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Demand in commercial realty gaining momentum: Developers
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Rituraj Baruah | 14 Jun, 2018
For commercial real estate, developers feel the worst is over, and signs
of a revival have started showing up with pent-up demand and stocks
declining. The outlook for the sector, they say, is now better.
In
line with the slump in the residential segment, commercial real estate
too went through a slowdown in the last five years and received major
back-to-back blows in the past couple of years with the coming in of the
Real Estate Regulatory Act (RERA), Goods and Services Tax (GST) and
demonetisation. But now, market players say, the bad phase is over.
"The
demand from commercial real estate has increased with improved
occupancy and rentals. The commercial real estate market has witnessed a
growth due to the increased penetration of e-commerce, demand for
quality workplaces and warehouses," Amit Wadhwani, Director of Sai
Estate Consultants, told IANS.
Prasoon Chauhan, CEO of NCR-based
HomeKraft, was upbeat about the outlook for the sector and said: "It is
expected that the coming quarters will continue to witness more
commercial supply across key markets. As a result of the stricter
regulations in the real estate industry, commercial real estate will
continue to see healthy leasing volumes."
Going by the current
demand, it is expected that the average rent for "grade A" office spaces
is likely to rise marginally in key markets and continue to attract
demand, while new emerging areas will continue to witness stable rents
for now, Chauhan said.
Talking about higher demand leading to
decline in stocks, Vipul Shah, Managing Director of Parinee Group,
expressed the view that "the vacancies in commercial real estate is at
an all-time low and there is robust demand from corporate and SMEs
(small and medium enterprises)."
Office space absorption is not
only strong but pre-leasing is at an all-time high, indicating sustained
demand and occupiers' interest in commercial spaces, Shah said.
Another
encouraging factor for the segment, developers say, is the flow of
foreign investments. According to Mumbai-based Nahar Group's Vice
Chairperson, Manju Yagnik, "foreign investments are coming mainly into
commercial projects" and it is felt that foreign direct investments are
safer in the commercial realty than in the residential segment.
Real estate players are also hopeful of more demand coming in the commercial segment in the form of investments.
Wadhwani
said: "Individuals with deep pockets are looking forward to invest in
commercial real estate where the demand will only increase along with
supply."
"Because from the investment point of view, commercial
probably will give you much higher return than residential at this
time," Yagnik said, adding: "Residential has become a little stagnant
and probably in the coming one or two years you will see there is a
better boom in commercial stocks probably than residential."
However,
Dharmesh Jain, Chairman of real estate group Nirmal, feels that
"despite investment potential, commercial real estate has not remained
preferred investment option". He however added that newer markets are
emerging as investment destinations for commercial and retail
investments.
The market has also been supported by the
confidence-building measures as a result of RERA, which initially had
caused a major disruption to the market.
"Developers have become
happy that it (commercial real estate) has become more organised and
more systematic. It is a win-win situation for both the buyers and the
developers," Yagnik of Nahar Group told IANS.
On GST and
demonetisation, which were major blows to the already laggard real
estate market, Shah from Parinee Group told IANS: "GST has increased the
burden but gradually customers and developers are absorbing the same in
their scheme of things." He said demonetisation was now a thing of the
past.
A significant trend emerging in the commercial real estate
segment which has raised hopes of better demand is the concept of
"co-working spaces". Developers feel this concept would bring in more of
rental and office space demands.
In co-working spaces,
organisations share office spaces with flexible time periods at
comparatively lesser cost than renting a specific office space, making
market players call it the affordable segment of office spaces.
Pranay
Gupta, Co-founder of 91springboard, co-working space provider,
described the demand in the segment as "tremendous" and said that other
than start-ups, venture capital funds, non-government organisations and
many listed companies work out of co-working spaces.
"You will
see commercial real estate builders doing tie-ups with co-working firms
and every organisation with less than 300 people is likely to move to
co-working spaces," he added.
"With technology changing so much
and the cloud being available, to connect anybody, anywhere, it has
become the focus of companies to allow for flexibility to their
employees and to look at real estate in terms of an outsourced asset
rather than an owned asset," said Harsh Lambah, India Country Manager,
International Workplace Group.
Lambah also said that in a few years, a large part of commercial real estate would be covered by the co-working concept.
Although
the current trend in the commercial segment is mostly positive and
developers largely see better days coming, finance and availability of
land are an issue, as per the market players.
Jain of Nirmal
said: "Limited accessibility of developable land in the metro cities in
India adds to the existing problem of concentrated commercial
development. We expect the government to develop infrastructure in
emerging location, which will induce connectivity and inspire commercial
investments."
Shah was of the opinion that project financing for
commercial real estate should be made more easily available and at
lower interest rates.
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