 "Vacancies in office spaces fall sharply in 5 years: JLL study")
Vacancies in prime office spaces have fallen sharply in the last five years, a new study has revealed.
According to global consultant Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), vacancy in Bengaluru has reduced from 16% in 2011 to 4% today. Chennai’s vacancy has come down from 32% in 2010 to 12.5% today. Hyderabad has also seen its vacancy reduce from 17% in 2009 to less than 10% now. Similarly, in Pune, the vacancy has reduced from 18% in previous years to 5% today.
The sharpest fall in pan-India vacancy is expected between 2016 and 2017 when it will be slightly less than 13%.
“Showing faith in India’s economic growth, corporate occupiers have been in expansion mode. Companies, especially in the e-commerce, telecom and healthcare sectors, have been snapping up office space across major cities. This expansion is also reflected by the decline in office vacancy levels across the country — a trend that started in 2013. By 2015-end, cities such as Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai had a vacancy rate of just 5-12 %,” Said Ramesh Nair, COO at JLL India said in a note today.
India’s office space absorption in 2015, at around 36 million sq ft, was the second-highest after 2011. Leading this bull-run were cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai. While the absorption in 2015 was similar to 2011, it was distributed across new and old buildings this time unlike 2011 when it was largely limited to newly-completed buildings, Nair said.
