IT & Tourism both pushing Kochi to top of prospective investment destinations

Kochi or Cochin, considered as god’s own country, was the scene of boats languidly gliding through the waters, Chinese fishing nets silhouetted against the sunset and merchants haggling over the price of spices. While, the beauty of Kochi remains unhampered, Kochi’s skyline has changed, considerably.

IT & Tourism both pushing Kochi to top of prospective investment destinations

As a port city, Kochi has always been the proclaimed economic capital of Kerala with trade and retail being its revenue generators for decades. In the recent times, since NASSCOM ranked it as the second potential city for investments in the IT sector and ever since Kochi has emerged as a favored destination for the IT & ITES industry.

Kochi shows vast potential for economic growth and industrialization based on norms such as real estate growth, available work force, overall infrastructure, policy initiatives and commercial history. However, the accessibility of cheap bandwidth through undersea cables and lesser operational costs in comparison to other key cities in India has proved to be of major advantage, specially for huge IT companies / BPOs who spend considerable amount of money in the daily data transfer to their overseas clients.

The important thing to remember is that Kochi is the one city which is well connected to the rest of the world through sea. This is also one of the reasons for Kochi being identified as an attractive destination for investments. Moreover, this inflow of investments has created realty prospects in the city, both residential and commercial as the IT firms are bringing in more and more people into the city. And with the coming up of Cochin Special Economic Zone (CSEZ) the economical capital of Kerala is now even more attractive to the investor counting on economic and realty prospects.

The SEZ, apart from catering to the business growth and industrialization with the investments in IT and Business parks has also been responsible for growth of Kochi real estate.
With this year’s budget not renewing the STPI screme for IT companies, the only resort for IT companies to still enjoy a tax holiday will be to move into SEZs and Kochi well qualifies all criterions of an ideal investment where the real estate owned by these companies will also give them considerable returns.

Besides the Technopolis developed at the CSEZ, the setting up of a software productivity center by Wipro in Kochi is considered as one of the variable factors in the evolution of Kochi as an upcoming city. Major IT firms such as US Software, IBS, Sun Tec, Gemini, NeST, Ernst and Young, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, ACS Inc. and Allianz Cornhill are only some of the IT firms gradually making their presence felt in the business prospect of Kochi.

The thrust from NRI remittances and the tourism sector are also greatly responsible for the changing postcard picture of Kochi. Restricted by the sea on its western coast, Kochi is spilling over to the neighbouring towns and villages, where land prices have made impressive gains. Once considered distant, neighbourhoods like Edappally and Tripunithura have appreciated from Rs.25, 000 to Rs.2 lakh for a cent.

The growing demand for housing units and the constraints on space have induced city builders to focus on building apartments in Kochi. Local builders are offering top-of-the line fittings and lifestyle add-ons like clubs and swimming pools to apartment complexes to woo home makers who prefer these homes for the security and convenience they offer.

DLF recently launched it’s Riverside Kochi project which was one of the few it has in the south, right in the backdoor of the backwaters and many other real estate developers are putting in money to develop world class living for the people who will be migrating to the place to live and work in the MNCs moving over to grab up spaces in the SEZs.

With everything from nice sceneries to good infrastructure and connectivity Kochi sounds like the place to invest and many of the “Returning NRIs” to India have sought after this opportunity and already invested their monies in this amazing and very cosmopolitan city.