2013 sees 39% jump in supply of mall spaces: study

The top eight cities saw addition of 4.5 million sq ft of fresh supply of malls, said a report from Cushman & Wakefield

The year 2013 saw a 39% jump in addition of mall spaces over the last year despite 18 malls being deferred by developers, said a new study.

The top eight cities saw addition of 4.5 million sq ft of fresh supply of malls, said a report from Cushman & Wakefield. Of the total supply, Chennai saw the highest supply of 2 million sq ft followed by Mumbai (900,000 million sf), Pune (700,000 sf) and Kolkata (500,000 sf). National Capital Region (NCR) Bengaluru and Ahmedabad did not see any new addition of mall spaces for the entire year in 2013

The good news for developers is that overall vacancy in malls has reduced by 2% on account of increased leasing activities in the freshly launched malls, most of which started with high percentage of occupancy, C&W said. The fresh mall spaces that have started operations in 2013 have witnessed an average occupancy of over 94%.

"Most of these malls have demonstrated strong fundamentals of being located in appropriate locations from catchment perspective, offering retailers and customers right retailing environment giving retailers the confidence in starting/ expanding in these malls. Hyderabad was the only location to witness the start of a mall with a lower than average occupancy of 70%, despite it being the first mall in over three years, on account of poor market sentiments due to the recent political deadlock," C&W said.