B’luru has highest flexible office space stock in Asia Pacific

Bengaluru recorded the highest supply of Grade-A flexible office space ahead of 11 major cities in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, according to a new report by international property consultant CBRE.

The city had 10.6 million square feet flexible stock as of Sept 2022.

A flexible office is designed to offer employees variety in terms of spaces and ways to work as opposed to fixed desks in traditional offices.

“The city has got a huge availability of quality real estate which is priced in a fair manner compared to other big cities of India,” said Shesh Rao Paplikar, co-founder & chief executive of BHIVE Group, justifying the feat.

C N Govindaraju, Founder & CMD, Vaishnavi Group, attributed Bengaluru’s number one position to the presence of leading educational institutions, investor-friendly policies, a rich talent pool and the technology ecosystem created over the last two decades.

Another report by Colliers revealed that after two years of slow demand for commercial offices, 2022 is likely to close on a new high, with gross absorption likely to touch 50 million sq ft, marking a 52 per cent year-on-year rise in total leasing.

Bengaluru is likely to account for 33 per cent of this gross absorption, followed by Delhi-NCR and Hyderabad.

The CBRE report also highlighted that India continues to witness maximum growth in the “flexi-office market in the APAC region” post the Covid-19 pandemic.

Two other Indian cities — Delhi-NCR and Hyderabad — also featured on the list, with the latter registering the highest penetration of flexible office space in the Grade-A segment at 5.5 per cent, compared to its Indian and Asian peers.

Commenting on the report, Anshuman Magazine, Chairman & CEO, CBRE (India) said, “This signals a healthy office sector growth amid an accelerated return to office phenomena in India, led by flexible space operators.”

The study covered a total of 19 major Asia-Pacific markets to record a total flexible stock of 76 million square feet between January and September 2022, indicating a 6 per cent year-on-year growth. “The flex industry matured over the past two years,” said Henry Chin, Global Head of Investor Thought Leadership and Head of Research, CBRE APAC.

During the period under review, a total of 3,000 flexible space centres were recorded in the Asia Pacific region wherein tech firms remained the top users at 36 per cent, followed by business services companies at 28 per cent. Others included finance, life sciences and retail firms.

(With inputs from Mrityunjay Bose)