Covid-19 puts the brakes on shopping mall launches in the country

Severely impacted by the pandemic, just five malls with 2.75 million square feet of space, came up this year

Launching of shopping malls in 2020 was hit badly with only five properties beginning operations so far against a pre COVID-19 estimate of 54, which were likely to be unveiled across the country this year, a global property consultant said on Monday.

Severely impacted by the pandemic, just five malls with 2.75 million square feet of space, came up and considering the progress in construction work, 14 new malls spanning 5.9 mn sq. ft. area are likely to completed by 2021- end.

"Before the COVID-19 lockdown in March, our research indicated that Indian cities were to see new supply of approximately 54 new malls in 2020 spread over nearly 22.2 million square feet area.

"Of this, the top seven cities were to see new supply of nearly 35 malls spread over approx 14 million square feet while Tier II and III cities were to see new supply of 19 new malls over 7.6 million square feet," Anarock Retail CEO and MD Anuj Kejriwal said.

The five new shopping malls were launched in cities like Gurgaon, Delhi, Lucknow and Bengaluru, he said.

In 2021, at least six malls are likely to be completed in Mumbai, to be followed by Bengaluru with three, he said.

Tier II and III cities such as Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram and Rourkela will see new malls in the next fiscal, Kejriwal said.