Indian Real Estate Market Sees the Highest Office Space Addition!

According to a recent study conducted by a global property consultant, Indian office space market witnessed the completion of 10 million sq. ft. during the third quarter of 2015 and the overall office space addition was the highest in 9 quarters. However the news to cheer is that, most of these supplies were pre committed to occupiers a few years back. This means that if an occupier decides to lease the space now, the propositions that are available are just a few.

Here are a few highlights of the report:

•  The research has reported that, Bengaluru led the new supply addition while the development completions surged by 21% on a quarterly basis and around 44% on yearly basis. Also, the commercial and SEZ developments were completed across Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Gurgaon and Chennai during that quarter.
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  Looking at this report, the transaction service experts have said that, the availability of new office space continues to be minimal, as the developers are still facing difficulties of liquidity to undertake commercial real estate. But the fact is that, the supplies that are coming these days are mostly the pre-commitments made by occupiers in the past.
• The business of commercial realty is highly leveraged because it’s not like the residential market where the customers start paying for the properties like apartments right from the planning stage of the project. In commercial real estate business, the developer can start earning only when the building is complete.
• The consultants who are tracking the commercial real estate sector say that, it’s seeing an exactly opposite scenario to that of residential market, as the demand is outstripping the supply. According to the commercial real estate experts, the market is seeing brunt since when the developers stopped high leveraged developments (commercial buildings) after the global financial crisis.
• Even though, the demand for office spaces is at the peak, there is a great dearth of quality office spaces. The scarcity of good office spaces continue in the prime locations. The supplies which are coming in are either of inferior quality or they are in the locations which lack infrastructure.

Office space absorption of more than 9 million sq. ft. was registered in the third quarter of 2015 across the major cities in India clocking the growth of about 20% on an annual basis. This rise in office space absorption, which is mainly driven by corporate occupiers from the sectors like IT/ITeS, finance, health care and ecommerce companies reflected a sustained improvement in the office space leasing across most cities.

However, the scarcity of Grade-A office spaces has compressed the capitalization rates significantly, and this has made the commercial real estate scenario seem better than what it was after the global financial crisis in 2008. This change is helping the developers who already have high grade office projects that are generating good income.