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There are 74 ghost shopping centres -- those with vacancy of more than 40 per cent -- out of 365 such retail properties across the top 32 cities, according to Knight Frank. Real estate consultant Knight Frank India on Tuesday released a report, 'Think India Think Retail - Value Capture: Unlocking Potential', which has mapped the country's retail real estate across 32 cities. "A significant finding of the report is that nearly one-fifth of India's operational shopping centres fall into the category of 'Ghost Malls' - assets marked by high vacancies, weak tenant curation, ageing infrastructure, and declining relevance," the consultant said. Across 365 shopping centres surveyed, as many as 74 have been classified as ghost assets, representing 15.5 million square feet (mn sq ft) of area. Within this pool, the consultant said that 15 centres with a combined area of 4.8 million sq ft could be retrofitted and earn Rs 357 crore as annual rental. The consultant has defined ghost shopping .
Home and sleep solutions brand Wakefit Innovations, which is expected to launch its initial public offering (IPO) this calendar year, has opened 32 stores in the first 10 months of 2025, taking its total count to over 130 as part of its retail expansion strategy. Going ahead, Wakefit plans to open 117 additional company-owned, company-operated (COCO) regular stores, which comprises 67 in FY27 and 50 in FY28 across cities including Mumbai, Noida, Bengaluru, Ghaziabad, Bhubaneshwar, Lucknow, Gurgaon, Tumkur, Vizag, Kozhikode, Thanjavur, Ambala and Sonipat. The Bengaluru-based company launched its first store in March 2022 in Lucknow and expanded to 98 stores by December 31, 2024. As part of its strategy to strengthen presence in smaller towns and underserved pockets of metros, the company plans to open COCO regular stores of varied sizes, tailored to specific catchment areas across product categories such as mattresses, furniture and furnishings. "We believe that there is an opportun
With modern organised retail growing at a fast pace, there is a need for regulatory reforms in the sector, moving from store-based licensing to entity-based unified licensing, Reliance Retail President Ravi Gandhi said on Wednesday. There is also a need for moving towards post-license inspections from pre-license inspections in order to speed up store openings, he said, while speaking at the 'MASSMERIZE 2025' event organised by industry chamber Ficci. "Today, all the laws (related to the retail sector) in the country are designed for individual stores. All licenses are individual store-based," he said. With a lot of organised retailers coming up, instead of store-based licenses, a shift to a unified entity-based license will enhance ease of doing business, Gandhi added. He also noted that there is a need to re-examine the inspection requirements. There are numerous documentation and inspection requirements when applying for a license, he noted. Stating that the pre-inspection tak
Nearly 20 premium shopping malls, comprising 123 lakh square feet of retail spaces, will become operational by 2026-end across eight major cities in the country to tap rising demand of retailers looking to expand business, according to Cushman & Wakefield. On Tuesday, real estate consultant Cushman & Wakefield released its report 'Premiumisation of India's Retail Sector - Upscaling, Upgrading and Evolving', at MAPIC India Summit here. The consultant noted that as many as 19 Grade A shopping malls covering 12.3 million (123 lakh) square feet of new retail space will become operational in 2025 and 2026 calendar years. These eight cities are-- Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad. Out of the 12.3 million square feet of new Grade A mall supply projected across 2025 and 2026, 8.6 million (86 lakh) square feet will be superior Grade (Grade A-plus), underscoring the sector's shift from scale to quality. The superior-grade malls typically ...