JLL India has revealed that net leasing of office space has fallen 50% across seven major cities in the country, including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. This comes as many coworking operators and corporations continue to hit pause on their expansion plans due to the ongoing pandemic.
The findings revealed that from January to September of this year, leasing dropped by 47% from 32.7 million square feet to 17.3 million square feet compared to the year prior.
“India’s office market witnessed a net absorption of 5.4 million square feet in quarter ending September 2020 (Q3), an increase of 64% versus quarter ending June 2020 (Q2),” the firm said in a statement.
The statement added the reason behind the restrained absorption levels was due to office space consolidation and new optimization strategies from corporate occupiers. This led vacancy to grow from 13.1% in the second quarter of 2020 to 13.5% in the third quarter.