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.
INR 3,500+ crore highest-ever recorded sales value in secondary/resale market in Mumbai with growth rate of 37% in H1 CY’24 compared to H1 CY’23. The top luxury micro-markets in Mumbai—Goregaon East, Worli, Mahalakshmi, Prabhadevi, Mumbai Central, Malabar Hill, Bandra West, Lower Parel, Tardeo, Byculla—have contributed to 80% of primary luxury sales by value in H1 CY’24. More than half of homebuyers in the more than INR 10 Crore luxury market belong to the 35-55 age category.
The report also highlights that Bengaluru has cemented its status as the leader for global capability centres (GCCs), commanding a 41% share in India’s GCC leasing market (from 2022 to Jun’24). Bengaluru’s GCC growth is driven by a combination of factors, including a skilled talent pool, premium Grade-A assets, and a well-developed IT ecosystem. The city’s ease of doing business also contributes significantly, making it an attractive destination for GCCs. Additionally, the scope of scalability in both assets and talent resources further reinforces Bengaluru’s position as a leading commercial hub.
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 contrast, with USD 0.3 billion of investments in office assets, the segment witnessed subdued activity in Q2 2024. Although the annual decline was significant at 83%, the QoQ drop was relatively modest at 41%. The surge in industrial & warehousing, and residential investments resulted in a healthy investment volume of USD 3.5 billion for H1 2024 at an overall level, making up for the slow start in first quarter. Foreign investments remained robust, accounting for 81% of the total inflows in Q2 2024, predominantly led by investors from the US and UAE.
The survey showed a trend towards diversification in the office sector, with a preference for expanding portfolios across multiple cities. This trend is driven by factors like a skilled workforce, improving infrastructure, cost-effectiveness, government support, and the benefits of exploring new geographies. Apart from the major cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, NCR, and Mumbai, occupiers are particularly interested in expanding in Chennai and Pune. India’s strong economic growth is fueling investments across various sectors, leading to increased demand for diverse office space requirements. While gateway cities continue to see growth in office space demand, Pune and Chennai are witnessing a surge in both office leasing activity and new office space supply.
Office market well placed to cross 50 million square feet of absorption in 2024, third year in a row. Q2 2024 saw 15.8 million square feet of leasing across the top 6 cities. Developer confidence remains strong with 13.2 million square feet of completions in Q2 2024. With 52% cumulative share in Q2 2024, Bengaluru and Mumbai drive India office demand. Technology and Engineering & manufacturing sectors account 45% of quarterly demand, highest flex space activity in any quarter.
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.
A recent report claims current sentiment index score of Indian real estate is 72. I wonder how! Who is going to believe this? Definitely not the home buyers at the receiving end of the builders with delay, default, unmet promises and what not. But this is not an isolated instance of one-odd such report. As a matter of fact, most of the reports by the brokerage firms (in the guise of consulting firms) and other industry stakeholders would like the home buyers to believe that if you don’t buy property now, you would be left behind. This unnecessarily creates a FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) in the minds of the gullible buyers.
Owing to rapid industrial growth and the emergence of one of the fastest growing real estate segments in the country, India’s warehousing sector is set to cross the 300 million square feet (MSF) mark by 2025, according to a report jointly launched by CREDAI and CRE Matrix. Currently, the overall Grade A warehousing stock stands at 216.2 MSF. In Q1 CY ’24, India witnessed a 5% increase in rentals – reflecting how India’s warehousing demand continues to surpass supply – with the absorption to supply ratio standing at 1.4 in the quarter.