Looking for the hottest new office hub in MMR? Head to Navi Mumbai.
Thanks to better road and rail connectivity and an upcoming international airport, Navi Mumbai is fast emerging as the most sought-after destination for corporate and developers to build office and industrial parks. In fact, it now comes in line with other Indian established commercial office markets such as Pune, Bengaluru and Gurugram.
Located at 21.3 km away from the chaos of Mumbai on Mumbai-Hyderabad highway, Navi Mumbai is now the first choice of many companies to set up their back-end offices. The reasons for the rise in popularity is obviously the upcoming international airport apart from well-planned infrastructure, proximity to larger cities such as Mumbai and Pune, affordable rentals and availability of land and talent.
According to JLL India, about 8 million sq ft of office space across several IT and non-IT parks is poised to come up across Navi Mumbai’s 344 sq.km in the next five years. The government body responsible for developing Navi Mumbai, CIDCO, also has plans to reportedly develop a corporate park over 120 hectares at Kharghar, which will be twice the size of Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), Mumbai’s premium central business district (CBD).
All this will be in addition to Navi Mumbai’s present 18 million sq. ft of operational office space that houses many IT and financial companies like Accenture, L&T Infotech, UBS and Capgemini. On the whole, at present, CIDCO operates two IT parks with a total of 1.6 million sq ft. office space, at Vashi and Belapur (in Navi Mumbai). Both these parks are fully occupied.
Office space absorption in Navi Mumbai has jumped from 300,000 sq ft to 1-1.5 million sq ft in the last five years, as per Gautam Saraf, managing director, (Mumbai) of property advisory Cushman and Wakefield. The demand for office space in Navi Mumbai is expected to jump further.
Apart from leading developers like Raheja Universal, Ascendas Singbridge, Hiranandani and Indiabulls, Bengaluru and Pune-based firms like Embassy Group and Panchshil Realty have been scouting for space in Navi Mumbai to set up IT and industrial parks.
Despite the spurt in the activities over the last three years, land prices are still cheaper in Navi Mumbai as compared to other strong IT corridors in the country. And this makes it one of the most sought-after locations to develop commercial real estate.