Commercial space enquiries picking up in real estate

Enquires for commercial real estate property has picked up in the last couple of months following decent growth in the IT industry.

"This year there are more number of enquiries for commercial space ...Compared to last year. The trend has picked up because the IT and BPO industries are witnessing decent growth," Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations Tamil Nadu unit President T Chitty Babu told reporters here.

CREDAI officials said the response for commercial space had decreased considerably in the last year, with many places in the state lying untapped.

Residential units, however, saw a decent growth. While the trend was bent more towards affordable housing segment, luxury houses too were sold in no time.

"Though there are a number of affordable housing units on the outskirts of Chennai, luxury houses are being sold in no time. It may be because they are few in number," he said.

Chitty Babu and senior officials of CREDAI were here to announce the three day real-estate exhibition "FAIR PRO 2011" slated to begin in Chennai on March 11.

During the three-day event, over Rs 200-Rs 220 crore business enquiries are expected to be generate, Babu said.

"We are expecting over one lakh footfalls this year and about 250 projects from 53 developers are expected to be approved during the event," he said.