RE stock to rise 200mn sq ft as investor confidence improves: CBRE


Chennai: India’s real estate (RE) stock will reach 3.7 trillion sq ft in the current year with 200 million sq ft of new real estate space added across different categories, a report said.

Released by commercial real estate services firm CBRE, the report says new space will be added across categories such as office, retail, residential and logistics.

As per the report, India continues to retain its position as the world’s fastest-growing major economy, on the back of improved investor confidence and better policy reforms.

Nearly 10-12 million sq ft in the retail market is expected to come on stream this year. Previously in 2018, 5.1 million sq ft of new retail developments became operational across the seven major cities in the country, the report said.

Last year, the commercial real estate investment market witnessed few large-scale deals which led to investments to the tune of $4.7 billion, said the report.

Transaction activity was led by private equity investors focusing on office and retail sectors, while local investors focused on investing in land parcels for RE developments, it added.

According to the report, the inflow of long term, patient capital from private equity and other institutional players – especially in office and retail has provided the sector with stability that will ensure a steady growth curve.

In 2019, PE investments are likely to focus on completed and under-construction quality assets across the office, warehousing and retail segments; the residential sector will continue to be dominated by debt funding, it said.

Chairman and CEO, CBRE India, Anshuman Magazine, said, “The growth of the Indian real estate market in 2019 will be driven by numerous factors including technology, demand-supply dynamics, improved ease of doing business rankings and the dust settling post the implementation of reforms such as GST, RERA among others. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality, Internet of things, robotic process automation and blockchain are trends that are reshaping how the real estate sector works.”

“We expect to see significant growth across segments, which will lead to the addition of almost 200 million sq ft of new real estate space in 2019 across categories including office, retail, residential and logistics,” he added.