Gross Leasing Of Office Space Across Eight Cities May Touch 85 Million Square Feet In 2024

Gross leasing of office space across eight major cities is expected to rise 14% to 85 million square feet this calendar year, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

In 2023, gross leasing of office space across eight cities, including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, the National Capital Region, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, and Ahmedabad, was 74.6 million square feet.

"India’s office real estate has consistently been witnessing more than 70 million square feet of gross leasing volume (GLV) since 2022 across the top 8 cities. The current year 2024 is likely to register a historic high volume of 83-85 million square feet of GLV," the consultant said in its round-up for the calendar year.

In the January-September period of 2024 itself, the gross leasing has reached 66.7 million square feet.

While office leasing in 2018 was at 49.1 million square feet, it had risen to 67.7 million square feet in 2019. However, in 2020, it witnessed a drastic dip to 46.6 million square feet.

In 2021, it rose to 50.4 million square feet, while in 2022, it had shot up to 72 million square feet.

The real estate consultant attributed the growth to healthy volumes seen in the IT-BPM, BFSI, engineering and manufacturing and flex operator spaces, as these were the top-performing sectors.

"Fresh leasing of space, an indicator of growing business activity in India, has been the biggest contributor to GLV. For the full year 2024, a fresh lease is likely to account for nearly 70%, stemming from new entrant GCCs (global capability centres) and expansion in operations of domestic firms," Cushman & Wakefield said.