Only one shopping mall become operational in Jan-Mar

Showing muted trends in the retail sector, only one shopping mall of two lakh square feet area became operational in the first quarter of 2015, even as over 30 million sq ft of mall space is under construction across eight major cities.
According to Cushman & Wakefield's latest retail sector report, the first quarter of 2015 witnessed an addition of one shopping mall, in Bengaluru, to the overall mall inventory across the top eight cities in India.
These cities are Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, NCR and Pune.
C&W Executive Managing Director (South Asia) Sanjay Dutt said that the developers are deferring the shopping mall projects on concerns over financial viability and liquidity, besides subdued demand.

Stating that the first quarter of 2015 witnessed new supply of 2,00,000 sq ft in Bengaluru, the consultant said it is estimated that 30.49 million sq ft sf of mall space is currently under construction across these eight cities.
These retail space would be completed in phases by end of 2018, C&W said in a statement.

Of total estimated 'under construction' mall space, 14.72 million sq ft (spread across 30 malls) is expected to become operational by end of this year.
Delhi-NCR (11 malls) and Bengaluru (7 malls) would witness the highest concentration of new mall spaces, it added.
"The retail market is expected to see steady growth over the next few quarters albeit at a slower pace. Given that retail space takes a significant time to get developed and subsequently leased may be dissuading developers from taking up extensive projects, which is why increasing number of mall space are deferred over a period of time," Dutt said.

The consultant said that mall vacancy increased by 0.40 percentage points at 14.70 during January-March quarter 2015 over the previous quarter.
"Mall rentals remained stable across most cities with the exception of some micro markets in Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Pune," the report said.