Foxconn’s iPhone factory is fueling a real estate boom in a small Indian farming town

The $2.5 billion “Project Elephant” will be the company’s second-largest factory outside China and create 40,000 jobs. Foxconn’s arrival is quickly changing a rural town in southern India into a real estate hot spot. Devanahalli, located on the outskirts of India’s tech hub, Bengaluru, is home to Foxconn’s “Project Elephant,” a 13-million-square-foot site, roughly the size of 220 football fields. The $2.5 billion  facility is set to be Foxconn’s second-largest factory outside China and create 40,000 jobs. The factory is part of Foxconn’s broader effort to diversify supply chains amid the U.S.-China trade war. The company plans to double  its iPhone production in India to up to 30 million units.

Foxconn’s Devanahalli project, approved by the local Government in 2023, is the biggest in an agricultural belt known for pomelos, blue grapes, and silk, among other things. Property prices in the area have risen by 35% since Foxconn’s entry, according to data from property consultancy Anarock. Still, resistance persists against the wider industrial push in Devanahalli. While many farmers have come around, some continue to hold out, demanding higher compensation for their land.

“Foxconn’s entry is huge for Devanahalli — arguably a pivotal moment in its transformation,” Ashwanth Sajeevan, CEO of PropPulse.ai, a data intelligence and advisory platform for Bengaluru real estate, told Rest of World. “It’s like seeding a whole new city’s worth of employment in Devanahalli almost overnight. Naturally, such a scale has a cascading effect: It boosts demand for housing, it attracts ancillary industries and suppliers, and it generally puts the spotlight on the region.”

Foxconn has tied up with local real estate developers to house its workforce coming from China and Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines and Taiwan. Developers predict an influx of tens of thousands of workers, driven not only by Project Elephant but also by Project Cheetah — a Foxconn factory for electric vehicle components, under construction nearby.

Developers are marketing properties within a 10-kilometer radius of Project Elephant as “near Foxconn” — a strategy that has paid off, with listings doubling over the past three years. According to Prop Pulse, some 60 residential projects, including apartments, villas, and plots, are underway within a 20-kilometer radius. Prices range from $40,000 to nearly $700,000.