It used to be a standing joke that the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) timed its annual business leaders’ forum in London to coincide with the Wimbledon tennis championships.

The conference offered a happy escape from the Indian monsoon and an all-expenses paid opportunity for leading executives and their wives to catch up with friends, relatives and the English summer social season.

Although the timing of this year’s event was no different, the tone of the gathering was anything but frivolous. Even the launch cocktail party at Benares, the Berkeley Square restaurant run by Atul Kochhar, the first Indian chef to be awarded a Michelin star, was serious business. Among the guests was Lakshmi Mittal, the London-based steel baron and the world’s wealthiest Indian, who swept in before a dinner with the former US President Bill Clinton to hear about the boom times in India directly from the industrialists leading the charge.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, the self-made telecoms billionaire, could be seen catching up with Lynn Forester, Lady de Rothschild, with whom he has an Indian fresh-produce retail joint venture, while Uday Kotak, the founder of one of India’s largest brokerages, was deep in conversation with C. K. Birla, chairman of Hindustan Motors, India’s oldest carmaker.

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All around the restaurant, Indians gaining in global stature with each passing year were talking shop. More than ever before, that shop is in Britain. Only five years ago, an observer would have struggled to identify these executives. Today they are household names, the collective wealth in the room easily surpassed $40 billion (£19.5 billion) and London is where they prefer to meet. According to the CII organisers, they would struggle to put together quite such an impressive cast list in the US. “None of them want to go there,” one said.

No more starkly are India’s rising fortunes highlighted than in the increasing prosperity of its richest citizens. Lifted by a hot stock market and a property boom, India is home to 36 dollar billionaires, more even than Japan, according to Forbes magazine.

In a country where nearly half the 1.1 billion population scrapes by on a dollar a day, there are an estimated 83,000 millionaires. Many already have second homes in London; others are gearing up to invest in property after the Indian Government’s relaxation of currency outflow restrictions in March. India’s central bank raised the overseas investment limit from $50,000 to $100,000 per family member, which bankers say has given a big kick to capital outflows. By the end of the year, the limit will be $250,000, meaning that a family of four could invest the more meaningful sum of $1 million. The natural home for this money is Britain.

Nipun Mehta, the chief executive of Unitis Tower Wealth Advisers in Bombay, whose clients have $1 million-plus to invest, said: “A lot of people are putting [money] in a fixed deposit account in the UK and gradually it will go into equities and property.

“In the last few months, we have had three UK banks – RBS, Man Financial and Barclays – chasing us for raising funds through three different asset classes: private equity, hedge funds and geographical funds. They had a lot of takers.”

Indians would get a far better rate of capital appreciation by investing domestically in property – prices in Bombay and Delhi have doubled in the past two years – but Indian interest rates are twice those in the UK. For most, it is about “lifestyle investing” and London is the place to be. “London has always been at the back of the minds of Indians,” Anita Nandi, the head of the City of London’s India office in Bombay, said. “It’s not just the billionaires, it is small-time investors. That trend will only escalate. The momentum has started and there is no stopping it.”

Last year 60 per cent of the £5 million-plus properties sold in Central London were snapped up by foreigners. Besides big-spending Russians and Americans, Indians were among the buyers of prime property in Belgravia, Knightsbridge, Hampstead, Regent’s Park and St John’s Wood (for its proximity to Lord’s cricket ground).

In April Savills’ first roadshow in India touted luxury properties, including One Hyde Park, which, at nearly £100 million for a 20,000 sq ft penthouse, boasts the world’s most expensive flats. The UK estate agent was surprised by the eager response from Indians.

“They want as prime as it gets,” Sheetell Chantel Halai, the head of Savills’ newly created India desk, said. “It is not just the billionaire boys’ club, but parents wanting to school their children, businessmen with work commitments in the UK or people looking for a good investment. London is becoming a status symbol. One of my clients looking around the £3 million mark was a famous Bollywood actress who wanted an apartment so she could shop on the King’s Road.”

With many Indian multinational companies opening subsidiaries in London, their well-heeled executives are going house-hunting in a big way. Most have a budget of £500,000 to £1 million, according to Jaideep Singh, head of Knight Frank’s decade-old India desk, but a few are searching for properties worth anywhere between £5 million and £20 million.

“Indians’ first investment abroad is always Britain,” he said. “They know about appreciation in the market. They already have properties in India and they think, why put all your eggs in one basket? These people are car manufacturers, IT entrepreneurs and Bollywood actors. They like the nightlife, they want to do their shopping and go to Wimbledon. The best place for them to meet is London.”

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