Lessors in Gurugram count their losses as commercial activities see huge slump
GURUGRAM: As commercial activities have begun in Gurugram, the rapid rise of COVID19 cases here has resulted in sales and transactions not picking up pace in various commercial units. The big slump in commercial activities has resulted in a large number of lessors who had rented out commercial space, counting their losses. Expressing anxiety over the situation not improving for the next few months, these lessors have now begun to negotiate alternate sources of revenue to be generated from their lessees. While most of the lessors out of compulsion have reduced the rent for the lessees, they have now started exploring revenue sharing models where a part of the profit from the commercial activities of the lessee will be shared with the lessor. And the negotiations are coming from both sides with lessees also being favourable to the option if rent is reduced reasonably. With cases of COVID-19 showing no signs of ebbing down, the district administration has not allowed the opening of the malls here either.
Owners of commercial establishments in the malls and the senior officials of the private developers have already estimated that the dip in rentals is likely to be around 15 to 20 per cent in the remaining part of the year. They have also expressed fears that the net leasing in the Gurugram retail sector will see a decline of over 60 per cent due to low sales figures of various retail outlets.
The worst impact of COVID-19 is now being felt on the rental businesses in the city which has performed well in Gurugram so far. With COVID-19 now resulting in flexible workspaces for many employees, the market experts have projected that the rentals for leasing the office spaces will see a dip to the tune of 20 to 30 per cent.
“It now depends on your patience and appetite for how much losses you can bear for some time. I know that the present situation does not look good but I am also hopeful that the demand in the consumer market still persists and things are going to improve in the coming months,” said Shyam Aggarwal, one of the lessors in Gurugram.