India's mall story gets a lot more interesting, expected to see investment of over Rs 20k cr in 3-4 years
Retail real estate industry is riding a boom in demand. More than 5 million square feet (msf) of grade A malls became operational in 2023 — the highest in seven years — and another nearly 8 msf is slated for completion in 2024, industry executives said.
Malls are expected to attract investment of more than Rs 20,000 crore over the next 3-4 years as the country's biggest mall developers, DLF, Prestige and Phoenix, have entered the next phase of expansion as almost all top retailers are expanding their store count.
«Retail real estate sector has been witnessing increased traction, largely driven by strong consumption-led growth of the Indian economy,» said Saurabh Shatdal, managing director, capital markets, and head retail, India, at Cushman & Wakefield.
Listed retail players such as Reliance Retail, PVR, Aditya Birla Fashion, and Tata Trent increased their store count significantly this calendar as their revenues continued to rise.
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«Landlords of quality retail assets with a healthy financial condition have a great advantage to leverage from this bullish undertone by expanding into several untapped markets, either sitting at the peripheries of tier-I or in tier-II and -III cities,» Shatdal said.
Almost all retailers have reported plans for future store openings including expansion into tier-2 markets.
«Post lifting of lockdown, physical shopping continues to rise and, despite a bit of slowdown in the past few months, mall operators are confident of demand,» said Shriram PM Monga, co-founder of retail consultancy firm SRED. «A lot of new supply is coming in smaller cities as retailers are also expanding to these cities,» he said.
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