Mall vacancy marginally dips to 14.47% of total area in Q2

NEW DELHI: Mall vacancy levels across top eight cities in the country has marginally declined to 14.47 per cent of total space available in the second quarter (Q2) of calendar year 2014, according to global property consultant Cushman & Wakefield's latest report.

According to report, during April-June quarter of 2013, the overall vacancy levels in malls in these eight cities cities was at 15.04 per cent of the total space available at that time.

While comparing it on a quarter-to-quarter basis, overall vacancy in first quarter of the current year was stagnant and recorded around 0.4 percentage points lower compared to 14.51 in the first quarter of 2014.

The report covers eight cities and regions including Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderbad and National Capital Region (NCR).

During the period under preview the maximum decline in vacancy of mall area was witnessed in Bengaluru of 4.85 percentage point to 7.10 in Q2 of 2014.

And the maximum increase in vacancy levels of malls was in Hyderabad of 6.82 percentage points to 8.22 per cent in Q2 of 2014.

"The retail and retail real estate markets are still going through a period of uncertainty. Currently, we are witnessing stagnation in the demand-supply dynamics as mall supply is being deferred and existing vacancies remain more or less stable," Cushman & Wakefield South Asia Executive Managing Director Sanjay Dutt said.

However, Dutt added that Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) for commercial properties post successful listings, would potentially open up for shopping centre portfolio listings, giving much needed exit route to the developers and investors.