Nandan Nilekani’s report, “The Great Unlock: India in 2035,” emphasises the potential of unlocking $3.3 trillion through land asset tokenisation as India aims for an $8 trillion economy. With 50% of household assets in real estate but a low capitalisation rate of 5%, significant value remains untapped.
If we told you that Indians are sitting on $3.3 trillion worth of jackpot waiting to be unlocked, would you believe it? Well, Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, in his ‘The Great Unlock: India in 2035’, has explained how we can exploit this bounty by overcoming some of the key challenges. As India is expected to become an $8 trillion economy by 2035, Nilekani believes that “Tokenisation of land assets can unlock $3.3 trillion in capital”.
Real Estate Tokenisation: Unlocking India’s Trapped Wealth
According to the report, nearly 50% of Indian household assets are tied up in real estate, while bank deposits account for just 15%. Despite this heavy investment, India’s land capitalisation rate is a mere 5%, starkly lower than the 40% seen in the United States, highlighting the vast untapped value locked in property holdings.
The report identifies a unified digital ledger and credible property verification mechanisms as crucial innovations that could vastly increase the monetisation of land assets. By creating a transparent and trusted infrastructure, more real estate could be brought into the formal financial ecosystem, making it easier to access credit and investment.
At the heart of this transformation is real estate tokenization — the process of converting physical property ownership into fractional digital tokens that can be traded on a blockchain. Each token represents a share in the asset, allowing smaller investors to participate in the real estate market without needing large sums of capital.
As highlighted in a recent EY report, tokenisation offers multiple advantages:
- Improved liquidity by allowing real-time buying and selling of fractional ownership.
- Global accessibility, enabling cross-border investments and expanding the investor pool.
- Lower transaction costs, a factor that 58% of high-net-worth individuals cited as a major attraction.
Despite India’s fast-growing economy, the Nilekani report underscores four critical structural barriers:
- High income disparity, with the top 10% of the population earning nearly 60% of the national income.
- Low formalisation, keeping much of India’s economic activity outside institutional systems.
- Limited market access, especially in rural or underdeveloped districts.
- Low productivity, exacerbated by fragmented land ownership and inefficient capital use.