Bengaluru, which has a total stock of 96 million square feet of grade-A (non-captive) office space, is currently facing a shortfall in the supply of office space.
"Barely 4-5 per cent of the total space is vacant for leasing as the tech city has witnessed strong leasing activity in the last few years. Even the existing vacancy is mostly in peripheral areas,” said Anuj Puri, Chairman & Country Head, JLL India.
In 2015, 14-15 million square feet got leased out. This includes a good volume of pre-committed space, which will be occupied over the next two-three years.
Interestingly, the trend of leasing remains strong. Although there is demand for 10 million square feet, supply of only 8-8.5 million square feet non-captive office space is expected to come up in 2016.
Around 4 million square feet were leased out by occupiers in Q1of 2016 alone. “Bengaluru has seen a well-matched demand-supply ratio year after year. If the supply increases, the absorption could increase as well,” said Puri.
Occupier profile
“Leasing in Bengaluru has been largely IT/ ITeS-driven. In 2015, however, a good volume of space was taken up by e-commerce firms and corporate offices of manufacturing firms in addition to IT/ ITeS companies. This is likely to continue in 2016 as well. Although space will be occupied by other sectors too, it will predominantly be the technology centres of those companies,” explained Puri.