Track2Realty Exclusive: East Zone (Kolkata) The overall retail market in the city continued to display sluggish trend with only a few major retailers expanding their operations in large format standalone stores in established high street locations.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Analysis of East Zone
The transaction activity registered in Kolkata in 2012 was down by 42% during Q1-Q3 2012 compared to the year ago period. The subdued demand is the result of the uncertainty prevailing in both the global as well as domestic markets. Most of the corporates have trimmed their expansion plans and instead looking at consolidation to optimize their real estate usage and bring down the costs.
Track2Realty: India faces shortage of fresh supply of houses, the Technical Group on the Estimation of Housing Shortage projects the total shortage of dwelling units in urban areas in 2012 to be 18.78 million, said a report by Knight Frank Research.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Moderation in new supply brought the vacancy down
During 2012, the new supply dropped by a whopping 40% y-o-y to 18 million sq ft, as across many cities, the slow adjustment of supply with the changing demand patterns took effect. Bangalore was the only exception to this, where the new supply rose by a whopping 35% y-o-y, as a number of developments which had been fast tracked in response to the sharp recovery in demand in the city since 2010, got completed during the period.
Track2Realty: Despite an 83% drop in supply of organised retail space across key cities in the country, 2012 continued to witness an increase in transaction activity and retailer expansion. According to the findings of CBRE’s latest report “Indian Retail Market View H2, 2012”, approximately 2.5 million sq.ft. of fresh retail space entered the market in 2012, mainly concentrated in Bangalore, Kolkata and Pune, as against over 15 million sq.ft. in 2011.
Track2Realty Exclusive:
India Offices 2012
Markets remained cautious but poised for an upturn
The year 2012 began on a cautious note, in the wake of a slowdown in domestic economic growth and a tepid outlook on the performance of the world economy. So far during this year (Q1 2012 to Q3 2012), the overall performance of the office real estate market in the country remained mute compared to the same period in 2011.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Kolkata stands out as a case study in land prices suddenly hitting northwards. It has defied the overall slowdown in the real estate sector and exorbitant land prices are pushing housing prices in Kolkata.
Track2Realty: Concerns over cost reduction and a cautious approach by occupiers had a negative impact on leasing activity across key markets in India. With major corporates continuing to review expansion plans and focusing on improving existing space utilization to control costs; key markets across India witnessed almost 26% decline in absorption of prime office space during 2012.
Track2Realty: Office space absorption dipped by 23 per cent during 2012 in major cities to 29 million sq ft as corporates remained cautious of expanding businesses amid global uncertainties and slowdown in the Indian economy, property consultant Cushman and Wakefield has said.
Track2Realty Exclusive: What are the challenges for redevelopment of a project in the urban centres? Ram Makhecha, Director, Vakratunda Group believes 80 per cent of the buildings in a city like Mumbai are dilapidated. Most of the other 20 per cent new buildings are better because that got constructed under the redevelopment scheme in recent years.