With 15.3 million sq. ft. of space leased by flex space operators, the flex spaces have increased its share to 19.8% in the annual office leasing numbers in India, its best in 2024, said a report by JLL.
With this, it became the second biggest occupier segment behind Tech in terms of its contribution to the leasing growth story.
Delhi-NCR accounted for 42% share of the total flex space leasing, followed by Pune (14%), Bengaluru (13%), Hyderabad (13%) and Mumbai (9%), Chennai (8%) and Kolkata (1%).
Flex has had a meteoric rise in the office ecosystem, with it being the fastest growing sector in terms of its Year-on-Year (Y-o-Y) performance since 2022. This has been driven by the strong growth of the managed space market even as evolving workplace strategies have supported in mainstreaming of this sector, the report added.
Flex space leasing stood at 10.3 million sq. ft. in 2023, 9.2 million sq. ft. in 2022, 3.8 million sq. ft. in 2021, 3.6 million sq. ft. in 2020 and 10.4 million sq. ft. in 2019.
Dr Samantak Das, Chief Economist and Head of Research and REIS, India, JLL said, “With a robust pipeline of IPOs, strong occupancy rates, and significant PE backing, flex space has solidified its position as a long-term player in India’s commercial real estate. Our projections indicate that by 2026, the operational footprint of flex space across India’s top seven cities will surpass 100 million sq. ft, strengthening its status as a key element of the office market growth story.”
In fact, Pune has witnessed the maximum growth of ~33% CAGR in its flex stock since 2019, surpassing the growth momentum across all other cities.
Rahul Arora, Head – Office Leasing & Retail Services, Senior Managing Director (Karnataka, Kerala), India, JLL said, “India’s flex space market has reached unprecedented heights in 2024, with total stock hitting a staggering 74 million square feet across the top seven cities. Bengaluru leads the charge, commanding a third of the operational flex footprint. The sector’s exponential growth is further evidenced by surpassing the million-seat milestone, now boasting over 1.1 million operational flex seats.”
The report said that the average size of flex centres in terms of new space take-up has shown are markable growth of 21.4% from 2023. The average deal size in 2024 was ~63,000 sq. ft.
The average deal size in enterprise leasing has increased as well with deals of 500 seats or more accounting for a significant 39% share, tying in with the increasing size of flex centres themselves.
