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What is commercial real estate in India
Commercial real estate in India comprises properties used primarily for business activities, such as office buildings, data centers, retail outlets, warehouses, and industrial parks. Unlike residential properties designed for private living, commercial spaces serve as work environments, retail hubs, or storage facilities.
India’s commercial sector has expanded rapidly over the past two decades, spurred by economic reforms, IT-BPM growth, and global investor interest.
Metros like Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, and Bangalore have traditionally led the market, offering high-end office spaces for multinational corporations and local enterprises. However, emerging cities—including Hyderabad, Pune, and Chennai—are catching up due to improved infrastructure, lower operational costs, and an abundance of talent.
Moreover, foreign institutional investors recognize the long-term potential of India’s commercial market. Government policies like RERA (Real Estate Regulation and Development Act) have increased transparency, while favorable FDI norms encourage cross-border investments in office parks, data centers, and co-working spaces.
These developments collectively help bolster capital inflows and support steady growth in commercial property valuations. Overall, the diverse nature of India’s commercial real estate—spanning office, retail, warehousing, and data center domains—positions it as a key driver of economic progress and a compelling opportunity for domestic and international investors.
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What’s Driving Rental and Coliving Demand in India in 2025?
The size of rental market in India is estimated to be USD 13.9 Bn by 2025. Around 50% of this is attributed to the Gen-Z population, and 30% to the millennial population. Demographic profile of India’s work force, changing behaviour of gen-Z and millennials, rapid urbanisation, digital behaviour and capital allocators preference are the five key factors are driving this increased trend in rental real estate. Demographic profile of the work force Around 52% of the Indian population comprises of Gen-Z and Millennials. In 2023, millennials constituted 70% of the Indian work force have emerged as the backbone of many Indian companies. Indian technology sector workforce comprises of 86% to 90% of Gen-Z and Millennial work force. The innate behavioural traits, real estate requirement patterns, lifestyles and purchasing power are often intrinsic to their nature of real estate consumption patterns. Changing behaviour of gen-Z and millennials. Internet penetration has shaped the consumer across industries including real estate. 50% of Gen Zs and millennials say they live paycheck to paycheck with high cost of living is their top societal concern. Big life decisions like buying a house and starting a family are often postponed to later stage. Ability to maintain a positive work/life balance and not live their life on their own terms, and not necessarily to live up to societal expectations. This has shifted the consumption pattern of with increasing demand for rental real estate. The behavioural pattern of consumers of community and experiential living with a value that meets their pocket has given rise to the Co-Living segment. Rapid urbanisation Industrial growth, rise of services sector has shaped rapid urbanisation. In India, contribution component of urban growth is segmented into three categories according to a study by International Institute for Population Sciences. In India, it is estimated that more than 500 million individuals, i.e. approximately 35% of the population stays in urban areas. As the decade progresses, India will witness addition of 100 million urban dwellers, which will further rise to 60% by 2050. (Ref: Macrotrends, Urban Development Ministry, Govt. of India) It is estimated that 28% of the urban households stay in rental housing. This number shall be higher in mega cities. The demand for rental living, is 5.7 million units across top 30 cities (Tier I, II, II) in the country -comprising of working singles living on rent (migrants and domicile) and unmarried student population. This together adds up to 5.7 million across top 30 cities (Tier I, II and III) in the country. Digital behaviour of consumers: There is a remarkable increase in internet penetration, adoption and consumption across enterprises and consumers in India. 700 Mn internet users across the country, 470 Mn social media users and 350 Mn digital payment users. 80% of digital consumers in India prefer searching and discovering new products online before visiting physical stores or seeking offline. 69% of digital consumers prefer digital communications for customer support and interactions. Convenience, value and trust are key drivers across most internet platforms with Capital allocators preference for real estate supply The sector interest has increased after a funding winter for two straight years. Investments in the sector dropped from USD 148 million in 2021 to USD 21.7 million in 2022 and USD 6 million in 2023. With strong fundamental demand backed by urbanisation, consumer behaviour and digitisation, institutional investors and global funds favour co-living and data centres as an alternative asset class. The understanding of private equity funds is also well defined in international markets where co-living is a mature sector. Recently, Singapore’s CapitaLand Investment announced CLARA II: A $600 Million private equity fund for serviced apartments and co-living properties. Brookfield Asset Management, which has a real estate AUM of USD 690 billion globally is also looking to invest more in the coliving, rental housing and serviced apartment asset class.
PropTech Pulse Editorial
7th March 2024
Technology and Innovation
Evolution of Customer Relationship Management tools
‘‘The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer’’, Peter Drucker, a famous writer, and management consultant said prolifically. The realm of CRM scope covers customer discovery, interactions, service, care, retention, and loyalty. The term Customer Relationship Management (CRM) was coined in the early 1970s when management at business units realized it would be better to be customer emphatic rather than product emphatic. Customer relationship management tools has evolved gradually from Rolodex’s of 1950s to Generative AI in 2020. What started as a record-keeping tool gradually evolved into digital documentation, sales automation, enterprise resource planning, social marketing, to the present age hyper personalised automated communication form. 1956 - First CRM Gadget - Rolodex In 1956s, Danish engineer Hildaur Neilsen, chief engineer of Zephyr American invented Rolodex, a card index system used to store customer contact information. It was a desk gadget that stacked and stored business cards and index cards that people could spin and flip through. Digital Rolodex, Tele sales and advent of computers The 1980s saw an evolution in sales, marketing and customer retention tactics with the advent of digitisation. Tools such as direct mail, brochures, and product catalogues being sent to a database of customers to get them to buy something were prevalently used in the 1980s. Database marketing and digital Rolodex came to the fore. The late 1980s saw the advent of telesales for customer communication. Computers were also accessible for enterprises and became a means of storing information about customers. In 1987, the software programme ACT (Activity Control Technology) was created by Mike Sullivan and Mitch Muhney, officially known as the first CRM software. This was essentially a digital Rolodex that allowed storage and management of the entire customer lifecycle information on the software. With its usage of Customer Relationship Management software, Act! demonstrated the advantages of scalable software that utilized consumer information to help a firm better manage its connections. 1990 - Sales Automation and progression into CRM systems By 1990s, one saw a progression of database management into customer lifecycle management and sales force workflow automation. Tools like enterprise resource planning, and marketing were added to the software’s contact management functions. This was the emergence first CRM systems. Tom Siebel, founder of Sieble Systems, coined the term CRM (Customer Relationship Software) for the first time. The post-introduction of the same CRM took off exponentially, with other companies also providing CRM solutions. Siebel Systems was later acquired by Oracle for over USD 5 billion in 2005. Late 1900s - First Mobile CRM, SaaS business model and Salesforce Inc. Post invention of PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) devices, tasks, emails, and calendar management became mobile. It allowed sales individuals to access customer data from central databases on the go, which proved to be a game changer as one didn’t have to be on the desk to work out these tasks. Salesforce.com was launched in 1999 and offered a new business model, offering software services as subscriptions (SaaS), wherein the upfront implementation cost, effort, and maintenance would be taken care of by Salesforce. 2000 - Cloud based CRM, Open-Source CRM and Social CRM In 2007, internet boom and cloud storage led to the advent and proliferation of Cloud-based CRM. With the increased internet adoption, Salesforce’s subscription model became popular as it could be scaled up very quickly. Open-source software also came to the fore, with the most prominent one being Sugar CRM, invented by computer scientists and ex-IBM and Hewlett-Packard employees Clint Oram, John Roberts, and Jacob Taylor. With the increased proliferation, and exponential growth of social media platforms, CRMs were combined with social media tools to offer SCRM. 2010 - Artificial Intelligence and CRM Artificial intelligence (AI) has changed the CRM space substantially with automation and intelligence. AI can be used for lead scoring, identifying customer needs, and providing recommendations. With enormous data being generated across every consumer by way of their digital footprint, CRM with AI and data analytics makes it simple to extrapolate consumer behaviour and requirements in real-time. 2020 and Now - Generative AI Generative AI is a subset of AI but unique in its ability to learn from underlying patterns to create new data that mirrors the training data set. The power of creation has a multifold impact across industries, and consumer communication is only to benefit from this capability. Managing customer interactions with Gen AI has the potential to enable a better connection between brands and customers. This however requires creative ability to engage customers and ability to execute to deliver better performance results and employee experiences. A combination of Gen AI and CRM can impact functional domains of marketing, sales, commerce, service and customer success. The true potential of Gen AI can be unlocked best when used in combination with predictive AI, voice to text, experience management and workflow optimisation. The CRM journey has reached an interesting point with AI, and the future looks promising for this space. The Total Addressable Market is set to grow to USD 290 billion by 2026. Salesforce Inc, an early mover, and a global market leader grew 10x in revenue in a decade. In 2013, its revenue stood at USD 3.1 billion which stands at USD 34 billion in FY 2022. CRM, which started as a simple Rolodex, has evolved into a complex system laced with artificial intelligence that helps organisations manage customer data and engage them with it in a self-assisted automated format, bringing huge implications for cost, efficiency, and the experience of consumer communication. As we advance further into the coming decades, CRM software systems will become more intelligent, integrated and intuitive with powerful AI capabilities, greater emphasis on self-service, enhanced experience for customers, hyper-personalisation, integrated API networks and ecosystems, and a single source of truth for businesses. Peter Drucker will be smiling in his grave looking at the advancement in this space.
PropTech Pulse Editorial
12th April 2024
Investment Opportunities
REITs: What They Are and How to Invest
Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) have revolutionized real estate investing around the world, blending liquidity, diversification, and income generation in a way that’s hard to beat. In this blog, we’ll dive into the global REIT landscape and then zoom in on the Indian scene, exploring some exciting trends and data. A Global Overview of REITs REITs started in the U.S. back in the 1960s, making it easier for everyday investors to get in on real estate. They’ve since taken the world by storm, with major markets in the UK, Australia, Japan, and Singapore. Key Global Stats: United States: The largest REIT market with over 200 publicly traded REITs and a market cap exceeding $1.5 trillion as of 2024. Europe: A strong market with countries like France, Germany, and the UK, adding up to a European market cap of around €500 billion. Asia-Pacific: Significant growth here too, with Australia’s REIT market cap around AUD 150 billion and Singapore’s at SGD 100 billion. Globally, REITs cover a range of property types from residential to commercial and industrial, offering investors regular dividends and potential for capital gains. The Rise of REITs in India REIT regulation was introduced in the country by the Securities and Exchange Board of India in 2014. The first REIT was listed in 2019, and ever since, the market has attracted a lot of attention, both from local investors and international players. Current Indian REIT Stats: Performance Highlights: Embassy Office Parks REIT: Has seen a solid 16.8% year-over-year (YoY) price increase. Mindspace Business Parks REIT: Also performed well, with a 7.5% YoY rise. Brookfield India Real Estate Trust: Faced a -6.8% YoY decline. Nexus Select Trust REIT: Stood out with a notable 28.8% increase since its listing. Despite these gains, the REIT market’s capitalization to GDP ratio in India remains relatively modest at just 0.3%. This signals a large opportunity for growth. The office sector, currently occupying just 10.9% of available space in major cities, along with the new retail-focused REIT, offers substantial opportunities for expansion. Emerging Opportunities Warehousing and Logistics: There's growing interest in REITs focused on warehousing, which is crucial given the rise of e-commerce. Hotels and Data Centers: The potential for hotel and data center REITs is on the rise, driven by the growth in tourism and data consumption. Educational Technology: As the education sector evolves, there’s also a potential niche for REITs focusing on educational technology. The recent introduction of Small and Medium REITs (SM REITs) is a game-changer. SM REITs are set to boost market liquidity and transparency, making real estate investments more accessible and attractive to a broader range of investors. Conclusion These small and medium-sized REITs will open a 32.8cr Sq. Ft SM-REIT-able office supply across the country. REITs have already made a big splash globally and are carving out their space in the Indian market. With impressive performance by some REITs and a wealth of untapped opportunities, the future looks bright for real estate investors in India. Whether you're looking at commercial spaces, retail, warehousing, or the latest SM REITs, there’s plenty of room for growth and potential in this exciting sector.
PropTech Pulse Editorial
13th November 2024
Investment Opportunities
What’s Driving Rental and Coliving Demand in India in 2025?
The size of rental market in India is estimated to be USD 13.9 Bn by 2025. Around 50% of this is attributed to the Gen-Z population, and 30% to the millennial population. Demographic profile of India’s work force, changing behaviour of gen-Z and millennials, rapid urbanisation, digital behaviour and capital allocators preference are the five key factors are driving this increased trend in rental real estate. Demographic profile of the work force Around 52% of the Indian population comprises of Gen-Z and Millennials. In 2023, millennials constituted 70% of the Indian work force have emerged as the backbone of many Indian companies. Indian technology sector workforce comprises of 86% to 90% of Gen-Z and Millennial work force. The innate behavioural traits, real estate requirement patterns, lifestyles and purchasing power are often intrinsic to their nature of real estate consumption patterns. Changing behaviour of gen-Z and millennials. Internet penetration has shaped the consumer across industries including real estate. 50% of Gen Zs and millennials say they live paycheck to paycheck with high cost of living is their top societal concern. Big life decisions like buying a house and starting a family are often postponed to later stage. Ability to maintain a positive work/life balance and not live their life on their own terms, and not necessarily to live up to societal expectations. This has shifted the consumption pattern of with increasing demand for rental real estate. The behavioural pattern of consumers of community and experiential living with a value that meets their pocket has given rise to the Co-Living segment. Rapid urbanisation Industrial growth, rise of services sector has shaped rapid urbanisation. In India, contribution component of urban growth is segmented into three categories according to a study by International Institute for Population Sciences. In India, it is estimated that more than 500 million individuals, i.e. approximately 35% of the population stays in urban areas. As the decade progresses, India will witness addition of 100 million urban dwellers, which will further rise to 60% by 2050. (Ref: Macrotrends, Urban Development Ministry, Govt. of India) It is estimated that 28% of the urban households stay in rental housing. This number shall be higher in mega cities. The demand for rental living, is 5.7 million units across top 30 cities (Tier I, II, II) in the country -comprising of working singles living on rent (migrants and domicile) and unmarried student population. This together adds up to 5.7 million across top 30 cities (Tier I, II and III) in the country. Digital behaviour of consumers: There is a remarkable increase in internet penetration, adoption and consumption across enterprises and consumers in India. 700 Mn internet users across the country, 470 Mn social media users and 350 Mn digital payment users. 80% of digital consumers in India prefer searching and discovering new products online before visiting physical stores or seeking offline. 69% of digital consumers prefer digital communications for customer support and interactions. Convenience, value and trust are key drivers across most internet platforms with Capital allocators preference for real estate supply The sector interest has increased after a funding winter for two straight years. Investments in the sector dropped from USD 148 million in 2021 to USD 21.7 million in 2022 and USD 6 million in 2023. With strong fundamental demand backed by urbanisation, consumer behaviour and digitisation, institutional investors and global funds favour co-living and data centres as an alternative asset class. The understanding of private equity funds is also well defined in international markets where co-living is a mature sector. Recently, Singapore’s CapitaLand Investment announced CLARA II: A $600 Million private equity fund for serviced apartments and co-living properties. Brookfield Asset Management, which has a real estate AUM of USD 690 billion globally is also looking to invest more in the coliving, rental housing and serviced apartment asset class.
PropTech Pulse Editorial
7th March 2024
Technology and Innovation
Evolution of Customer Relationship Management tools
‘‘The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer’’, Peter Drucker, a famous writer, and management consultant said prolifically. The realm of CRM scope covers customer discovery, interactions, service, care, retention, and loyalty. The term Customer Relationship Management (CRM) was coined in the early 1970s when management at business units realized it would be better to be customer emphatic rather than product emphatic. Customer relationship management tools has evolved gradually from Rolodex’s of 1950s to Generative AI in 2020. What started as a record-keeping tool gradually evolved into digital documentation, sales automation, enterprise resource planning, social marketing, to the present age hyper personalised automated communication form. 1956 - First CRM Gadget - Rolodex In 1956s, Danish engineer Hildaur Neilsen, chief engineer of Zephyr American invented Rolodex, a card index system used to store customer contact information. It was a desk gadget that stacked and stored business cards and index cards that people could spin and flip through. Digital Rolodex, Tele sales and advent of computers The 1980s saw an evolution in sales, marketing and customer retention tactics with the advent of digitisation. Tools such as direct mail, brochures, and product catalogues being sent to a database of customers to get them to buy something were prevalently used in the 1980s. Database marketing and digital Rolodex came to the fore. The late 1980s saw the advent of telesales for customer communication. Computers were also accessible for enterprises and became a means of storing information about customers. In 1987, the software programme ACT (Activity Control Technology) was created by Mike Sullivan and Mitch Muhney, officially known as the first CRM software. This was essentially a digital Rolodex that allowed storage and management of the entire customer lifecycle information on the software. With its usage of Customer Relationship Management software, Act! demonstrated the advantages of scalable software that utilized consumer information to help a firm better manage its connections. 1990 - Sales Automation and progression into CRM systems By 1990s, one saw a progression of database management into customer lifecycle management and sales force workflow automation. Tools like enterprise resource planning, and marketing were added to the software’s contact management functions. This was the emergence first CRM systems. Tom Siebel, founder of Sieble Systems, coined the term CRM (Customer Relationship Software) for the first time. The post-introduction of the same CRM took off exponentially, with other companies also providing CRM solutions. Siebel Systems was later acquired by Oracle for over USD 5 billion in 2005. Late 1900s - First Mobile CRM, SaaS business model and Salesforce Inc. Post invention of PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) devices, tasks, emails, and calendar management became mobile. It allowed sales individuals to access customer data from central databases on the go, which proved to be a game changer as one didn’t have to be on the desk to work out these tasks. Salesforce.com was launched in 1999 and offered a new business model, offering software services as subscriptions (SaaS), wherein the upfront implementation cost, effort, and maintenance would be taken care of by Salesforce. 2000 - Cloud based CRM, Open-Source CRM and Social CRM In 2007, internet boom and cloud storage led to the advent and proliferation of Cloud-based CRM. With the increased internet adoption, Salesforce’s subscription model became popular as it could be scaled up very quickly. Open-source software also came to the fore, with the most prominent one being Sugar CRM, invented by computer scientists and ex-IBM and Hewlett-Packard employees Clint Oram, John Roberts, and Jacob Taylor. With the increased proliferation, and exponential growth of social media platforms, CRMs were combined with social media tools to offer SCRM. 2010 - Artificial Intelligence and CRM Artificial intelligence (AI) has changed the CRM space substantially with automation and intelligence. AI can be used for lead scoring, identifying customer needs, and providing recommendations. With enormous data being generated across every consumer by way of their digital footprint, CRM with AI and data analytics makes it simple to extrapolate consumer behaviour and requirements in real-time. 2020 and Now - Generative AI Generative AI is a subset of AI but unique in its ability to learn from underlying patterns to create new data that mirrors the training data set. The power of creation has a multifold impact across industries, and consumer communication is only to benefit from this capability. Managing customer interactions with Gen AI has the potential to enable a better connection between brands and customers. This however requires creative ability to engage customers and ability to execute to deliver better performance results and employee experiences. A combination of Gen AI and CRM can impact functional domains of marketing, sales, commerce, service and customer success. The true potential of Gen AI can be unlocked best when used in combination with predictive AI, voice to text, experience management and workflow optimisation. The CRM journey has reached an interesting point with AI, and the future looks promising for this space. The Total Addressable Market is set to grow to USD 290 billion by 2026. Salesforce Inc, an early mover, and a global market leader grew 10x in revenue in a decade. In 2013, its revenue stood at USD 3.1 billion which stands at USD 34 billion in FY 2022. CRM, which started as a simple Rolodex, has evolved into a complex system laced with artificial intelligence that helps organisations manage customer data and engage them with it in a self-assisted automated format, bringing huge implications for cost, efficiency, and the experience of consumer communication. As we advance further into the coming decades, CRM software systems will become more intelligent, integrated and intuitive with powerful AI capabilities, greater emphasis on self-service, enhanced experience for customers, hyper-personalisation, integrated API networks and ecosystems, and a single source of truth for businesses. Peter Drucker will be smiling in his grave looking at the advancement in this space.
PropTech Pulse Editorial
12th April 2024
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