This article was originally published in Rest of World, which covers technology’s impact outside the West.
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 US-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, chief executive 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-kilometre radius of Project Elephant as “near Foxconn” – a strategy that has paid off, with listings doubling over the past three years. According to PropPulse, some 60 residential projects, including apartments, villas, and plots, are underway within a 20-km radius. Prices range from $40,000 to nearly $700,000 (Rs 34 lakh to Rs 6 crore).
Driving back from a temple visit with family in December 2023, Neethu Ramagiri saw a billboard for luxury apartments in Devanahalli. The IT professional drove in to see the property, was offered an immediate discount, and sealed the deal for a 1,760-square-foot three-bedroom apartment. The residential complex was far from the city centre, and it didn’t have a metro line nearby. The sales agents, however, pointed to Foxconn’s entry and nearby infrastructure projects as guarantees of future demand. “He [the property dealer] said, ‘You just invest in it and the rent is guaranteed’,” Ramagiri told Rest of World.
A year on, Ramagiri’s tenants are three senior-level Foxconn employees from the Philippines, China and Taiwan. She said she knew at least 10 other homeowners in the residential complex who had rented their apartments to Foxconn staff.
Ramagiri said she now earns Rs 36,000 ($420) in monthly rent, claiming it was well above the average rate in the area. Since Foxconn provides catered meals for its employees, the minimal wear and tear on the kitchen has been a bonus for her. Meanwhile, the value of her apartment has appreciated by about 70% since she purchased it.
Almost two decades before Foxconn broke ground, Devanahalli’s industrial makeover was already in the works. The inflection point came in 2008, with the opening of an international airport, which set off a wave of state-led development. The government began acquiring land and building IT, aerospace, and science parks. These zones, combined with new and improved road links and still-affordable land, turned Devanahalli into a destination for large-scale investments, attracting giants like Foxconn.
Foxconn has been recruiting for its Devanahalli facility through 2024 and 2025. Another iPhone supplier, Wistron – now part of India’s Tata Group – is building a 1.4-million-square-foot facility, which is expected to generate 3,000 jobs. German software giant SAP is also establishing an office in the area.
Before the construction boom, food delivery platforms like Zomato did not offer services in Devanahalli because of the town’s narrow, broken roads, according to real estate dealer Ashish Jha. Now, Zomato and Swiggy delivery workers are fixtures at the many eateries in the area. Amazon deliveries are smooth, too, and the e-commerce major is moving its Bengaluru office to Devanahalli by April 2026.
In 2019, when Jha first started selling real estate in the industrial area, under-construction properties were priced at Rs 3,500 ($41) per square foot, he told Rest of World. That number has skyrocketed to Rs 9,500 ($105), he said. There are now more than three dozen schools, several malls, and many state-of-the-art hospitals in the region.
Foxconn has tied up with real estate firm BCD Group to house its incoming workforce in Hoskote, a town adjacent to Devanahalli. In mid-2024, the electronics manufacturer signed 900 three-year residential leases with BCD to accommodate between 6,000 and 8,000 female workers, Angad Bedi, managing director of BCD Group, told Rest of World.
The municipality has bolstered civic amenities, reviving old wells, installing filtered borewells, and introducing wastewater recycling initiatives to convert gray water into a potable supply. In 2018, with backing from the Gates Foundation, Devanahalli became the first in the country to implement a low-cost, low-power fecal sludge treatment system.
But the shift from farming to industry hasn’t been without conflict. As land transactions continue across Devanahalli, developers acknowledge that negotiations with farmers remain complex and are often drawn out. For more than two years, a group of Devanahalli farmers has been protesting over 13 villages receiving notices of acquisition from the state authority, which will affect almost 1,300 families. Last year, farmers in Devanahalli staged a protest while fencing was being set up for Foxconn’s land acquisition, claiming they had not received proper compensation for their land.
Government officials did not respond to Rest of World’s questions about farmer protests.
Farmers remain hesitant to buy the government’s job creation rhetoric tied to the rise of the tech hub.
“These promises are not very new for the villages. … It’s a very good fairy tale they bring every time,” Ramesh Cheemachanahalli, a farmer leader from Devanahalli, told Rest of World. “But what are the preparations for the jobs?”.
Cheemachanahalli said the government has not equipped farmers and their children with the education and skills needed for the jobs Foxconn will bring – and beyond a handful of roles such as janitors or gatekeepers, most villagers are unemployable at the factories.
Ananya Bhattacharya is a reporter for Rest of World covering South Asia's tech scene. She is based in Mumbai, India.
This article was originally published in Rest of World, which covers technology’s impact outside the West.
