MMR, NCR led realty sector growth this year

Bengaluru, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Vishakhapatnam, Lucknow and Gorakhpur also experience good growth in the sector.

Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Delhinational Capital Region (NCR), Bengaluru and Kolkata witnessed the most real estate activities in 2018. Other cities which saw good growth in the sector included Bhubaneswar, Vishakhapatnam, Lucknow and Gorakhpur.

According to a report released by real estate firm Anarock, each of these cities are expected to have one major mall of areas ranging between 60,000-3,50,000 sq. ft. operational by the end of this month. Besides commercial office spaces, the retail sector also emerged as one of the most vibrant and fast-paced real estate sectors in India in 2018.

Going by the current trends and future predictions, the major metros which will outshine the rest in 2019 will be NCR, MMR, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Lucknow as far as brand expansion and new mall supply is concerned.

Following the increasing demand for both national and international brands in most of these cities, retail activity is likely to see a major increase.

An interesting trend witnessed in 2018 was that besides the top metros, tier-ii and tier-iii cities were also caught a significant part of the entire retail growth momentum. The tier-ii and tier-iii cities which continued to flourish in 2018 included Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Indore, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kochi, Nagpur, Thiruvananthapuram and Vadodara.

As per the report, as many as 32 new malls with nearly 13.5 million sq. ft. area are slated to be operational in 2019 across the major cities and several tier-ii and tieriii cities. Among the major metros, both Bengaluru and NCR are expected to see seven operational malls in each city, followed by five in Hyderabad, three in MMR and one in Chennai.

Among the major policy overhauls, the government further liberalised FDI policies early this year which repositioned the Indian retail sector on the global map of investments, attracting a large number of global retailers into India.

The government’s decision to allow 51% FDI in multi-brand retail and 100% FDI in single-brand retail under the automatic route also came as a boost, according to Anuj Kejriwal, MD and CEO of Anarock. The retail sector is now projected to grow from $ 672 billion in 2017 to $ 1.3 trillion in 2020.

Besides government policies, rapid urbanisation and digitisation, rising disposable incomes and lifestyle changes – particularly of the middle class – also contributed to the growth of the Indian retail sector in 2018, said Kejriwal.