Hosur Road is the preferred destination

Despite traffic snarls, firms look at expanding in the area

Despite the daily traffic snarls and very long time taken to commute to and from Hosur Road, companies located at Electronic City are looking at expanding in the area.

On the other hand, new companies who set up shop on Hosur road recently, prefer to re-locate to other areas.

Going by the corporate office space demand in the city, the suburban and peripheral areas continue to find favour with corporates looking for a long-term commitment. The projects in these micromarkets offer large floor plates, good car parking facilities and expansion/growth opportunities.

Keeping pace with the growing demand for office space in these micromarkets, about 7.8 million square feet of commercial office space is slated to come into the market over the next two quarters, said CB Richard Ellis' Q2 Bangalore office market report.

The Outer Ring Road in the proximity of Hosur Road remains a highly sought-after location for IT/ITeS firms in Bangalore. Here, pre-construction lease commitments are taking place at a faster pace in buildings that are to be ready by the end of the year.

"This micromarket seems to be growing as a preferred location among corporates as it is easily accessible from Koramangala and Indiranagar, two major residential areas in Bangalore. It has witnessed some of the transactions including one of Outsource Partners leasing 60,000 square feet, TCS leasing 18,000 square feet, Nokia leasing 2 lakh square feet on the Outer Ring Road," said CB Richard Ellis' report.

Whitefield on the other side has been witnessing a large amount of office space supply and there are apprehensions on leasing space. But a few deals like Shell's leasing of 1.52 lakh square feet, iFlex leasing 1 lakh square feet, Unilever leasing 40,000 square feet, Societe Generale leasing 30,000 square feet, TCS leasing 1.5 lakh square feet have kept the market going.

"With this high level of activity, there continues to be a large amount of space that is under construction and this can be used to get highly favourable terms for tenants in this area," said Ram Chandnani, head-south India operations, CB Richard Ellis.

The other IT/ITeS hub, Bannerghatta Road, has also seen a large number of transactions in the second quarter essentially due to the availability of quality space in a large business park.

Some of the major transactions on this road included Oracle leasing 3 lakh square feet, Adaptec leasing 35,000 square feet, RSA Networks leasing 40,000 square feet and Impulsesoft leasing 30,000 square feet, among others.

According to Ram Chandnani, "Looking ahead, Bangalore's commercial real estate is expected to remain stable over the next few quarters. Bangalore's professionals can look forward to his company's swanky new office and yet another bigger, better campus."