Kolkata, Feb. 21 (IANS): US President Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr. on Wednesday said regulatory reforms in India’s real estate sector during the last four-five years are in the “right direction” and these are “important” for foreign players looking to invest in this space in the country.
“I have seen a lot of changes over a decade... some of the reforms that have taken place over the last four-five years are corrections in the right directions... I think in the end, in the long-run... these are the important reforms are needed to happen,” Trump Jr, who is real estate firm Trump Organisation’s Executive Vice President, told reporters here.
He, however, said if he was excited about the marketplace, but at the same time it was a bit of “frustration” for him to turn down new deals and projects in India due to the presidency of his father.
“While he will be in office, there will be some self-imposed rules on new deals,” said the eldest son of the US President.
Saying his firm was “bullish over India for a long period of time”, he however noted that due to his father’s political position, they were unable to do the deals, “which is shameful for me, because I have spent so much of time to prospering these relationships. It’s obviously understandable”.
Asked about how many deals his real estate company had to lose out on in India since his father took office, Trump Jr said: “We were probably looking to close a dozen deals... now, I am not saying that all of these deals would have come through. Some of the deals we are talking about take years to actually be implemented. I imagine five-six deals could have happened... but we have to turn them down.”
India is the Trump Organisation’s biggest international market, with four real estate projects underway. The largest is in Gurugram. In Pune, a Trump-branded project has been built. And in Mumbai, a 78-story tower with 400 residences is scheduled to be completed next year.
Asked whether the organisation is looking to expand its portfolio in India, he said: “We are a real estate company. We have a big hotel portfolio, we have big golf portfolio, so we can expand away from commercial and residential sectors. We can look at resort and hospitality sector. Again that should be later on, not now.”
