Author Archives: Rachna Ranjan

Large corporates increasingly opting for coworking spaces on rising rentals, office space shortage

Large information technology, banking, financial services and insurance companies are increasingly opting for coworking spaces to cope with rising rentals and shortage of ready-to-move grade A offices in prime property markets across the country.

While the likes of Boeing, Visteon, BNP Paribas, Kimberley Clark, and Redcore (Accenture’s sister company) have moved some of their operations to co-working spaces, many more are planning to follow suit now. Currently, there are 61 coworking spaces in India, of which 16 were set up in 2016, according to data tracking firm Tracxn. In Mumbai, Lower Parel and Andheri are the hotspots for co-working spaces, and witnessing good demand from corporates. In Bengaluru, Sarjapur Outer Ring Road and Old Madras road are seeing such hubs.

Read more: Economic Times

Chinese land devpt firm submits JV proposal for Rs 17,000-crore industrial township at Sohna

China Fortune Land Development (CFLD) has submitted a proposal to the Haryana government for joint development of an industrial township at Sohna entailing investment of around Rs 17,000 crore.

The Chinese company submitted proposal to Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) for joint development of Integrated Industrial Model Township (IMT), Sohna, to make it north India’s prime destination for industrial development, a top official said today.

Read more: Economic Times

Swedish firm IKEA seeks 25 acres in Greater Noida

IKEA Group, the leading Swedish home furnishings company, is scouting for land in Greater Noida to set up its first showroom in north India. Representatives of the company met Deepak Agarwal, CEO, Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA), on Friday and expressed interest in setting up the facility on nearly 25 acres of land in Greater Noida.

Speaking to TOI, Agarwal said that an informal proposal came during a meeting between officials of the department of industrial policy and promotion and Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) in Delhi. “We had a meeting with several Swedish investors including IKEA, Volvo, Ericsson and a dozen other companies,” Agarwal said. “The meeting was attended by Alkesh Kumar Sharma, CEO and managing director, DMIC and DIPP additional secretary Sanjiv Gupta, besides others,” he added.

Read more: Economic Times

Piramal Fund Management aims Rs 10,000 crore lease rental discount deals by FY18

Taking its diversification strategy further, Piramal Group’s financial services arm Piramal Fund Management has expanded its portfolio to offer flexi lease rental discounting (LRD). Through these transactions, the fund will discount future cash flows of completed and leased commercial assets including office blocks and retail malls, said a top company official.

The fund has already identified an initial pipeline of deals and is in advanced talks with two developers–one each in Mumbai and Bengaluru–to conclude LRD deals totaling Rs 1,500 crore for their leased office complexes. The fund intends to scale its book size up to Rs 10,000 crore by 2017-18.

Read more: Economic Times

Gleeds lands two Indian deals

Gleeds has won two major contracts in India, with a total build area of ten million square feet.

It will be acting as cost manager for the construction of Brigade Brookefields – a commercial project in Bangalore – and the Surat Diamond Bourse scheme in Surat in the Gujarat region. The projects will be managed from the firm’s Nottingham, Bangalore and Mumbai offices. The deals were signed last week during prime minister Theresa May’s visit to India.

Surat Diamond Bourse, which covers an area of 6.5 million sq ft, is expected to be the single largest diamond trading hub in the world. It will have office space for over 4,000 diamond traders, and is expected to create employment opportunities for 150,000 people. The project will also include substantial provision for associated retail and recreational facilities.

WeWork’s Latest Deal Brings a Lot More Co-Working Space to China

The company will open three locations next year in partnership with a Chinese real estate firm. WeWork, the office co-working space provider, is expanding its footprint in China.

On Thursday, the company announced a new partnership with Sino-Ocean Group, a major real estate company based in Beijing. As part of the deal, the companies plan to open three buildings in mainland China over the course of the next year, one in Shanghai, where WeWork already has two buildings, and two in Beijing, its first foray into the capital city.

Mumbai to Get the Quirkiest Coworking Space with MumbaiCoworking Launch in Andheri West

Due to a phenomenal rise in the Indian startup ecosystem and the new entrepreneurial mindset of the youth, the demands for coworking spaces in Mumbai have gone sky-high. To meet this demand, Mumbai-based entrepreneur Waqar Azmi has recently launched MumbaiCoworking to fulfill the workspace needs of startups and SMEs.

MumbaiCoworking is based in Andheri West, the heart of the Western suburbs. It is conveniently located 2 minutes away from the bus stop, 10 minutes from the DN Nagar metro station and 12 minutes from the nearest railway station. This coworking space in Andheri aims to establish its presence as the leading provider of shared office spaces in Mumbai.

Affordable Rental Office Space in Top 10 Startup cities across India

According to the IT industry watchdog Nasscom, India ranks third “among global startup ecosystems with more than 4,200 new-age companies” and the startup revolution is only becoming bigger and better over the years. Where a startup sets up shop is very important and the most important factor to consider here is “location, location and location”. Companies often make the mistake of moving into swanky offices without considering all aspects such as the kind of customers they’d be serving, the kind of brand perception you want to create etc.

DBS set to lease 1 lakh sq ft of office space in Nariman Point

In the largest ever transaction in Nariman Point’s history, Singapore’s multinational bank DBS Bank is set to pick up 1 lakh sq ft of prime office space spread over total five floors in Blackstone Group’s commercial property, Express Towers, said two persons familiar with the development. Nariman Point has not recorded a single deal of this quantum ever, and this is a new record for the Central Business District that has been steadily losing its occupants to other business districts, including Bandra-Kurla Complex and Lower Parel.

“The deal is expected to be signed any time in the next two weeks. As part of the deal, the bank will get ground floor for its corporate branch, while four more floors will be used for its headquarters,” said one of the persons mentioned above.

Read more: Economic Times

UK commercial property values halt post Brexit declines

UK commercial property values inched ahead in October, a closely-watched index showed on Monday, breaking a downward trend since Britain voted to leave the European Union in June. Overall property values for UK commercial assets rose 0.07 percent in October, following gradually decreasing declines between July and September, the IPD real estate index, compiled by MSCI, showed.

Britain’s 900 billion pound ($1.1 trillion) commercial property market was one of the biggest victims of the turmoil that followed the referendum and at one point commercial property funds worth over 18 billion pounds were suspended.

Read more: Economic Times