New Launch - India Real Estate Report 2026.
More than 18,158 acres of land were transacted across over 880 deals in 33 Indian cities between January 2021 and March 2026, according to Cushman & Wakefield's report, Building India: Land Markets Define the Next Development Frontier.
The deals span outright purchases, joint development agreements, long-lease transactions and redevelopment structures.
Together, they carry the potential to create nearly 1.4 billion sq ft of future built-up stock across residential, commercial, logistics, industrial and data centre uses.
Residential Leads, But Multiple Sectors Are Active
Housing anchored the volume. Residential land transactions accounted for 7,714 acres the largest single-use share of the total.
The remaining acreage covered commercial offices and malls, logistics and industrial parks, and data centres, reflecting the breadth of India's current real estate investment cycle rather than concentration in a single asset class.
How the Deals Were Structured
The transaction structures used across the five-year period show a market moving toward shared-risk models alongside traditional ownership:
- Outright purchases: 10,910 acres
- Joint ventures and joint development agreements: over 4,405 acres
- Long-lease transactions: nearly 2,520 acres
- Redevelopment transactions: approximately 323 acres
Also Read: Centre to Auction 459 RINL Land Plots in Visakhapatnam
Which 33 Cities Are in the Dataset
The deals span established metros and emerging secondary markets, reflecting how India's development frontier is widening beyond its top five cities:
- Major metros: Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata
- NCR cities: Gurugram, Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad
- Growing markets: Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Jaipur, Indore, Lucknow, Kochi, Coimbatore, Visakhapatnam, Nagpur
- Tier-3 and emerging locations: Amritsar, Cuttack, Dahej, Kurukshetra, Ludhiana, Meerut, Mohali, Mysore, Panchkula, Panipat, Rewari, Sonipat
Also Read: Maharashtra Launches GIS Digital Land Bank for Govt Land
Three Structural Shifts Cushman Identifies
Anshul Jain, Chief Executive – India, SEA, MEA & APAC Office and Retail at Cushman & Wakefield, said the dataset points to three structural shifts defining India's next development cycle:
- Corridors alongside cores: infrastructure expansion is widening the geography of opportunity beyond established metros
- Scale over fragmentation: larger, contiguous parcels are enabling integrated destinations rather than standalone buildings
- Partnership over ownership: shared-risk models are bringing together land, capital and execution capability in new combinations
Jain described the land being assembled today as a forward order book for the next decade of growth.
He said the 18,158 acres transacted across 33 cities mark a structural upgrade in how India builds toward a more institutional, scalable and distributed model of urban growth.
He added that Indian real estate is entering its most durable and investable phase yet, with the land currently changing hands underwriting the development cycle to come.
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