India Property Fund, managed by NRI investor Purnendu Chatterjee’s TCG Real Estate and US-based Vornado Realty Trust, is in the final stages of investing Rs 270 crore in two residential developments in national capital region and Mumbai.
Century Real Estate Holdings, the realty development arm of three-decade old Bangalore-based Century Group, is looking to raise Rs 700 crore through private equity players in three tranches. The company during the past four years have been focusing on development of projects, is understood to be effecting this deal at the holding company level.
During the first nine months of 2024, large deals (>200,000 sq ft) accounted for about 40% of the overall demand. Although a vast majority of these larger deals came from 3PL players, Engineering and FMCG segments also saw considerable large-sized deals. At the city level, industrial and warehousing space uptake in Delhi NCR was also driven by large sized deals, a marked deviation from 2023, wherein leasing activity was dominated by small sized deals. Almost 50% of the deals in the first nine months of 2024 were large sized in Delhi NCR.
In a report titled, ‘Fortifying India’s I&L landscape with a new manufacturing growth formula’, property consultant CBRE claims that the manufacturing sector’s growth has significantly contributed to warehousing demand. The share of sectors catering to the manufacturing space, including engineering & manufacturing, electronics & electricals and auto & ancillary sectors, within the total warehousing demand across major cities, has increased substantially, growing from 15% in 2019 to 24% in 2023 and 25% in H1 2024. The total leasing for warehousing from these manufacturing-related sectors stood at 4.1 mn. sq. ft. in H1 2024.
The office sector was the most sought after in terms of investment activity in APAC in the first half of 2024, followed by industrial sector. In India too, investments in industrial & warehousing and office assets remained strong in the first half of the year. Investments in Industrial assets especially, were 5X times, compared to same period last year. Amidst rising demand for superior quality Grade A assets and evolving supply-chain models, global investor confidence in the sector is improving significantly.
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.
While 3PL players continued to dominate the demand with about 36% share, space uptake by players from engineering, FMCG and electronics segments was significant with 12-16% share each. Interestingly, both engineering and electronics segments witnessed over 1.7X times leasing activity in H1 2024, compared to the corresponding six-month period of 2023. Going ahead, driven by conducive industry-specific policies and an enabling regulatory framework, diverse segments are likely to propel the industrial and warehousing space demand in India.
South India’s data centre market is on an impressive growth trajectory, with major cities like Chennai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad at the forefront. This surge is supported by substantial government incentives, strategic infrastructure investments, and a rising demand for digital services. The region is poised to play a crucial role in the global data centre landscape, with capacity projected to grow 65% by 2030.
ICRA estimates the industrial and warehouse logistics park (IWLP) supply to grow by 13-14% YoY in FY2025 in the eight primary markets to around 424 million sq. ft. Moreover, the absorption is estimated to increase to 47 million sq. ft. in FY2025 (90% of incremental supply addition) from 37 million sq. ft. in FY2024, supported by strong consumption-led demand. The vacancy in the eight primary markets stood at 10% in FY2024 and is likely to remain at a similar level in FY2025.
In a bid to assess whether India’s data centre capacity will meet the nation’s growing digital needs, Cushman & Wakefield has come out with a report, “Is India Building Enough to Power its Digital Transformation?”. The report conservatively estimates the potential data centre capacity India will require to align with other major economies. The findings reveal a potential for an additional 1.7-3.6 GW data centre capacity, over and above the planned development of 2.32 GW Colo capacity, taking the potential of possible data centre capacity to over 5 GW.