And, talking about the macho Punabi NRIs, they do not mind buying houses even in Delhi, various NCR towns, as well as the developed cities of their own state. And, unlike the Malayali NRIs, they buy commercial properties too.

Anil Sharma, CMD of Amrapali group, says that more often than not NRIs buy flats in the price range of Rs 60 lakhs to Rs 80 lakhs. They buy properties for purely investment purpose. There is hardly any emotional factor involved in it. As and when the property appreciates to the desired level, they dispose it off.

Devender Gupta of real estate advisory Century 21 informs that the first choice of rich Indians, in terms of buying some property, is definitely Bangalore. Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon and Hydrabad are a close second. When Punjabi NRIs visit here, many of them also look for plots that they can develop themselves.

 For that purpose, they find Zirakpur, near Chandigarh, and Greater Noida very attractive,' says Gupta. Josy Joy, a Malayali doctor settled in Dubai, says that he has been living in Dubai for the last 20 years. I do not think that I would ever return to India as I am very well placed there.

This is also true for a very large number of NRIs in the Gulf. However, I would love to buy houses in both Delhi and in Kottayam, even though I have an ancestral house in a village close to Thiruvanathapuram.

Tiwari says that not only the Malayali and the Punjabi, but NRIs from other states too buy houses in their own state or some other big cities. As far as Bihari NRIs are concerned, they hardly buy properties in their own state. They perhaps know the ground realities of Bihar. They also know that buying a property would not fetch them anything.