Office realty market is on recovery path, says C&W Q4 report

Cushman & Wakefield has released its India Office Report for Q4 (Oct-Dec 2020). As all the major cities opened for business post lockdown and enhanced economic activities during the last quarter of 2020, resulted in improved gross leasing across all cities.

The report shows 16.3 per cent growth in H2 2020 (27.2 mn sf) in comparison to H1 2020 (23.3 mn sf). On y-o-y basis, gross leasing stood at 50.5 mn sf lower by 29 pc compared to 70 mn sf in 2019. On quarterly basis, Q4 2020 seen gross leasing of 12 mn sf which is 20 pc lower compared to Q3 2020 and lower by 51.4 pc compared to Q4 2019 for the top eight cities.

The net absorption in Q4 2020 stands at 6.49 msf, which is higher by nearly 2.5X compared to Q3 2020, however it is lower by 34.9 per cent compared to Q4 2019. Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai have contributed significantly towards net absorption with share of 29.7 pc, 26.6 pc and 17.0 pc respectively, mainly due to projects with significant pre-commitments get operational during the quarter which resulted in improved overall net absorption. On Yearly basis, net absorption in 2020 stood at 20.91 msf which is lower by 54.6 pc compared to 2019 (46.09 mn sf). Bengaluru continued to hold the major share with 29.5 pc share, followed by Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi NCR with 26.0 pc, 12.1 pc and 10.3 pc share.

Bengaluru was the most active city in term of gross leasing activity in Q4 with 27.1 pc, followed by Mumbai and Delhi NCR with 18.3 pc and 17.3 pc share. Except for Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Pune all other cities witnessed drop in gross leasing on q-o-q basis. During 2020, Bengaluru continued to lead the charts with 27.1 pc share followed by Mumbai (16.5 pc), Delhi NCR (16.5 pc) and Hyderabad (15.4 pc) share. On yearly basis as all the cities has seen drop in gross leasing during 2020. However, if you compare H2 with H1 2020, we see growth in all the cities except Delhi which is marginally lower.

Office market in 2020

Advertisement

The completion activity witnessed increased activity in Q4 2020, resulted in 13.17 mn sf of supply being added, which was higher by 56.0 pc on q-o-q basis. On a y-o-y basis, new completions were also up by 31.2 pc compared to Q4 2019. On yearly basis, completions were down by 24.9% during 2020 (39.10 mn sf) compared to previous year (2019 – 52.03 mn sf). Bengaluru hold the maximum share with 28.6 pc share, followed by Hyderabad, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai with 20.0%, 15.2 pc and 14.3 pc share in completions during 2020.

In terms of leasing activity in Q4, the IT-BPM sector continued to witness maximum share with 20.6% share in overall leasing. BFSI accounted for a 15.4% share followed by Captive centres (GCCs) with a 14.0 pc share. Engineering and manufacturing sector also saw notable contribution with 13.2 pc share in gross leasing. The IT-BPM (27.0 pc) sector on yearly basis also seen the maximum share followed by captive centres (GCCs) with 21.4 pc, Engineering & Manufacturing sector  and BFSI with 11.0 pc  and 9.9 pc share respectively.

Advertisement

Pre-commitment activity was 1.82 mn sf compared to 5.26 mn sf in the previous quarter, as major cities witnessed lower pre-commitments during the quarter. Cities like, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad seen pre-commitments during the quarter. However, on yearly basis, pre-commitments stood at 12.93 mn sf which is lower by 27.05 pc compared to 2019 (17.72 msf). Southern cities of Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai contributed to most towards pre-commitments in 2020 with share of 39.5 pc, 26.9 pc and 16.6 pc share respectively.

Commenting on Office Market report for Q4, Anshul Jain, Managing Director, SE Asia & India, said, “Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the office sector in India has undergone a variety of cyclical and structural changes. However, we are seeing the gradual recovery in leasing activity and it will get better by the first half of 2021 on the back of clarity on vaccine approval and roll out, stronger business and economic sentiment and healthy office space demand, especially from global multinational corporations.”

Advertisements