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 Exclusive: In the last few years a perception has gained ground within the built environment of Indian real estate that the environmental concerns are at loggerheads with the development. The collective consciousness seems to have believed that the real estate and infrastructure projects often compromise with the environmental concerns and to make a balance between the inevitable urbanisation and avoiding the natural erosion is not that easy.
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.
Track2Realty: Residential sales declined by approximately 30% y-o-y by the end of 2014 in the seven leading cities of the country, largely due to high price points, sticky interest rates and cautious buyer sentiments. The decline, which was noted across all major cities, was particularly steep in the DelhiNCR (National Capital Region).The slowdown was reported in the premium/luxury as well as the high-end/mid-end housing segments.
Track2Realty: Almost 25% of the total warehousing/logistics space uptake across the country in 2014 was by e-retail players, while the uptake of logistics space rose by more than seven times over that of 2013. India’s online retail sector saw exponential growth, as a number of local market-specific services—such as cash on delivery (COD), multiple payment options, and EMI options—assisted in developing the growth curve of e-commerce in the country—according to the findings of CBRE’s latest special report, India Online Retail Driving Realty.
Track2Realty: Housing sales across India’s seven leading cities declined by approximately 30% on an annual basis by the end of 2014—according to the latest CBRE report, India Residential Market View – H2 2014. The general decline in the housing market was particularly steep in the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR), signaling the need for property prices to get rationalized in tune with average per capita income rates of home buyers.