Unitech leases office space to Google; to get Rs 600 cr rental

Realty firm Unitech has given on lease a large office space in Gurgaon to Google, generating about Rs 600 crore of rental income over the next nine years.
According to sources, Google has taken on lease a little over 4,30,000 square feet of office space in Unitech's office building 'Unitech Signature Tower- II'.
The leasing has been done at Rs 120-130 per square feet, sources said, adding that the deal would lead to rental revenue of around Rs 600 crore over the 9-year lease period.
With this leasing deal, search engine giant Google would fully occupy this building. Google had earlier occupied more than 1.25 lakh square feet of space in Signature Tower II.

When contacted, a Unitech spokesperson said, "We do not comment on individual transactions of sale or leasing, as it is part of our regular ongoing business."
Although the real estate market is facing a huge slowdown for last 3 years, the office segment has been doing well.

The office space leasing increased by 11 per cent in 2014 to nearly 30 million square feet in seven major cities on higher demand from corporates looking for expansion, according to property consultant JLL India.
These seven cities are Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad and Kolkata.
Absorption of office space is on upswing this year as well on higher demand from e-commerce players such as Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal.

Unitech generally sells its commercial assets after development. Last year, the company had sold its stake in four IT SEZs/IT Parks to Canada's Brookfield Asset Management for about Rs 1,400 crore.
Unitech is currently developing three more commercial projects in Gurgaon.
The company earlier this month reported a net loss of Rs 281.29 crore during April-June quarter. Its net debt stood at Rs 6,605 crore.
Unitech's sales bookings fell by 47 per cent to Rs 178 crore during the first quarter of the current fiscal on sluggish housing demand.
The company, which is facing issues over delays in execution of its real estate projects, delivered 1.14 million square feet of area in April-June period of 2015-16 financial year, highest in last six quarters, according to a presentation.