With about 10 million sq ft (0.9 million sq m) of office leasing in Q3, gross absorption totalled around 28.9 million sq ft (2.7 million sq m) over the first nine months.
The Central and States governments are now contemplating many ways and means to provide access to housing for all. Affordable housing will not only fill the housing gap but be the next major economic growth driver by creating more than 2 million jobs during the period till 2022.
Despite delayed implication of demonetisation and recent layoffs by technology companies, due to automation and changing technology, commercial market continued to remain resilient, backed by sustained expansion plans of the major occupiers. The Gross office take-up in India amounted to 9.6 mn sq ft (882,800 sq m) in Q2 2017 representing a nominal 2% increase Q-o-Q from 9.3 mn sq ft (Total office absorption in H1 2017 stands at ~18.9 mn sq ft, as per Colliers Research marginally down by 2% from, H1 2016)
As per a Track2Realty pan-India survey, no les than 82 per cent single professionals have found it challenging in one way or the other to get a house on rent. This is not a reality of small towns but in the top 10 cities of India known to have metropolitan culture & lifestyle, singles are finding it hard to get n apartment on rent.
The top 8 cities witnessed residential launches of approximately 25,800 units in the first quarter of 2017 and registering a 16% decline from the corresponding period last year, says a report by Cushman & Wakefield.
Urban planning experts believe this is a much deeper question because it is not just about the existing urban centres but also about the way urbanisation is eventually going to happen in this country. As per the UN statistics the urban population of 40 crore in India would be 60 crore in less than 20 years of time. It clearly suggests that the existing cities won’t be able to fit in this additional 20 crore population, whether indigenous or migrants.
The supply of quality housing even today is confined to eight key cities. It is not that the new cities are not coming up, but neither the investors nor even the end users want to buy a house in Tier II cities today. The dream and aspiration is always Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune kind of life.
As per the data available with Track2Realty, the real estate think-tank group, Bangalore rental yields are highest in the country. It is range bound between 3-4 per cent, depending upon the location. The property prices are still much lower than many other cities, including the financial capital of India, Mumbai, or the Delhi-NCR market.
In terms of pure economics renting out a property as against buying it may sound to be logical due to poor rental yield across India, the market reality beyond fiscal prudence is not that simple. In most of the Indian cities the tenants have to pass through a number of uncomfortable questions ranging from food habits to personal lifestyle choice before they can get a rental property for living. The process itself is very tedious and prone to leave grey zones.
Green floor space accounts for only 3-5 per cent of all construction in India so far. In developed markets like the UK, where green building began almost two decades ago, around 40 per cent of all buildings would fall in that category. In the US, it would be around 30 per cent.