New office space supply up 75% this year

New Delhi: New supply of office spaces increased 75 per cent year-on-year to 25.11 million sq ft across seven major cities during the first six months of this calendar year despite the Covid-19 pandemic, as realty firms remain bullish on revival in workspace demand, according to JLL India.

New office space supply stood at 14.38 million sq ft during January-June 2020 across seven cities - Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai. "Completions during H1 2021 were recorded at 25.11 million sqft, an increase of 75 per cent year-on-year, show that developers are confident of a strong revival in office leasing activity once business as usual is reinstated," said JLL India Head (Office Leasing Advisory) Rahul Arora.

He added that in the second half of the year, if the country can ensure that most of the active workforce gets fully vaccinated, the shift back to office premises will be more feasible and sustainable.

According to the data, new office space supply in Bengaluru jumped over two-fold to 9.53 million sq ft in January-June 2021, from 3.35 million sq ft in the year-ago period. In Chennai, fresh supply dropped six per cent to 0.5 million sq ft, from 0.53 million sq ft a year ago. New supply increased 35 per cent in Delhi NCR to 5.23 million sq ft, from 3.88 million sq ft.

Hyderabad saw a three per cent rise in new supply to 3.84 million sq ft from 3.73 million sq ft. In Mumbai, new office supply more than doubled to 4.73 million sq ft during the first six months of the calendar year 2021, from 2.29 million sq ft in the corresponding period of the previous year. Pune, too, saw a jump of over twofold to 1.28 million sq ft as against 0.6 million sq ft. Interestingly, there was no fresh addition of office space in Kolkata during the January-June period of this year as well as 2020.

Regarding office demand, JLL India reported that the net leasing of office space fell 19 per cent to 9.63 million sq ft in the first half of 2021, from 11.94 million sq ft in the year-ago period. JLL India, part of US-based JLL, is one of the leading players in office leasing consultancy services in the country.