According to property consultant Anarock, the IT/ITeS industry has a stronger demand for high-end workspace, which has resulted in Delhi-NCR having the greatest office space vacancy at 28.5% and Pune having the lowest at 8.5%.

As per the data from Grade-A office buildings in seven of the nation's largest cities, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad, each has a 10% office vacancy rate.

Anarock informed that the NCR has the highest office vacancy rate of the top 7 cities at 28.5%, followed by Kolkata at 23.5% and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) at roughly 16%.

Lower Grade A office openings can be found in the IT centres of Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad.

Anuj Puri, chairman of Anarock, told the media that although MMR only has 15 million sq ft of such inventory, NCR now has over 26 million sq ft of planned or under-construction office stock.

Only 2 million sq ft of office space is planned or under development in Kolkata.

There are now 108 million sq ft of Grade A office space planned or under development in the cities with lower office vacancy rates.

About 40 million sq ft each of Hyderabad and Bengaluru are planned for or being built out of this total. Pune has 13 million sq ft under construction, and 15 million sq ft are planned for Chennai.

Puri said that the Covid-19 pandemic saw an increase in the IT and ITeS industries. Many large and mid-sized corporations chose to keep their office spaces while the majority of businesses functioned in work from home (WFH) mode.

The average monthly office rentals in the four IT/ITeS-driven cities range between Rs 58 and Rs 78 per sq ft, which is significantly less than the rates in the NCR and MMR, ranging between Rs 80 and Rs 126 per sq ft.

According to the data, Bengaluru has the largest Grade A office stock, an estimated 168 million sq ft. Delhi-NCR is second with 128 sq ft, followed by MMR with 108 million sq ft, Hyderabad with 80 million, Pune with 60 million, Chennai with 55 million, and Kolkata with 25 million.

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