There is no denying that the Indian commercial real estate market is enormous and is witnessing a healthy rise in demand in 2022 and this momentum is projected to continue for the rest of the year.
Although the pandemic had a significant impact on the country’s increasing office segment with occupiers cutting back on spaces, surprisingly, the market has bounced back in 2021, with essential occupiers returning to the office. There is an immense belief that a strongly recovering economy and powerful progress in India’s startup ecosystem are going to help advance the growth trajectory upwards.
According to a joint report released by CRE Matrix and Colliers ‘Startups Scale Up’, startups are estimated to lease approximately 29 million sq. feet between 2022 to 2024, a 1.3 times surge from the 2019-2021 duration. The rise in entrepreneurship and the fast development of startups has been one of the most fascinating trends in the office space market in India.
Startups are believed to be the fastest developing occupier growth among other occupier groups, and presently take up 10% of commercial office spaces. This has led to many openings for office space providers to reconsider and reposition their workplace offerings to draw a variety of occupiers.
According to the India Office Report Q4 CY’21 by CRE Matrix, the past year has witnessed a rising demand for office leasing, an increase in office stock, stabilization of office vacancy, a rise in rentals, and sustained job growth in the startup space. Thanks to increased digital adoption across all businesses and the rise in vaccination numbers, there is hope that office demand in 2022 may return to pre-Covid levels.
Increase in demand from Various Sectors
More than 8,100 digital companies have been set up across the metro cities in recent times. These companies have generated around 6 lakh jobs in India. Increased availability of office space in India has propelled demand from banking, financial services, insurance (BFSI), manufacturing, and consulting sectors.
For instance, Noida and Gurgaon alone have almost 8.5 million sq. ft. of commercial space in the pipeline. According to the India Office Report Q4 CY’21 by CRE Matrix, the majority of the demand for office leasing continued to be Tech (startups and IT/ITeS majors), BFSI, and Co-working segments. They added almost 58% to office demand in 2021 and 63% in the last quarter.
Factors Propelling Growth in Commercial Office Space Post Pandemic
- Co-working spaces are increasing rapidly in the top urban cities of India
- The economy recovered fairly quickly and numerous companies reopened offices
- Reverse migration to tier-1 and tier-2 cities and the requirement for office infrastructure in developing locations thereby drove commercial realty development in these cities.
- Companies are now providing improved facilities, digital integration, health, and safety features.
- Infrastructure has improved a lot in smaller cities with numerous initiatives by the Government.
- There has been a rise in the flexible office space in India. The businesses are planning to continue with alternative work models to maintain flexibility at workstations and enhance business profitability.
According to the India Office report by CRE Matrix, there has never been a more significant period for the increase in demand for commercial office space in India, particularly after the damage inflicted in the economy thanks to the pandemic. Thanks to digitization across all industries, there will most likely be huge chunks of development in commercial office demand this year.
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