Commercial Real Estate sees ‘Rise in Suburbia’

Dr Niranjan Hiranandani – National President -NAREDCO and MD- Hiranandani Group

Commercial real estate was the one of the badly hit property segments as Covid paused office goers and led to work from home scenarios. To many industries, it acted as a stop gap arrangement, wherein the long run return back to office was an ideal demand. In a world, where humankind co-exist with Covid pandemic, the Indian commercial segment has synced in with the new normal by tweaking the right sort of product.  The commercial real estate players have redesigned and reconfigured its layout to befit the need of social distancing and employee wellness at its epicentre. The hybrid work model is aimed to be adopted by major India Inc to enhance the efficiency of real estate assets. The renewed focus to safety and security has nudged commercial players to either consolidate or relocate the office spaces. The expansion of corporates towards decentralized suburbs with better connectivity, larger floor plates and best in class social ecosystem. This will give rise to the ‘Hub and Spoke’ model whereby a spurt of corporate offices will be registered in the new suburban city centres. There has also been demand in boutique office spaces to suit the requirement of entrepreneurs, self employed professionals and consultants moving out of congested city centres towards peripheral locations closer to home. The new commercial spaces aim to offer a walk to work scenario ideal for a work-life balance lifestyle.

Indian Real estate witnessed the launch of much awaited Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) as an investment option which enables monetization of the assets in commercial real estate. REITS has been a successful story globally and expects the same in the Indian scenario. India saw its first REIT in 2019 with three more REITS being launched as new investment propositions. It has also gained popularity among the institutions and retail investors. Indian REITs have been successful in handling the challenge of Covid-19. The long-term story for office spaces / Commercial real estate will continue to remain strong, with optimistic GDP growth.