Office offtake up 16% despite downturn

Despite the downturn in the economy, top eight cities have seen 16% jump in absorption of office properties in the first half of 2014, said a new study.

The total absorption in first half of 2014 was 13.4 million square feet.

Though smaller in absolute absorption, Ahmedabad and Chennai saw highest jump in absorption of office proerpties. They posted an increase of more than two times compared to first quarter of 2013, said the study by Cushman & Wakefield.

In terms of highest absorption, Bangalore came first at 2.6 million sq ft in first half of this year, ahead of NCR and Mumbai, the report said,

Hyderabad outperformed Mumbai, recording net absorption of 2.3 million sq ft during H1 2014 compared to 1.9 million sq ft noted in Mumbai. Therefore, the top three performing cities during H1 2014 were Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR and Hyderabad representing 57% share recording a total net absorption of 7.7 million sq ft, it said..