Over the past few decades, the urge to ensure a better standard of living for themselves and their families back home has led countless Indians to migrate to countries offering attractive work-pay equations. This income-generating objective is the highest common factor - and though NRIs ’ ties with their country of birth sometimes erode to a certain extent, the willingness to turn a decent profit on investments back home does not.The Indian realty sector as a whole – namely, across the residential, retail, hospitality and commercial verticals - is slated to grow at 30 percent over the next decade, attaining a market size of around $180 billion by 2020. However, the investment opportunity lies less in the Indian real estate sector’s speed of growth than in its overall dynamism. As such, it has been time and again vouchsafed that long-term investments into Indian realty pay off very well indeed as long as sound investment decisions have been taken.NRIs today are keenly aware that Indian real estate once again presents them with a very hot investment proposition. That said, they do have their own leanings and predilections when it comes to where to invest. Generally, the NRI community prefers to invest in their states of origin – primarily Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Delhi NCR. However, since residential inventory has piled up in the two major cities of Delhi (the political capital) and Mumbai (the financial capital), investors are currently very well placed to find good bargains in these markets, as most developers there are offering discounts and attractive financial schemes.The advantage that UAE-based NRIs (by far the largest contingent) have is that they earn in Gulf currencies that have traded strongly against the Indian National Rupee. This factor off-sets a part of the house cost already. However, the rupee is bound to strengthen further, and the advantageous difference between the currencies will reduce as the Indian economy grows under a stable government at the centre.Indian developers have had to wake up to certain immutable market realities over the last two years. In many cities, they have misjudged where the actual demand is and how much buyers - including NRIs - are willing to spend on their first or second homes. This has resulted in worrisome levels of supply overhang of larger-configuration apartments. Real estate developers are now becoming quite serious about right-sizing and right-pricing their products to make them attractive to a larger cross-section of customers. In fact, smaller, better-designed and more efficient homes are very much in evidence when we study the project launches in 2015.Selective corrections are already happening in some of the over-priced pockets of India’s larger cities – as this trend gathers momentum, we will start seeing a faster sales velocity in the stagnated supply of larger configurations.Townships are becoming a lot more prevalent, since this is becoming the residential option of choice for many city dwellers looking for a better lifestyle for their families. The supply pipeline for luxury home projects is now slowing down in reaction to the slow demand dynamics for these offerings.Residential property prices have plateaued in both Delhi and Mumbai. Good returns can be expected only if one’s investment horizon is of three years or above - in which case, annualized returns of 10 percent can be expected from the third year on. Sluggish sales, especially in the luxury segment, have led developers to offer several attractive financial schemes.For NRIs who are on the verge of retiring and planning to do so in India, this is the right time to invest. Social and civic infrastructure is being ramped up in most of the larger cities, which means that more hospitals, schools and shopping malls as well as improved connectivity and availability of utilities are resulting in higher ease of living – equalling a higher-quality retired life.The writer is CEO - Residential Services, JLL India