Khan Market world's 28th costliest location; slips 2 positions

National capital’s upscale Khan Market has slipped two position to world’s 28th most expensive retail location, even as it continues to be the costliest place to hire a shop in the country, says Cushman & Wakefield. Monthly rentals at Khan market stood at Rs 1250 per sq ft annually.

“New Delhi’s Khan Market has moved down 2 spots on its global retail ranking to become the world’s 28th most expensive retail location globally,” real estate consultant Cushman & Wakefield said in a statement.

“Back home in India, Khan Market continues to be the most expensive retail location with rentals of INR 1,250/sq ft/ year,” it added.

New York’s Upper 5th Avenue continued to remain the world’s most expensive retail location, narrowly ahead of Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay.

Paris’ Avenue des Champs Élysées, London’s New Bond Street and Tokyo’s Ginza were at third, fourth and fifth positions, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s annual report ‘Main Streets Across the world’ that tracks 462 of the top retail locations around the globe, ranking them by their prime rental value.

“Despite witnessing stable rental values, Khan Market’s position slipped two places, due to marginal increases in rentals of other countries,” the consultant said.

The micro market has been the most expensive market in India for more than five years as demand for retail space has remained steady on account of its location and current occupier profile.

The area, which is centrally located within the city of New Delhi, is flanked on all sides by high-end residential catchment areas.

Within Asia Pacific too, Khan Market slipped down by a rank to be the 15th most expensive location, as Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City overtook Khan Market’s rentals this year.

In India, the three most expensive retail micro-markets are located in Delhi-NCR. Khan Market and Connaught Place in New Delhi demand the highest rentals of Rs 1,250 a sq ft per year and Rs 850 per sq ft a year respectively. These are followed by DLF Galleria in Gurgaon, which emerged as the 3rd most expensive location.

C&W MD India Anshul Jain said: “India’s retail real estate is going through rapid changes with consumer behaviour evolving faster than the sector can adapt to. The game changing phenomenon has been the rapid forward movement by e-commerce, which is challenging the existing brick and mortar format.”
“Having said that, main streets have not seen a significant erosion in attractiveness. These continue to see interest from retailers, albeit most locations have no vacancy, which keeps the rentals status of these locations stable,” he added.

Jain said however that very few new locations have been added to the retail geography of India in the last few years, owing to the cautious outlook by retailers.

Background

Established in 1951, the U-shaped, double-storey Khan market complex originally had 154 shops and 74 flats on the first floor for shopkeepers. Many of these shops were allocated as seed land to immigrants from the North-West Frontier Province after the partition of India.

Khan Market is named in honor of Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan, brother of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, by the first traders who set up shops in the market, in appreciation of his efforts in helping them migrate to India safely during the partition. The market is not named for Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan as is erroneously believed.

Nearby is Sujan Singh Park, New Delhi's first apartment complex, built in 1945, and designed by Walter Sykes George and named after the grandfather of this enclave's most famous resident, writer Khushwant Singh.[8] George also designed, the Ambassador Hotel next door, built in 1945 in a mix of British and Art Deco style.

The building is now a heritage property and the hotel has been taken over by the Taj Vivanta chain. Until the 1980s, all the flats on the first floor continued to serve as homes.

Neighbourhood grocery stores and middle-class shops existed in the middle lane, despite the fact it catered most up to upmarket Golf Links, Sundar Nagar, and diplomatic crowd from Chanakyapuri.

Gradually, the real estate boom and expanding families of the first generation of occupants forced many families to move out. Thus these homes were sold and started being converted into shops. By the 2010s, only a few families were living in these two-room flats.

Today it has grown to become one of the most expensive commercial real estate locations in the city. It has a wide variety of stores, including modern showrooms of most of well-known brands. The cuisines available at the restaurants include American, Italian, Thai, Mexican, Continental, Malaysian, Burmese, Lebanese & Indian etc.

Khan Market is almost in the heart of the city, close to India Gate. It is surrounded by residential complexes — government owned and private — including Golf Links, Lodhi Estate, Shahjahan Road, Pandara Road, Rabindra Nagar and Sujan Singh Park. Its environs are home to a significant number of bureaucrats from the central government, and famous people like the satiric author Khushwant Singh.

It is one of the greenest pockets of the city, very close to the famed Lodhi Gardens. Also in proximity are the India International Centre, the India Habitat Centre, offices of the World Wide Fund for Nature, and other organizations.

In 2010, it was rated as the world's 21st most expensive retail high street by real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield and is consistently ranked as one of the costliest high-end streets.