Following a particularly strong fourth quarter of 2014, the first quarter of 2015 reported comparatively slow activity on the office market front across leading cities. This apparent demand drop was largely because most corporate space occupiers were still strategizing their real estate plans for the year during the period, with fewer transaction decisions being implemented in the first quarter.
CBRE’s Retail Hotspots in Asia Pacific 2014reports on international retailer activity occurring in the APAC region. Established as well as emerging retail markets in the region saw 464 new retail entrants in 2014—23% more than in 2013.
Track2Realty Exclusive: The property markets of the financial capital Mumbai and the political capital Delhi has always been exposed to the reality that it is the expat Indians, the working class professionals, who are the key demand drivers of property. However, in the last over a decade or so this outlook on the migrant work force has become a pan-India phenomenon.
Track2Realty: International expansion remains high on the agenda for retailers in 2015, in spite of uncertain economic prospects and cost escalation. CBRE’s research report, How Active are Retailers Globally?, has several interesting implications for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, with some 85% of luxury and business fashion retailers looking at the region, and 67% of coffee and restaurant retailers doing the same.
Track2Realty: Bangalore has consistently remained the preferred destination for corporate real estate occupiers in the country over the last couple of years. More recently though, our IT City outperformed itself by catapulting into the league of the top performing office markets of the Asia Pacific region during 2014—in the company of Tokyo and Shanghai.
Track2Realty: India’s logistics and warehousing real estate segment attracted steady demand during the second half of 2014—according to the latest CBRE report, India Industrial and Logistics Market View – H2 2014. Occupiers from the automotive, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), engineering and manufacturing, and Third Party Logistics (3PLs) sectors were the principle demand drivers for warehousing space in the second half of the year.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Sales model in commercial office spaces that was only recently seen as an indicator of distress on part of the developers has, of late, turned out to be a smart business model by the MNCs. These multinational companies seem to have confidence in the Indian growth story and with long term plan they are investing into the purchase of these properties. Track2Realty Focus 2015 finds that it is not a distress sale of developers since the capital values and rental yields have both appreciated sharply in the last three years despite of impending slowdown. The shift of these commercial spaces beyond the IT/ITeS is the most significant trend.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Perhaps no other segment of Indian real estate would have taken as much beating as the retail one. With consumerism down due to overall slowdown in the economy, e-commerce emerging big to challenge the malls and the high streets back with innovations, it seems the mall developers had abosiltely no idea as to how to deal with the emerging market realities. Track2Realty Focus 2015 takes a look at how the promising retail in India could not benefit retail realty in its performance.
Track2Realty: As e-commerce attains new heights and presents a number of opportunities for the real estate sector in general—and the warehousing segment in particular—CBRE recommends strategies for landlords and e-retailers for attaining a win-win scenario.
Track2Realty: New residential unit launches across top eight cities declined by 12% y-o-y in 2014 with total launch of 153,000 units. The top three cities of Bengaluru (27%), NCR (17%) and Mumbai (16%) comprised of 60% of the total new launches in 2014, says a report by Cushman & Wakefield.