Absorption of office spaces increased to 13.40 Mn sq ft in Q1 2024 from 11.85 Mn sq ft in Q1 2023, showcasing a 13% increase Y-O-Y, says a Vestian report. However, the absorption declined by 31% this quarter after peaking in Q4 2023. Southern cities (Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad) accounted for 61% of the Pan-India absorption in Q1 2024 its share increased from 54% a year earlier.
Institutional investments in Indian real estate sector touched USD 1.0 billion in the first quarter of 2024, signalling a steady and positive start to the year. While this was a 40% drop compared to the same period last year, India’s real estate investments showed improvement on a sequential basis registering 21% QoQ rise. Foreign investments retained their dominance, forming 55% of the total inflows during the quarter. Domestic investments too witnessed a notable rise at 15% YoY in Q1 2024. The share of domestic inflows in overall institutional investments continued to rise to 45% in Q1 2024, compared to 24% in Q1 2023.
Global Capability Centres (GCCs) accounted for a share of one-third in the overall India office leasing in Jan- Mar ’24. Within the GCCs space take-up, E&M companies contributed to over one-fourth share, followed by automobile firms. Bangalore led the chart for GCC leasing, boasting a 60% share, followed by Hyderabad with 26% and Delhi-NCR with 9%. Notably, 38% of the large-sized deals (exceeding 100,000 sq. ft.) were secured by GCCs during this period, underscoring their significant impact on the office leasing landscape.
Bengaluru and Hyderabad emerged as frontrunners for demand of Grade A office space in Q1 2024, cumulatively accounting for more than half of the India leasing activity. The office market of Hyderabad especially demonstrated a strong momentum with 2.2x space uptake in Q1 2024 as compared to the corresponding quarter last year. This demand was driven by Healthcare & Pharma and Technology sectors. Amongst other major office markets, Mumbai too experienced a notable surge in leasing activity, an impressive 90% YoY rise in Q1 2024.
India office holds upside potential to scale up to 60 msf in 2024. Domestic enterprises to account for over half of the office demand during 2024. GCCs to gain further ground accounting for over 40% of the total demand. BFSI and Engg & Mfg. to drive demand for Grade A office spaces. Flex spaces are likely to drive about 15-20% of the overall leasing in 2024. Large-sized deals of 100,000 sq ft or more, projected to account for 50-55% of 2024 leasing activity. About 30-35% of Grade A office demand is likely to come from PBDs in 2024.
At the beginning of 2024, as the Indian real estate stakeholders (self-styled industry experts within the realty media landscape) are yet again influence peddling their bullish narrative, the reality check by Track2Realty clearly finds that the sales growth post-Covid has neither been broad based nor democratic. Real estate is yet again emerging as a parking lot of big money post the pandemic, as visible with the off-take of luxury & super luxury despite the stagnant job growth and wage growth.
Should businesses continue to operate out of old jaded buildings at the heart of the city? Is it more convenient for the commercial activities to move to the upscale swanky offices on the periphery locations where the cost of doing business per square feet is much lesser? Is ‘Walk to Work’ only a city center reality across the urban pockets? These are the subjects of serious discussions across the built environment of commercial real estate world over, finds Track2Realty.
Corporate governance & professionalism seem to be the emerging mantra of survival for Indian real estate. But the man who visualised the need for this decades back, maintains a low profile to not take any credit as the first-mover of institutionalising Indian real estate. As the industry body CREDAI decorates Ravi Puravankara for the lifetime achievement, Ravi Sinha interviews him to understand what goaded this first-mover to adopt corporate governance.
Shantanu Rastogi has invested in supporting ambitious entrepreneurs who are doing innovative work to serve the large Indian consumption basket. He has immense trust and belief in the your-space brand and its mission. On his recent investment in your-space, Shantanu Rastogi, said “There is a significant unmet need for safe, comfortable, convenient and affordable lodging & community spaces for 30M+ migrant undergrad and post-grad students in India. India being one of the largest suppliers of skilled talent across engineering, medicine, law, finance and several other professions to the world, needs high quality student housing operators to address this large and growing demand alongside high quality universities and institutions”
Across the world the commercial real estate, most notably the retail and office spaces, have been hit the most due to Covid-induced new normal. It is hence being debated as to whether commercial real estate would be able to reinvent itself to remain relevant in the post-Covid world where the Work From Home and online shopping threatens to eat up the market share of till-recently lucrative business models of retail and office space. Track2Realty explores the need for innovation.