Indian retail mall space to shoot up by 2021

Despite the rising online euphoria, India’s retail mall space is set to rise to 95 million square feet by 2021 from 75 million square feet now in the top 7 cities of the country with NCR, Hyderabad and Bengaluru leading the supply, said the report titled Malls of India released Wednesday. The report is the 9th edition and was released at the India Shopping Centre Forum 2019 held at The Renaissances Powai on 24^th April. Significant supply is also expected in Tier-II and Tier-III cities, driven by increasing urbanization, infrastructure investment and increased consumer spending, the report said. Quoting from World Economic Forum, the report said that India was poised to become the third largest consumer market, with consumer spending growing to US$ 6 trillion by 2030 from US$ 1.5 trillion at present. This consumption would be shaped by 90 million new millennial led households and nearly 370 million Gen-Z consumers. According to the report, India’s retail real estate sector is witnessing growing investments by leading Private Equity funds and institutional investors at the back of growing consumer demand, stable economic and political environment and quality retail real estate development. To fuel this development, some of the key investors including Blackstone, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, GIC Private Ltd and the Xander Group are actively pursuing investment opportunities. Moreover, with REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) in the offing, the focus on developing investment grade projects is likely to redefine the retail segment in the tier-II cities, the report said.