Office leasing dips 39% in 15 months

Hyderabad: Leasing of office space in India has declined 39 per cent in the 15 months post-pandemic period. Southern cities accounted for 52 per cent of the leasing post pandemic. Overall co-working leasing share in the country fell to 4 per cent as operators avoided speculative development, said a report.

However, it says that the occupiers are increasingly renewing their office spaces since April 2020 when the pandemic started. NCR-Delhi, followed by Bengaluru and Mumbai are the most resilient office markets that witnessed the highest share of term renewals.

According to Colliers' and Propstack's joint report "Evolving office space trends in a post-pandemic world", the IT sector's leasing improved in NCR, post pandemic.

The renewals for office spaces accounted for 23 per cent of the total leasing during the 15-month period starting April 2020. This is up 8 percentage points from the 15-month period pre-pandemic till March 2020.

"The occupiers are using the current favourable market dynamics to negotiate renewals. They are looking at more flexibility in leases too.

Their decisions are quicker than last year, with a focus on new-gen offices. As many companies planning to get back more employees from January 2022, it will prompt occupiers to make leasing decisions quicker," said Ramesh Nair, CEO at Colliers India.