Foreign companies leased a record 9.1 million sq ft of office space across India’s top nine cities during the January-March quarter to set up global capability centers (GCCs), highlighting strong demand for workplaces, PTI reported citing CBRE data.Real estate consultant CBRE said total gross leasing of office space rose 5% to 20.7 million sq ft in the quarter, compared with 19.7 million sq ft in the year-ago period.The nine cities included in the report include Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Kochi.Leasing for GCC stood at a record 9.1 million sq ft in the March quarter, the highest for any quarter.“The record GCC leasing activity is a sure sign of India’s position as the global destination of choice for high-complexity caliber assignments,” said Anshuman Magazine, president and CEO of CBRE India, South-East Asia, Middle East and Africa.He said the demand is widespread in sectors like e-commerce, technology and BFSI.“Demand is increasingly being driven by established Fortune 500 occupiers as well as mid-market and nano GCCs,” the magazine said.According to CBRE, US companies accounted for 73% of total GCC leasing during the quarter.Ram Chandnani, Managing Director, Leasing Services, India, CBRE, said occupiers are increasingly preferring green-certified and amenity-rich office spaces.“As occupiers adopt AI-ready workplace strategies and the GCC evolves into multi-functional innovation hubs, we expect leasing momentum to remain healthy through 2026,” he said.Bengaluru leads the office leasing activity with 29% share, followed by Delhi-NCR at 22% and Mumbai at 16%.Overall, these three cities accounted for about 67% of the total office leasing across nine cities during the January-March period, the consultancy said.
