India negotiating deal to create 1 million homes in Australia, approaches UAE for financial help

Mumbai: India is in "deep negotiations" to create 1 million homes in Australia and has reached out to the UAE for financial help on the same, Union Minister Piyush Goyal has said.

Goyal, who handles the Commerce and Industry portfolio, pegged this as a USD 500 billion opportunity.

"I am in deep negotiation with my counterpart in Australia to create 1 million homes. 1 million homes. Anybody wants to do the maths? A million homes in Australia would be at least USD 500 billion opportunity," Goyal said while speaking here over the weekend.

He did not elaborate on details of the project, like the location in Australia, the exact spending by Canberra on it, or India's role in the project.

Goyal said New Delhi is proposing to allow Indian workers to go to Australia, get trained on the necessary skill sets required to build homes as per local standards and create the housing.

According to some reports, there is a mismatch between demand and supply in Australia, which is blamed for the high home prices in the country. Housing was also among the important issues in the recently concluded national elections.

Having pegged construction of 1 million homes as a USD 500 billion opportunity, Goyal said he has reached out to the UAE – a significant investor in Indian real estate – to help on the financial front.

In remarks made during a meeting with a visiting trade delegation from the UAE, led by Trade Minister Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Goyal said he has also put forth a proposal for partnership to the Gulf nation.

"I talked to Thani to see if we can do a partnership to help us fund this massive opportunity," the Union Minister said.

Goyal said countries around the world are looking up to India for tie-ups and added that we need to seize such opportunities.

"It's for us to grasp these openings. If we miss out, we will have only ourselves to blame," Goyal said, addressing the event organised by domestic industry grouping CII.

India and Australia are also negotiating a free trade agreement, and New Delhi has also been publicly backed by Canberra after being slapped with 50 per cent tariffs by the US.

India is engaged in a dialogue with the US to resolve the "issues" with the US, the Union Minister said.

Making it clear that India will be undeterred in the face of the US action and will scout for newer markets for its goods, Goyal said the country's exports will grow over the USD 825 billion in FY25 despite the tariffs in one of its most important markets setting-in from August.

Listing out the progress on the trade negotiations front, Goyal said he is aiming to sign a balanced and mutually beneficial deal with Oman in the next two weeks.

A pact with New Zealand will be signed in two months, which will most likely be followed up with an agreement with the European Union by the end of the year, Goyal said.

Goyal said the agreement with the EU, a USD 17 trillion bloc, can be concluded earlier as well and added that Union Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal will be meeting officials in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday with regard to the same.

Pointing out that there is "continuous engagement" to "speedup and conclude" the trade agreement between the 27-nation bloc and the world's fourth largest economy, Goyal said EU's trade representatives are visiting India next month in the lead up to a ministerial visit from September 12.

Goyal said on similar lines, he will also be finalising the terms of reference for an agreement with Qatar during his travel to the country next week, and added that Chile and Peru in South America are "very keen to fast track" the engagement.

South Africa is among the latest countries to evince interest in forging a trade pact with India, Goyal said, adding that there is progress on similar pacts with Eastern European powers as well.