India has banned its residents from sending money out of the country to buy property overseas, in a move that could affect real estate markets around the world.

The country’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), this month revealed the regulations preventing many Indian residents from investing in overseas property as part of a wave of measures designed to curb outflows of foreign exchange.

The Indian rupee has tumbled to record lows against the dollar in recent weeks, which has prompted the country to take a series of steps to strengthen the currency. On August 14, the RBI announced that it was reducing the amount that Indian residents could remit from $200,000 a year to $75,000 and that it was banning the use of this money for the ‘acquisition of immovable property, directly or indirectly, outside India.’

“Many Indians chose to diversify and increase their exposure to international real estate to ensure steady rental revenue streams for their families abroad, and/or provide accommodation for their own use during their foreign sojourn”, said Om Ahuja, the chief executive of residential services at Jones Lang LaSalle India.

He added: “The international property focus of such investors is now going to decrease drastically.”

Indians were the biggest property buyers in Dubai in the first half of the year, spending more than Dh8bn (£1.4bn), according to figures from the Dubai Land Department.