The redevelopment of mill land in Mumbai had been blocked by aHigh Court ruling that the sale of mill land must conform todevelopment controls. Those controls allow the owner to sellone-third while handing over one-third of the land to the municipalcorporation for open spaces and the rest to the Maharashtra Housingand Area Development Authority for low-cost housing. It declaredillegal the sale of 50 acres of mill land by the National TextileCorp. The Supreme Court has now reversed that ruling.

While the land is being sold to local developers, the ruling islikely to appeal as well to international investors. Jones LangLaSalle estimates that India has already attracted between $1.5billion and $2 billion in investment capital in the past 12 months.This was mainly from US, Middle Eastern and Asia Pacific investors,but interest from European players is growing rapidly.

By the end of the year, they estimate foreign direct investmentin Indian real estate will be between $4 billion and $5 billion.The total property-investment stock is estimated to be worthbetween $10 billion and $60 billion.