Track2Realty: With the liberalisation of the FDI policy, evolving consumer preferences and entry of global retail brands in India, mall developers are busy adapting their retail developments to the changing requirements and trends. Indeed, one of the most imperative transformations is the increasing focus on planning and optimisation of retail spaces so as to extract their highest potential.
Track2Realty: The overall mall vacancy levels across the top eight India cities remained stagnant at 14.47% in Q2 2014, which was recorded around 0.4 percentage points lower compared to Q1 2014. Amongst the top eight cities, Pune witnessed sharpest decline of 2.5 percentage points due to healthy leasing activity and no new mall supply. These are the findings of Cushman & Wakefield latest report.
Track2Realty: The IT/ITeS sector continues to be a dominant growth driver for Bangalore, and some areas stand out from the rest as far as the impact of this sector is concerned. Whitefield in the eastern part of Bangalore is one such area. Whitefield was an early settlement in Bangalore and remained a quaint little suburb till the 2000s, when Bangalore’s IT boom reshaped Whitefield into a major suburb.
Track2Realty Exclusive: One of the most ardent desires of an individual is to own a house with location and comfort being the determining factors in most of the cases. However, to get access to shopping facilities or entertainment hubs or medical care or even to commute to workplace remains a sheer imagination almost beyond fulfilment in India.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Only some years ago, when the National Housing Board brought out a survey report saying that India will need at least 26 million houses by the end of 2020, that the idea of privately built township or townships built on PPP model first germinated. Large tracts of land which were lying at the outskirts of cities were looked at with a lot of hope and dreams to offer better living to Indians at affordable prices.
Track2Realty Exclusive: It was in the July last year that Rohit Arora, an NRI returned from New Jersey to settle in Mumbai and set up his consultancy business over here. Looking for an office space, he was so carried by the reports of a price correction that he preferred to defer the office acquisition, either on rent or purchase.
Track2Realty: CBRE has launched its first Shaping Trends in Logistics report. It examines trends that are acting as key agents of change in the Asia Pacific logistics market. The report focusses on the factors behind the strong underlying demand for logistics space, and expected positive rental growth for Asia Pacific’s logistics warehouses.
Track2Realty: The total fresh mall supply by the end of 2014 is projected to be approximately 14 million square feet (msf) approx. in the top eight cities of India, of which 13.6 msf is still under construction, says a report by Cushman & Wakefield. This is nearly 200% more than the supply received in 2013 which was recorded at almost 4.6 msf. Of the total expected mall supply for the year of 2014 approximately 60% or 8.2 msf of fresh mall supply is expected to be received by National Capital Region (NCR) followed by Bengaluru at 2.86 msf.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Real estate market in India is growing fast because of the increasing demand for planned development, relatively less congestion and pollution, better hygiene and sanitation etc. that is giving way to new opportunities to grow. Investors are not restricted to one category and buyers looking to buy commercial as well as residential properties are angling towards the smaller cities such as Vizag, Pune, Nasik, Ahmadabad etc.
Track2Realty: There are still significant investment opportunities left in India’s real estate market. For investors looking at cost-effective projects to park their funds, this might be a right time as weak market sentiments are likely to lead to weak valuations, providing windows for investing in quality projects.