India's office space real estate market continues to show robust performance, with gross leasing in the top eight cities totaling 21.4 million square feet (MSF) in the second quarter (April–June) of 2025—a 5% increase from the last quarter, as per a report published Monday by Cushman & Wakefield.
With gross leasing for the first half of 2025 reaching around 42 MSF, the sector is comfortably on track to record a figure in excess of 90 MSF by the end of the year. This would be a record annual high and would reinforce the renewed optimism of occupiers in India's office market.
After a record-breaking year in 2024, when approximately 89 MSF in gross leasing was recorded, the present trend indicates 2025 has the potential to become the second year of consecutive leasing volumes over 85 MSF. Should this continue, a new benchmark of market performance would have been established, Cushman & Wakefield said.
The report credits this consistent momentum to firm demand from a variety of occupiers such as Global Capability Centres (GCCs), IT-BPM companies, flexible workspace operators, banking and financial services (BFSI), and engineering and manufacturing companies.
Gross leasing volume captures all types of leasing deals in the market—new leases, corporate renewals, and pre-leased deals—providing a general measure of total market activity.
City-wise figures indicated Bengaluru topping the list at 5.0 MSF, followed by Delhi NCR at 4.6 MSF, and Mumbai at 3.9 MSF. These three accounted for approximately 63% of the overall leasing volume for Q2. The other cities contributed as: Pune (3.3 MSF), Chennai (2.2 MSF), Hyderabad (1.7 MSF), Kolkata (0.5 MSF), and Ahmedabad (0.2 MSF).
Net absorption—a significant indicator of the growth in occupied office space—was at 13.5 MSF during Q2, a year-on-year rise of 19%. Net absorption for the first half-year stood at 27.8 MSF. Delhi-NCR (5.2 MSF), Pune (4.3 MSF), and Chennai (3.1 MSF) achieved their highest-ever six-month net absorption, demonstrating robust and persistent occupier demand.
New leasing remained in the driver's seat, making up 77% of total leasing activity during the first half of 2025. This level has been above 70% since the end of 2022. Pre-leasing activity also increased to 10%, which indicates limited supply in top markets and increasing urgency on the part of tenants.
Global Capability Centres continued to be a key source of demand, with 24% share of total leasing during the quarter at 5.1 MSF. Bengaluru and Pune dominated this segment, together having 63% share of overall GCC leasing, each contributing 1.6 MSF.
The first six months of 2025 saw a new high for GCC leasing at 11.4 MSF, a 3% increase compared to the same period of last year. The segment had IT-BPM companies with the highest share at 40%, followed closely by engineering and manufacturing GCCs with a share of 36%, concluded the report.
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