Track2Realty: Less than 3 million sq.ft of office space entered India’s prime real estate market in the quarter ending September 2013—dropping by more than 75% q-o-q over last quarter’s 10 million sq.ft of fresh office space supply; and by nearly 50% over the same period last year.
Track2Realty: Consequent to corporate real estate transaction closures during the first nine months of the year across the leading seven cities in the country, CBRE notices the potential generation of office employment opportunities of over 2,70,000.
Track2Realty: Sentiments towards commercial real estate investment remains favourable, as India’s economy shows itself to be less vulnerable to the overall slowdown as compared to other Asia economies.
India, New Zealand, and Singapore saw annual leasing growth of over 30% in Q3 2024. Demand across the top 11 countries in the APAC region rose by 10.7% YoY, reaching 2.2 million sqm (23.7 million sq ft) in Q3 2024. India continued to lead APAC office market activity, driving over 70% of the total demand during Q3 2024. The Asia Pacific office market is predicted to grow in 2025, with new Colliers’ data showing demand across top markets surging 10.7% year-on-year (y-o-y) in the third quarter of 2024.
In the post-pandemic era, demand recovery in the office market has been swift, following a steep ‘V-shaped’ recovery trajectory. After subdued demand in 2020 & 2021, leasing activity had fully bounced back by 2022. In fact, since 2022, each year has been witnessing new all-time-high Grade A office space uptake at India level. With strong, consistent demand, average rentals have also surpassed the pre-pandemic levels (2019) across all the six major office markets for the first time in 2024. The rental recovery in the Indian office market, albeit relatively slower than the demand recovery trajectory has finally been fully complete, thus forming an elongated ‘U-shaped’ pattern.
Office leasing is likely to record a historic high of ~70 mn. sq. ft in CY 2024 across top 9 cities in India as per current estimates, says ‘CBRE India Office Figures Q3 2024’. The last highest office leasing was recorded in CY 2019 at 66.6 mn. sq. ft. The office demand will be driven by both global and domestic occupiers, who are expected to continue expanding their operations and consolidating their facilities to strengthen their market presence. GCCs are poised to expand significantly in India, accounting for about 35-40% of the total office leasing.
Strong leasing activity in the first three quarters of 2024 has pushed Grade A office space demand to 46.7 million sq ft across the top six cities of the country. Building on the momentum in first half of the year, Q3 2024 saw space take-up to the tune of 17.3 million sq ft, a 31% year-over-year (YoY) growth. Bengaluru and Hyderabad accounted for over half of the leasing activity during this period. Bengaluru registered its highest ever leasing in any quarter at 6.3 million sq ft, continuing its dominance in the office market. Pune, notably, with 2.6 million sq ft of leasing activity, recorded 2.6X times space take-up compared to Q3 2023.
Engineering & manufacturing and BFSI occupiers to cumulatively account for ~40% of demand during 2025-27. Repositioning of GCCs as knowledge & innovation hubs will drive ~40% of annual office space demand. Bengaluru dominates demand across most sectors; Hyderabad, Chennai & Pune to gain ground. BFSI occupiers to prefer premium developments, while engineering & manufacturing occupiers are likely to remain cost conscious while expanding real estate.
Bengaluru and Mumbai saw the highest leasing in green-certified buildings, accounting for over 50% share in Q2 2024. About 80% of Technology as well as Engineering & Manufacturing firms prefer taking up spaces in green-certified buildings. Majority of the upcoming supply in various construction stages is expected to be green-certified, expanding green office stock to over 600 mn sq ft in next 2-3 years.
In Bangalore, the cap rates for the logistics & warehousing assets continue to remain flat Q-o-Q with significant volume registered in lease transactions. Similarly, rental rates and capital values for Grade A commercial office segment have been flat with no significant change. Though interest rate regime is stable, the impact on the cap rate movement is limited due to transaction volumes and perceived risk not changing much.