India has achieved a landmark milestone in global real estate transparency, climbing five positions from 31^st, to rank 26th globally in the JLL Global Real Estate Transparency Index (GRETI) 2026. The nation was recognised as one of the top 5 most-improved markets globally and the number one improver across Asia Pacific.

India’s new ranking puts it firmly within the middle of the ‘Transparent’ tier, indicating consistent improvement across key performance parameters.

“India did not just improve this year in JLL’s Global Real Estate Transparency Index 2026; it set the pace for Asia Pacific. Moving from 31st to 26th globally and ranking among the top five most-improved markets worldwide reflects a market that is compounding gains, not chasing a single good year. Our steady progress – fourth-best globally over 10 years and third-best over 20 years – positions India to enter the ‘Highly Transparent’ tier as we advance toward aligning with the world’s most transparent markets,” said Radha Dhir, Chief Executive Officer, India, JLL.

“The next chapter is about scale – extending what is working in our gateway markets to every market where global capital wants to invest. This advancement to the 26^th place reflects sustained momentum in creating a more open and accountable real estate ecosystem,” she added.

Investment activity reaches historic highs

The country’s improved transparency has coincided with record-breaking investment activity. Private equity investment demonstrated similar strength, reaching USD 10.5 billion in 2025 (up 17% year-on-year) and continuing at USD 4.3 billion in H1 2026 (up 25% year-on-year).

“The direct investment we saw this year, a 20-year high, is not the ceiling; it is the foundation we are building on. Private equity flows are already up 17% year-on-year, reaching USD 10.5 billion in 2025. Our office REIT stock has grown 58% since 2024, and close to half of India’s Grade A office stock is now REIT-worthy. We are watching a data centre pipeline that will need USD 110 billion in capital by 2029. As we close the remaining gaps in credit market data and unlisted fund benchmarking, this combination of transparency and scale is exactly what will pull India’s capital markets from ‘most improved’ to genuinely institutional grade. We expect the next few years to bring not just more capital, but more sophisticated capital into Indian real estate,” said Lata Pillai, Senior Managing Director & Head of Capital Markets, India, JLL.

India’s listed real estate market gains ground

India’s global rank improved slightly from 36th to 35th, and the score improved from 2.29 to 2.22, reflecting incremental gains in listed market maturity. Growing investor reliance on the BSE Realty Index and India REIT Index has made these tools essential for assessing listed entity performance and understanding income-producing ownership structures. Office REIT stock surged 58% to 164 million sq. ft by 2026, now representing 18% of Grade A stock with REIT-worthy assets reaching 46% of current inventory. The BSE Realty Index and India REIT Index have become essential benchmarks for investors, while quarterly financial reporting and annual disclosure standards have solidified across REITs and publicly traded flexible space operators, broadening transparency across the sector.

The country climbed in regulatory & legal rankings

The strongest improvement came in the Regulatory & Legal parameter, where the country surged from 37th to 19th globally and from 9th to 6th in Asia Pacific. This represents one of the country’s single strongest parameter gains, driven by the maturation of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA), FDI liberalisation, and the implementation of digitised land registries including the National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM), NAKSHA, and the Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP).

The country maintained its strong position in the Transaction Process parameter, ranking 10th globally and 3rd in Asia Pacific. Data on commercial real estate financing conditions has become more available and reliable, driven by growing institutional investment, REIT market expansion, and a stringent regulatory environment, firms that now track metrics like loan-to-value ratios and debt margins. Land use planning is evolving through Transit-Oriented Development guidelines and revised construction standards to promote safer and more consistent building practices. Urban land registry records have also improved through these digital initiatives, which use GIS and drone mapping to verify land parcels.

Advances made in Global Sustainability rankings amid strong green building growth and evolving regulatory framework

India’s global sustainability rank improved from 29th to 27th while maintaining its APAC rank at 7th, with its score improving from 3.14 to 3.05. This was driven by SEBI’s mandate of its Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR) framework for the top 1,000 listed companies, with phased-in requirements for value chain reporting and third-party assurance beginning FY 2025-26, and the 2025 launch of the National Green Building Mission introducing performance-based energy standards for new commercial construction. Green-certified Grade A office stock penetration rose from roughly 39% to 66% between 2020 and H1 2026, with certified buildings commanding a 10-15% rental premium over non-certified buildings adjusted for type, location and age cohort. Gaps remain in the movement from voluntary to mandatory Scope 3 norms, inconsistent regulation and reporting of building performance standards, public disclosure of property-level energy use, climate risk reporting and resilience planning, absence of nature and biodiversity risk reporting standards, and the need to extend the National Green Building Mission’s performance standards to existing stock beyond just new construction.

Data Centre: Transparency gains and regulatory evolution fuel Asia’s fastest-growing digital infrastructure hub

The data centre market has achieved notable transparency with granular mid-2026 metrics showing 1,637 MW inventory, 2.8% vacancy, 100 MW absorption, 84.9 MW completions, 4,317 MW under construction, and a 15,000 MW planned pipeline, though coverage remains concentrated in Mumbai and Chennai (98% of H1 2026 supply). The regulatory framework is evolving across three dimensions: data protection through the phased DPDP Act (Data Protection Board by November 2025, full compliance by May 2027), investment policy via Union Budget 2026-27’s 20-year tax holiday for foreign cloud providers through March 2047 with 15% safe harbour margin, and energy policy targeting 500 GW renewable capacity by 2030 and nuclear capacity expansion from current levels to 22.38 GW by 2031-32 and 100 GW by 2047. Positioned as Asia’s fastest-growing digital infrastructure market, India is set to grow its capacity from 1.6 GW to 6 GW by 2029 requiring USD 110 billion in investment. Global hyperscalers committing over USD 50 billion toward AI-ready facilities and self-builds represent nearly 30% of new capacity, and supply growing at 60% CAGR since 2021.

Conclusion: AI and data centres: Catalysts for India’s market transparency transformation

India stands at a transformative juncture, with four critical pathways defining its ascent to the ‘higher transparency’ status: deepening performance disclosures across all fund structures and asset classes beyond office; enhancing credit market intelligence on origination volumes, maturity profiles, and financing conditions; establishing verified, real-time building performance metrics covering India’s entire asset base; and leveraging Artificial Intelligence to democratise market access by streamlining due diligence and synthesising fragmented data. India’s convergence of listed market growth, benchmarking maturity, and sustainability disclosure creates compounding momentum. The emerging AI and data centre investment wave represents the catalytic force that can definitively establish India as a core institutional allocation for global capital.