GCCs in India have exhibited the fastest growth among all industry segments active in India’s office leasing landscape. They now occupy more than 202 million sq. ft of office space across the top six cities (Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune) as compared to 65.7 million sq. ft in 2012 – a growth of more than 3X, according to JLL – CRE Matrix Report. It is nearly 34% of all occupied Grade A stock across the top six cities.
“Bengaluru has emerged as the GCC leader, as it is home to 42% of the GCC occupied stock in the country, equating to 85 million sq. ft with over 460 occupiers in the city. Hyderabad is the second biggest GCC market with a share of 16% in occupied stock, although it has a lesser number of GCCs with Mumbai, Delhi NCR and Pune ahead of it. Cities like Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Mysore and Lucknow are some of the emerging cities that have also been on the radar of GCCs for opening their offices,” said Rahul Arora, head, office leasing advisory and retail (India), JLL.
“The holistic ecosystem provided by the bigger metros with a strong physical and office infrastructure, talent pool and support amenities has contributed to the expansion of GCCs across these cities, although some Tier II and III cities have also witnessed their footprint. GCCs consider India a key destination and contributor to their next stage of evolution and are accordingly investing in setting up incubators, accelerators, and multiple partner programs to drive collaboration with Indian start-ups and educational centers of excellence,” he added
“As the developed world stares at a possible economic slowdown, India is now a core strategy for a large chunk of Fortune 500 companies not only from a cost perspective but also from establishment in India as one of their centers of excellence. If we view India’s positives in the global perspective, we are right where we wanted to be and are perfectly tuned for an upward trajectory. And this is exactly where the GCC segment is going to gain a significant market share soon,” said Abhishek Kiran Gupta, CEO & Co-founder, CRE Matrix & IndexTap.
“India’s ecosystem is buzzing. With Startups & IT/ITeS powering digital transformation along with the high-quality large talent pool for services, India’s platform for growth is by far the most robust as compared to other countries,” he added.
US-headquartered firms account for the majority of the operational GCC footprint with 58.3% share in occupied stock in the top 6 cities of India followed by European firms (35%). The share of APAC-based GCCs is currently quite less but lean up backed by regional unicorns. The Americas GCCs are primarily present in Bengaluru and Hyderabad while EMEA and APAC with a healthy mix of BFSI and Engineering GCCs are spread across Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Pune.
Tech firms and Global banking majors lead the GCC operations in India
Technology firms account for a 46% share of all GCC operational footprint across the top six cities, followed by global corporations from the Banking, Financial Services & Insurance segment. The highest footprint of GCCs by tech firms mirrors the growth of the IT industry in India. Healthcare-Biotech is an emerging segment where GCCs are slimming up their footprint at a quick pace. Industrial & Manufacturing has a sizeable share of 13% as global organizations are shifting their supply chains to India and opening their Engineering R&D Centres.
GCCs share of office leasing stands tall
After the pandemic-induced sluggishness in demand during the period 2020-H1 2021, GCCs ended up leasing nearly 30 million sq. ft from 2021 till date, a share of over 50% in Grade A office demand.
Tech firms and BFSI lead to leasing demand from GCCs as together they account for around 64% of the GCCs demand during 2018-H1 2022. While tech still dominates the leasing, more high-end R&D work in BFSI, new technologies like AI/ML, engineering/manufacturing, data science and robotics were key to the new GCC demand in the country.
Like the trend witnessed in occupied stock, Bengaluru is also a magnet for new demands from GCC firms. The city has on average accounted for a 40% share of leasing demand from GCCs over the past decade. It is interesting to note that Hyderabad has emerged as a very strong GCC location and a complementary growth strategy location for GCCs.
GCCs is the biggest industry segment as potential growth for office leasing
GCCs with a 44% share of active space requirements remain the biggest industry segment in terms of potential growth. This is also in line with the long-term average share of GCCs in leasing demand, making it a very resilient sector. Moreover, in terms of pre-commitment more than half of pre-leasing in the forecasted supply until 2023 is on account of GCCs, underlining the stickiness of this segment in proven geographies of choice. Chennai has the highest share in terms of pre-commitment by GCC occupiers followed by Bengaluru and Pune.
More than 40 million sq. ft of office space occupied by GCCs currently will come up for renewal in the next 12 months across the top six cities of India. The trend clearly shows that cumulative renewals and new demand by GCCs has been over 40 million sq. ft for the past seven years with a strong correlation as both renewals and new space demand have moved up in tandem. While renewals indicate the long-term space commitment and stickiness of GCCs as tenants, new demand numbers also show the growth momentum within this segment which has been the mainstay of office demand in the country for the past years.
Number of GCCs slated to cross 2,300 over the next 3 years occupying 270+ million sq. ft of stock
Based on previous growth trends and forecasts for the sector available through the ongoing space requirements, information of new GCCs planning on entering the country, growth plans of existing ones and industry growth forecasts, we expect that the number of GCCs would cross 2,300 over the next 3 years from 1790+ as of 2022 with the corresponding occupancy footprint expected to grow to over 270 million sq. ft.
Outlook:
In terms of conducive policy formulation, growth drivers and the creation of quality offices and support infrastructure, the roadmap for growth in the GCC ecosystem is already mapped out. India’s rapid strides on the innovation spectrum as it has now become a powerhouse in new-age technologies which are the game-changers in the new world order, have set the stage for the next round of GCC evolution and growth. These GCCs are the engines of change and excellence for businesses as they seek to remain relevant and transform not only their products and services but the overall service delivery continuum. India’s role in the GCC ecosystem growth will only continue to expand further as we move ahead.