In a primary survey conducted by global real estate consultancy in India, Knight Frank across eight markets of India, it has been determined that Bengaluru has best of high streets that provide significantly better shopping experience with 4 of its markets making to the top 10 list. As per the insights, MG Road (Bengaluru) tops the list of high streets in India, followed by Somajiguda (Hyderabad) in the second position, Linking Road (Mumbai), and South Extension (Delhi) are also listed among the top 10 high streets in the country. This ranking study is part of Knight Frank India’s flagship annual retail report ‘Think India Think Retail 2023 - High Street Real Estate Outlook’ in association with Phygital Retail Convention 2023.
The top ten high streets are those that are convenient in terms of access, parking facilities and with a varied assortment of retailers. The layout and master planning of the high street define the visibility. Inward looking markets like Khan Market (Delhi) and DLF Galleria (Gurugram) scored very low, whereas markets aligned along the access road like MG Road (Bengaluru), Somajiguda (Hyderabd), Linking Road (Mumbai), Anna Nagar, Park Street and Camac Street (Kolkata) scored high. Ahmedabad and Pune do not house any of the top 10 high streets. The survey was conducted across 30 high streets across the top eight cities of India based on parameters that determine the quality of experience high streets provide to customers.
Ahmedabad’s SG Highway has the highest spending quotient amongst the 30 high streets surveyed. Contrary to common perception, the top high streets are not the ones demanding the highest rent. High Average Ticket Price retail categories such as Electronics, Accessories and Home & Lifestyle that have a lower presence in micro markets like Connaught Place, Lower Parel, Khan Market, Colaba Causeway make the Spending Quotient low in these seemingly lucrative markets for retail brands.
Shishir Baijal, Chairman & Managing Director at Knight Frank India said, “Retail is a highly competitive business and, more recently with the advent of malls, is also closely related to the overall customer experience. Globally, cities are identified by their highstreets, often one of the main attractions of the city, and the brands on these streets - a barometer of the city’s worth on a global platform. But as we evolve, customer experience is the key and due to their traditional nature, high streets often fail to provide amenities like those of shopping centres. However, as cities in India are modernizing, we see many high streets in the country reviving as facilities like access, parking, store visibility etc. have improved. Our estimations say that the average per square meter revenues of high streets will be significantly higher than those of malls in FY 2023–24. Going forward, we expect that high streets provide a good retailing experience to customers to see a revival even as other formats of retail continue to thrive.”
According to the findings, NCR, Kolkata, and Ahmedabad are the top three markets with a high concentration of non-modern retail arenas, while Ahmedabad and Kolkata are yet to witness the foray and expansion of many large national and foreign retailers on its key high streets, NCR’s dominance across the non-modern retail arenas stems from the fact that both traditional and modern retail outlets have co-existed and flourished to serve the mixed bag of ethnicities and cultures from nearby states for many years now.
Indian high streets occupy only 6% of the total gross leasable area as compared to the shopping mall stock, however, in terms of efficiency, high streets offer 100% efficacy due to low maintenance costs, whereas in the case of shopping malls, the efficiency can range anywhere between 50% - 60% depending on the grade of the shopping mall. This is largely due to high maintenance costs for common areas, central air conditioning and escalators.
