The Indian economy continues to grow at a healthy pace, with the World Bank raising its growth forecast for India’s economy to 7% for FY 25, up from an earlier projection of 6.6%. The India Development Update (IDU) observes that India remained the fastest-growing major economy and grew rapidly at 8.2% in FY23-24. Growth was boosted by public infrastructure investment and an upswing in investments in real estate.
Office leasing is likely to record a historic high of ~70 mn. sq. ft in CY 2024 across top 9 cities in India as per current estimates, says ‘CBRE India Office Figures Q3 2024’. The last highest office leasing was recorded in CY 2019 at 66.6 mn. sq. ft. The office demand will be driven by both global and domestic occupiers, who are expected to continue expanding their operations and consolidating their facilities to strengthen their market presence. GCCs are poised to expand significantly in India, accounting for about 35-40% of the total office leasing.
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.
Strong leasing activity in the first three quarters of 2024 has pushed Grade A office space demand to 46.7 million sq ft across the top six cities of the country. Building on the momentum in first half of the year, Q3 2024 saw space take-up to the tune of 17.3 million sq ft, a 31% year-over-year (YoY) growth. Bengaluru and Hyderabad accounted for over half of the leasing activity during this period. Bengaluru registered its highest ever leasing in any quarter at 6.3 million sq ft, continuing its dominance in the office market. Pune, notably, with 2.6 million sq ft of leasing activity, recorded 2.6X times space take-up compared to Q3 2023.
The REIT has already developed 2 data centers for PDG, measuring ~0.63 million sq. ft. Upon completion, the Business Park will feature 5 cutting edge data center buildings and the total data center footprint within the Mindspace REIT portfolio will stand at ~1.65 million sq. ft. This landmark development spanning ~15 acres, will become a part of the larger 50-acre campus ecosystem of Mindspace Airoli West.
Puravankara has acquired the redevelopment rights of a prestigious society — Miami Apartments at Breach Candy. Spread little over ~2,000 sq m of land, this marks the developer’s entry into the uber-luxury South Mumbai market, where rates (as per market sources) are estimated in the range of Rs 1,25,000 and Rs 1,40,000 per sq. ft.
Engineering & manufacturing and BFSI occupiers to cumulatively account for ~40% of demand during 2025-27. Repositioning of GCCs as knowledge & innovation hubs will drive ~40% of annual office space demand. Bengaluru dominates demand across most sectors; Hyderabad, Chennai & Pune to gain ground. BFSI occupiers to prefer premium developments, while engineering & manufacturing occupiers are likely to remain cost conscious while expanding real estate.
Location continues to be of significant importance to occupiers, with about 60% respondents considering it as the most important parameter for expansion. Interestingly, while expanding, occupiers are likely to lean towards flex spaces with attractive offerings in central areas as compared to facilities in peripheral areas. Going ahead, about 45% of surveyed occupiers would opt for future expansion through flex spaces in CBD/SBD locations of tier I or tier II cities. In terms of work-place strategy, flex spaces are likley to champion distributed work models. About half of the larger companies including Global Capability Centers (GCCs) and MNCs envisage flex spaces to act as both hub and spoke offices in the next few years.
This funding round featured participation from high-profile individuals such as Dr. Shriram Madhav Nene, Anmol Sood, Sahil Vachani, Managing Director and CEO of Max Estates, and Rohit Kothari’s Anchorage Capital Fund. Prominent angel investor Ritesh Malik and Ankit Mittal and his family office Sixth Sense Ventures Partners also contributed to the funding round, among others.
Average housing prices surged 12% YoY; Delhi NCR saw highest YoY growth. Delhi NCR & Bengaluru saw highest quarterly price rise at 16% & 8% respectively. Unsold inventory continued to drop sequentially amid robust demand. Pune saw the highest dip in unsold inventory followed by Ahmedabad and Chennai. Positive home buyer sentiment and steady demand have kept the momentum strong in residential market across major Indian cities. Average housing prices across the top eight Indian cities witnessed a 3% QoQ growth in Q2 2024. Interestingly, quarterly price movements at India level have been almost similar at about 3% for the last four quarters.