Startups Lead Mega Office Space Deals In India

Office space leasing activity, announced in May 2015 so far, indicates that online services are vitally dependent on real estate in India.

Let us look into some of the biggest office space leasing deals in the recent past:

Recently, online restaurant listing firm Zomato leased 1.2 lakh sq.ft. of office space in the One Horizon Center in Gurgaon, to move its headquarters to the Golf Course Road from Gurgaon’s Sector 44. One Horizon center is one of the most expensive buildings in Gurgaon. Zomato, an internet startup, offers services in 42 cities across Southeast Asia, Europe and South Africa. In many rounds, Zomato had raised over $163 million (about Rs. 1,010 crore) from investors like Sequoia Capital, Info Edge and Vy Capital. Though Zomato has not disclosed the rental rate, the prevailing rental rates for this property in Gurgaon is Rs. 135 per sq.ft. per month. Zomato is expected to pay a rent of Rs. 1.6 crore a month.

The largest office space leasing activity in India so far is that of Flipkart, one of India’s largest e-commerce company. Flipkart has signed up with the Embassy Group for a three-million sq.ft. custom-built office campus in Embassy Tech Village, Bengaluru. Flipkart has leased this space for 20 years. With this deal, Flipkart is expected to move all its operations to its headquarters in Bengaluru. At a rate of Rs. 52 per sq.ft., the annual rent of the space is Rs. 180 crore. Flipkart has 2,500 employees and intends to hire more than 15,000 employees in the next few months.  

Google has recently decided to build their largest campus outside the US in Hyderabad. Google plans to invest Rs. 1,000 crore for the two million sq.ft. campus, which will accommodate 6,500 to 13,000 employees in the next four years. This is Google’s largest campus outside the United States. To build this campus, Google has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Telangana IT secretary Jayesh Ranjan at the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California. Google Street View will be launched for the first time in India in Hyderabad.

Amazon, a global e-commerce giant, is likely to announce an office space deal of 1.3 million sq.ft. in Bangalore with IT park developer Bagmane soon.

Read more about the trends in office space deals on PropGuide