Chennai, April 18 (IANS): The development of infrastructure projects like Metro rail and the economic upturn will have positive impact on the residential, office and commercial real estate segments here, said a senior official of Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL).

According to him, the real estate investment trusts (REIT) in India are expected to take off in a big manner only three or four years after they start operations.

"Chennai is coming out of the unsold residential stock problem. The development of infrastructure like Metro-rail system will have a positive impact on the residential properties located along the rail route," Shankar Arumugham, national director, Strategic Consulting, JLL, said.

Arumugham was speaking here late Friday evening at an event organised by Agratrade, a forum under Shree Agarwal Samaj for the growth and development of Agarwal community here.

According to him, nearly 50 percent of the residential real estate projects are coming up in south Chennai whereas the contribution of north Chennai is minimal.

However, the absorption rate of properties is much better in north Chennai as compared to south Chennai, Arumugham said.

He said the residential capital and rental values are set to go up.

Speaking of the commercial space, he said the demand is set to go up in the next few quarters in the city from the information technology (IT) sector and in special economic zones (SEZ).

On REIT, he said broadly the set-up is similar to a mutual fund.

According to Arumugham, REIT and the proposed real estate law are set to bring in more professionalism into the sector.

He said REIT would take some years to pick up as investors would first have to understand the system and there will be some initial problems that needs sorting out.

Arumugham said even in overseas, REIT took off only after couple of years after their introduction.