Australian bank ANZ and French company BNP Paribas have together taken 150,000 sq ft of space on lease in Mumbai, according to a person privy to the developments. While BNP Paribas had booked 110,000 sq ft of office space in Maker Maxcity building in Bandra Kurla Complex at around Rs 300-Rs 325 per sq ft, ANZ had taken nearly 40,000 sq ft of space in Cnergy building in the Prabhadevi area for Rs 320 a sq ft, said the person.
ANZ has a branch licence and is looking to launch its operations in the country. He said ANZ was most likely to make the Prabhadevi office its country head office, while Paribas had leased it for its various operations.
“Both were looking for office space for quite some time and finally chose these,” the person said. ANZ and BNP Paribas could not be reached for comments.
According to property consultants, at least four multinational banks, including Bank of America, are looking for space in Mumbai suburbs and Bandra Kurla Complex. Many MNCs were in talks with consumer goods company HUL to lease HUL House in Churchgate, the person said.
“Leasing by financial and banking institutions has definitely picked up, but leasing in information technology spaces is yet to pick up. Prices are still stable,” said Ashok Kumar, managing director of Cresa Partners, an international realty services company.
According to Kumar, Bandra Kurla Complex still has a lot of supply, which is expected to affect rentals. “The new banking licences will also lead to higher leasing action.”
According to estimates, Mumbai has 50,00,000-60,00,000 sq ft of Grade-A office space, against the demand of 40,00,000 sq ft. Around 30,00,000-35,00,000 sq ft space is expected to hit the market in the next two-three quarters.
Riding on the improved economic conditions, life insurers SBI Life and Birla Sun Life and brokerages like Motilal Oswal and India Infoline have either bought or taken on lease around 5,00,000 sq ft of office space in Mumbai in the last six months.
A souple of months ago, Morgan Stanley took 100,000 sq ft at a building in Lower Parel in Mumbai and Citibank took similar space in Goregaon for its back-office operations.
