CREDAI's Natcon 2026: How Indian real estate is shaping tomorrow
When the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) closed its 24th National Convention at the ITC Royal Bengal in Kolkata, it had done something unusual. For a body whose flagship gathering is traditionally held abroad, NatCon 2026 was a homecoming, and the industry used it to argue where Indian real estate goes next.
The original plan was Amsterdam. That changed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to citizens and industry to minimise non-essential foreign travel and support the domestic economy. CREDAI relocated the event and the convention brought together more than 1,100 developers, investors, policy experts and technology leaders under the theme ‘The Indian Real Estate Dialogue’. The convention highlighted the forces shaping the next phase of Indian real estate, with a particular focus on the growing role of AI and innovation across the sector.
An industry that chose to stay home had to show it could make the case for growth at home, and Kolkata – a city with a deep past and untapped potential – was an apt place to do it. Swapan Dasgupta, West Bengal’s minister-in-charge, finance department, called it a city of rich past and the hope for an optimistic future. He affirmed that the city and the state offered the greatest development opportunity in India, because upgrades are on at every level.
He was candid about the obstacles too. Impediments such as the Urban Land Ceiling must go, he felt; and organised developers are needed to build the mega projects the state has in mind. He closed with an invitation: come, invest and develop.
The case for investing was made in numbers. CREDAI and ANAROCK Research & Advisory launched a joint report, Indian Real Estate: Growth Trajectory, Sectoral Outlook and Geopolitical Crosscurrents, which begins with how far the market has already travelled. From about $120 billion in 2017, it grew to roughly $600 billion in 2025. The report projects $1 trillion by 2030 and nearly $5.8 trillion by 2047.
That growth is visible in what is being built. Real estate under construction has risen more than five-fold, from $94 billion in 2009 to $503 billion in 2025, and the sector’s share of GDP is projected to climb from 6 per cent in 2017 to about 13 per cent by 2030, with employment reaching 30 million.
Leasing, sales value up
Housing demand explains much of it. Residential sales value across the top seven cities has more than doubled, from R2.35 lakh crore in 2021-22 to R6.10 lakh crore in 2025-26, while quarterly sales have stayed above R1.3 lakh crore for seven consecutive quarters. In offices, global capability centres (GCCs) accounted for about 45 per cent of leasing in the first half of 2026, while listed office REITs have expanded their combined leasable area nearly six-fold since 2018-19.
The report also shows how concentrated the market remains. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region holds 34 per cent of residential sales value, followed by Delhi-NCR at 22 per cent and Bengaluru at 15 per cent, roughly seven-tenths among them. That is why its attention to Tier II and III cities, alongside data centres, warehousing and hospitality, matters.
CREDAI President Shekhar G. Patel made that argument directly. The next phase of India’s urban growth, he said, will extend beyond the traditional metropolitan centres. As infrastructure and connectivity improve, they can strengthen economic corridors, bring emerging cities into larger development networks and open up new opportunities for housing, businesses and investment. Bringing NatCon to Kolkata, he said, was about focussing the industry’s attention on that opportunity and building more connected, competitive cities in line with the vision of Viksit Bharat. Panellists also called Mumbai the ‘mother of redevelopment models’ and urged Tier I and II cities to adopt similar policies to upgrade ageing urban infrastructure safely.
Technology was the other major theme. AI and innovation, the convention heard, are reshaping real estate across the value chain, from sales and marketing to planning, construction and customer engagement, enabling sharper market insights, better project monitoring and greater efficiency. Discussion focused on moving AI from concept to tool on active construction sites and an innovation zone showcased PropTech, smart-building solutions and software platforms. Patel drew a useful distinction: the opportunity is not simply to adopt new technologies but to use them meaningfully to build a more productive, transparent and future-ready sector.
CREDAI Chairman Boman Irani tied technology back to skills. Technology, sustainability, skills and investment, he said, are closely connected to how real estate will grow and adopting new technologies must be accompanied by investment in the people who use them. The CREDAI CSR Foundation and Tata Capital Housing Finance will train about 1,250 construction workers, contributing to CREDAI’s target of training 50,000 workers this financial year. The numbers are modest next to an industry employing millions, but one pushing for AI on worksites while facing labour deficits has clear reason to invest in its workforce.
NatCon was also a place to lobby. CREDAI leaders urged municipal bodies to plan roads, drainage and public transport before large projects begin. Developers asked the Central government to scrap the R45 lakh price ceiling for affordable housing in favour of flexible, area-based criteria. Incoming president G. Ram Reddy and others pressed for formal recognition of real estate as a foundational contributor to the economy and employment, a claim that rests on the report’s own projections of 13 per cent of GDP and 30 million jobs. A session on listings added that IPOs are no longer only about quick funding; developers use them to restructure compliance and modernise operations for public market scrutiny.
Changing shape of growth
Beyond the venue and the speeches, NatCon 2026 offered a snapshot of an industry in transition. The scale is already considerable. A market that grew from $120 billion to about $600 billion in eight years is now projected to reach $1 trillion by 2030, supported by residential sales that have held above Rs1.3 lakh crore a quarter for seven straight quarters and by office demand increasingly driven by global capability centres. The growing role of institutional capital, from listed office REITs to developers going public, points to a sector that is professionalising as it expands.
The shape of that growth is also changing. Data centres, warehousing and hospitality are joining housing and offices as engines of demand, and activity is spreading toward Tiers II and III cities even as three metros still account for most residential sales value. The report’s own title acknowledges the ‘geopolitical crosscurrents’ behind this: a convention relocated amid events in West Asia is a reminder that costs, capital and confidence depend on forces well beyond any developer’s control.
Much will depend on three things. Technology, especially AI, has to move from showcase to worksite. Skills have to keep pace, which is why the 50,000-worker training target matters more than its size suggests. And policy has to follow ambition, through infrastructure planned before construction, workable affordable housing criteria and recognition of real estate as a core economic and employment contributor.
CREDAI, which represents more than 13,000 developers across 230 city chapters in 20 states, will carry these positions into its engagement with ministries and state governments. For a sector that could contribute about 13 per cent of GDP and support 30 million jobs by 2030, the question is no longer whether India’s real estate will grow. It is whether the industry, the regulators and the workforce can build that growth well.