India’s Nuclear Ambitions
What?
India has taken a decisive step to reboot its nuclear power programme with the passage of the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill, 2025.
The law opens the sector to private ownership and operation of nuclear plants for the first time, while easing long-standing liability provisions that had deterred investment and foreign participation. Nuclear energy currently contributes about 3% to India’s electricity generation—around 9 gigawatts—but the government plans to scale this up more than elevenfold to 100 gigawatts by 2047.
Why?
The intent is to position nuclear power as a reliable, carbon-free baseload complement to renewables as electricity demand surges. Execution, however, will be slow and capital-intensive. Karthik Ganesan of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water called the bill a “momentous milestone,” while cautioning that it commits India to a technology with costs locked in for 50–60 years. Nuclear projects face long gestation periods—often several years of pre-construction and more than a decade to commissioning—raising financing and execution risks.
Why It Matters?
Beyond capacity targets, the bill could dismantle decades of state monopoly under the Atomic Energy Act of 1962 and reset the liability regime introduced in 2010. By capping liability in line with international norms and backing it with insurance and government support, India hopes to attract global suppliers, alongside domestic groups including Adani, Reliance, NTPC and Tata Power.
“PSUs can play a handholding role in attracting private players to the sector through joint ventures and technology sharing… especially once largely factory-made small modular reactors become prevalent,” said Anujesh Dwivedi, partner at Deloitte India. The law could mark an inflection point for India—if ambition is matched by sustained policy discipline and decades-long execution.
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$10.4 billion
That’s the amount of institutional capital invested in India’s real estate sector in 2025 across 77 deals, marking a second straight record year and a 17% jump from 2024, according to a report by consulting firm JLL, Business Standard reported.
Why It Matters: The funding mix flipped for the first time in over a decade, with domestic institutions accounting for 52% of investments, signalling a structural shift in India’s property capital markets.
The Big Bet: Platform commitments reached $11.43 billion, driven almost entirely by a $11 billion data centre joint venture between Reliance Industries, Brookfield, and Digital Realty.
Fast Facts: Office assets reclaimed dominance with a 58% investment share and $6 billion in inflows; equity accounted for 83% of the deployment, while Bengaluru led the geography with 29% of total investments.
India-NZ Deal Final
India concluded negotiations on a free trade agreement with New Zealand, aiming to double bilateral trade over the next five years and deepen investment ties. Two-way goods and services trade between the countries currently stands at about $2–2.5 billion a year, making it relatively small. The deal lowers or removes tariffs on most goods, except sensitive sectors such as dairy. It also includes commitments to ease short-term work visas for Indian professionals in New Zealand. Officials expect both sides to sign it after legal and parliamentary approvals.
Pivot: The agreement reflects India’s wider push to accelerate trade diplomacy as it seeks to diversify exports away from the United States, where higher tariffs and trade uncertainty have constrained access.
How We Got Here: Over the past year, India has signed or advanced trade pacts with the UK, Oman, Australia and the European Free Trade Association, and continues negotiations with the European Union.
Steel Lifts Infra
India’s infrastructure output grew 1.8% year-on-year in November, led by strong cement and steel production, government data showed Monday. The core infrastructure index — which tracks eight sectors and accounts for about 40% of industrial output — was revised down for October to a 0.1% contraction from a flat reading earlier.
The Lead: For the April–November period of FY26, cumulative growth slowed to 2.4%, down from 4.4% a year earlier.
Catch Up Quick: In November, coal output rose 2.1% while steel production jumped 6.1% and fertiliser output increased 5.6%. Crude oil and natural gas production declined 3.2% and 2.5%, respectively, while refinery output fell 0.9%. On a cumulative basis, steel remained the standout, growing 9.7% during April–November.
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On Episode 758 of The Core Report, financial journalist Govindraj Ethiraj talks to Sandip Agarwal, Fund manager at Sowilo Investment Managers LLP as well as Parizad Sirwalla, Partner and National Head – Tax, Global Mobility Services, KPMG in India.
The markets are up as FIIs step in for some late or early buying.
The surprise market that beat Wall Street in 2025.
Why an appreciating Thai Baht should concern us all.
Geopolitical tensions drive up oil and gold prices.
India-New Zealand sign third FTA for India this year.
✍️ Zinal Dedhia, Kudrat Wadhwa, Shubhangi Bhatia, Katya Naidu | ✂️ Rohini Chatterji | 🎧 Joshua Thomas
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