Trump: "Money Will Pour into India" Thanks to Narendra Modi

Visiting India to open the gleaming Trump Tower Mumbai, Real Estate magnate Donald Trump heaped praise upon India’s newly elected conservative Prime Minister Narendra Modi, predicting that his free market policies will unleash an unprecedented wave of foreign investment into India. 

 “I see India as a great place to invest,” Trump told reporters in the country’s commercial hub. “Money will pour into India,” claiming India’s new leader had done a fantastic job of bringing people together. Trump Tower Mumbai, built in partnership with the Delhi based Lodha Group, is the flamboyant but wildly successful New York investor’s first project in India.

Narendra Modi and his conservative BJP party were swept to power earlier this year in a landslide election victory after having campaigned on a platform of aggressive free market reforms designed to shock the world’s largest democracy and fourth largest economy back to robust growth.

Modi’s election win was historic as he won support from across the vast subcontinental nation. He did especially well with India’s fastest growing demographic: young educated voters. impressed with his 13 year tenure as the business-friendly chief minister or governor of India’s large Gujarat state, they broke strongly for Modi.

“The perception about India has changed”, effused Trump. “The optimism is back. You can see it in our sales. We are selling units more than our own expectations.”

Trump’s component in the luxury residential tower is as a licensing partner only. Lodha is the prime equity participant in the project, which offers residents high end finishings and world-class concierge services. While not an equity partner in Trump Tower Mumbai, Trump was quick to dismiss claims that he is all talk for having not yet made any equity investments in India.

“We will make investments in India,” he told reporters. “Substantial investments. It’s a great place to invest.”

The home buying market has been particularly hard hit by India’s high interest rates and rising inflation, while developers across the country have reported declining sales growth rates for the last several years.

One of the Modi government’s early moves to increase investment in the real estate sector was to make it easier for real estate investment trusts to tap multiple and cheaper funding sources.