India's commercial real estate sector has witnessed strong growth in the last decade owing to its being the preferred business destination. Despite the pandemic in 2020, India's commercial real estate retained its strong market position. The expectation of freefall in this sector was offset by increasing foreign institutional investors who made hay in the retail and the capital market sector.
Despite falling GDP, there has been a consolidation in the real estate developer's community. Small scale developers are decreasing, and many have merged with prominent real estate players as size, scale and volume became the key success indicators. The major real estate players played on volume.Business Parks In India With corporates and multinational players taking up massive office spaces, especially in the ITes and Service sector, and others taking up millions of square foot of floor spaces in the retail shopping malls, this sector never looked so buoyant before.
Market outlook
The forecast of the real estate sector contributing nearly 13 percent of the GDP by2025 remains intact despite the slump in consumption demand in 2020 due to the pandemic. The new working environment of work from home scenario has been largely offset by increasing growth in the eCommerce business. The massive growth in online business has resulted in the major ramping up of thestorageand delivery hubs and logistics infrastructure. The all-time boom in the stock market has pushed the FII(ForeignInstitutional Investors) and Start-Ups to invest in cheaper infrastructure and labour costs.
The new concept of co-working is another thrust in the real estate sector and replacing the old standalone offices model. Organizations prefer plug-and-play offices where higher rentals are not a factor as it offsets the initial capital expenditure required to set up huge offices.Commercial Office Space In Hyderabad Large IT Players, as well as small start-ups, find the co-working plug-and-play model attractive. Going by the acceptance of this model, it is expected that demand for shared spaces will be the new in-thing in the upcoming years.
Key market trends in commercial real estate
Governmentinitiatives have changed the way how real estate business functioned in India earlier. The real estate sector was unorganized. The introduction of RERA (Real Estate Regulatory Authority) and the GST has brought transparency and compliance in this sector. This has resulted in increasing foreign direct investments (FDI) in the commercial real estate business.
Many initiatives like Make in India, AMRUT, Smart City, and urban development policies are expected to increase demands in the future. The organized retail sector is forecasted to grow at 25% to 30 % in the next five years. Global MNC's are joining hands with Indian Retail giants for a toehold in the Indian retail market. The IT and service sectorare now taking the next giant leap in India and moving towards high-value segments like artificial intelligence, data analytics, and product development, which further intensify demand. All these developments have resulted in millions of square feet of commercial space transactions.
Conclusion
Second-tier cities have been witnessing growth since 2017. They will continue to do so with more cities or smart cities getting added to the list.With the increasing population and growing retail and eCommerce industry, Commercial Real Estate in India is expected to get a significant thrust once the pandemic gets over.