Developers to build housing parks in place of IT parks in Chennai

08 Jun 2021 CW Team

According to a real estate agency, Realty Beat, builders in Chennai are considering developing housing projects in place of IT parks as demand for office spaces has taken a hit due to Covid-19.

The rethink came after the number of vacant office spaces increased over the past year, while housing demand remained stable.

On GST Road and OMR, the city already has a few IT parks with housing amenities that were built before the Covid era.

Developers working on IT park projects are deferring their commercial ventures. It occurs as office space absorption falls from a high of 5.2 million square feet in 2019 to 4.5 million square feet in 2020.

Due to the work-from-home situation, stakeholders predict that absorption will drop to 2 million square feet this year.

The residential vertical, according to Ajith Kumar Chordia, managing director of leading IT park developer Olympia Group, is more appealing now.

He stated that as the demand for homes remains stable, builders who previously only constructed office space will return to the housing vertical. Office vacancy rates have risen from 7% to 11%.

Developers will not develop new IT office space projects without pre-commitment from clients, according to Srinivas Anikipatti, senior director of Knight Frank India in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

He added that it would take developers with IT office space projects another two years to determine whether to use their land parcels for IT parks or transition to mall, retail, or residential depending on demand.

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Also read: Work from home culture may damage workspace market: Ind-Ra

Also read: 7,400 office leases of 90 million sq ft up for renewal in top 6 cities in 2021

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