Real estate player DLF has leased over two lakh sq ft of office space to an athletic clothing brand in Downtown Gurgaon at a rent of almost Rs 130 per sq ft per month for nine years. The space has been leased to Adidas, they said, adding the brand has leased 2,40,000 sq ft for nine years. The athletic clothing brand has taken up office space in Downtown 3. The project DLF Downtown is at a prime location on National Highway 8. Two towers Downtown 2 and Downtown 3 are complete and fully leased. Occupation certificate has been received for the two towers and fit-outs are currently on.
Around eight to nine corporate tenants have taken the entire 1.6 mn sq ft in the two towers. Construction work on the third tower, Downtown 4, which is expected to spread across an area of 2 mn sq ft, will start soon and may take around 2.5 years to complete, they said.
Real estate experts said that while retail has touched pre-COVID-19 levels, office space leasing is also picking up fast. Also, hybrid spaces are here to stay and some companies are still in the process of taking a decision on how much office space they wish to lease on the basis of how the trend of flexible office will pan out in the near future. The picture will be clear in the next quarter or two, experts said.
The net absorption for India’s office space for the January-September period stood at a three-year high of 30.3 mn sq ft on the back of strong supply completions with healthy pre-commitments.
Quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q) as well, the net absorption for the July-September quarter was up by 11 percent at 9.86 mn sq ft, according to JLL’s Office Market Update-Q3, 2022. Delhi NCR and Bengaluru are the two biggest office markets by January-September 2022 gross leasing activity, followed by Mumbai, it said.
DLF's rental assets are primarily under the DLF Cyber City Developers Ltd (DCCDL), a joint venture between DLF and Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC. DLF has a nearly 67 percent stake in the DCCDL, while GIC has the rest. The annuity portfolio is around 35 mn sq ft.
In October last year, DLF announced plans to develop a 2 mn sq ft office building in Gurugram as demand for premium workspace from corporates and co-working operators picked up. The company had also said that it would develop two large malls as well as small shopping centres on a lease model.
DLF has developed more than 153 real estate projects covering 330 mn sq ft. The company has 215 mn sq ft of development potential across the residential and commercial segments. The DLF Group has an annuity portfolio of over 40 mn sq ft.
