Ahmedabad continues to have highest mall vacancy in Q2 of 2014

Even as a new mall gets added in the city in the third quarter of calendar year 2014, at over 30 per cent, Ahmedabad continues to have the highest mall vacancy among top eight cities since last three quarters.

According to Cushman & Wakefield's latest retail reports, at 31.16 per cent, Ahmedabad yet again registered the highest mall vacancy among top eight Indian cities.

Industry sources say over supply coupled with low market sentiments has resulted in continued high mall vacancy levels in Ahmedabad.

"Retailers are finding it difficult to survive in this market. Supply is increasing but on the other hand there are less number of retailers available," said Pranav Shah, managing director of Navratna Group which owns the Gulmohar Park Mall. As per Sanjay Dutt, executive managing director, South Asia Cushman & Wakefield, there has been limited availability of quality mall space kept transaction activity low in Ahmedabad.

"A few transactions by local brands at S.G. Highway led to mall vacancies declining by 0.4 percentage points to 31.2 per cent. In Q2, given high mall vacancy levels and a high preference for main streets, Ahmedabad did not witness any mall supply and has no mall under construction," said Dutt.

However, in the third quarter the vacancy levels are expected to further decline thanks to Venus Infrastructure and Alpha G:Corp jointly launching a new mall 'CG Square'. Developed by Venus and being managed by Alpha G:Corp, the mall runs entirely on the model of leasing of space.

"One of the reasons for high mall vacancy is also because of the unsustainable model of selling space in mall. We have experienced that a healthier model is to lease out space to retailers and allow the developer to retain ownership," said Rajesh Vaswani, executive director, Venus Infrastructure and Prodipta Sen, executive director - marketing, retail at Alpha G: Corp.