Robust demand for office spaces to give occupancies a leg-up
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Grade-A office spaces are seeing a drop in vacancy levels, along with improving occupancies, as the leasing trajectory is likely to maintain the good run in the March quarter (Q4FY25), too. Demand for commercial properties continues to be led by global capability centres (GCCs), rising traction in flexible workspaces, and IT/ITes.
Plus, the floor-wise denotification and consequent leasing of special economic zones has also helped drive confidence among listed real estate investment trusts (REITs). “Vacancies at all key REIT micro-markets—Outer Ring Road (Bengaluru), Madhapur (Hyderabad), Thane Belapur (Mumbai Metropolitan Region), and Cyber City (Gurugram)—have gone down over the last couple of quarters. This is also reflected in the leasing performance of all the REITs, which have witnessed 200-500 basis points improvement in occupancy in 9MFY25," said a JM Financial Institutional Securities report dated 12 March.
This could mean listed REITs will meet their FY25 leasing and occupancy targets. Embassy Office Parks REIT’s commercial portfolio occupancy was at 87% in Q3FY25, and it expects the measure to be 88% by March. Peer Brookfield India Real Estate Trust’s committed occupancy in Q3FY25 stood at 87% and could reach 89% by March.
For Mindspace, committed occupancy stood strong at 91% in Q3FY25 and is expected to touch 92.5%-92.9% by FY25-end. The committed occupancy rate includes properties whose leases have already been signed with tenants but whose leases have yet to commence. Given upbeat business prospects, REITs are in an expansion mode.
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