Bengaluru recorded 10.6 million square feet (Grade-A assets) flexible stock, the highest among all major APAC cities, including Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo and Singapore.
India is leading the flexible A-grade office stock in the APAC region. Occupiers are largely re-engineering their portfolio and workplace strategies to accommodate hybrid working arrangements.
This signals a healthy office sector growth amid an accelerated return to office phenomena in India, led by flexible space operators. It is also noteworthy that Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR and Hyderabad account for nearly 35 per cent of the total flex stock (A Grade) in the APAC region, with Bengaluru recording the highest flexible stock ahead of Asian cities.
Out of the total premium flexible office space in Hyderabad, the share of flexible office space was 5.5 per cent — the highest in the APAC region.
Share of flexible office space in Bengaluru out of the total premium office space was at 5.4 per cent, followed by Singapore at 4.6 per cent and Delhi-NCR at 4.4 per cent.
Post-pandemic, India continues to witness the highest growth in flexi-office market in the APAC region.
Total flexible stock volume in the APAC region stood at 76 million square feet, recording a 6 per cent year-on-year growth and was 15 per cent above the pre-pandemic growth level during the January-September 2022 period. The total number of flexible space centers in APAC stood at around 3,000.
Tech firms (36 per cent) and business services (28 per cent) companies remain the top users of flexible office space, followed by finance, life sciences firms and retail firms in the overall APAC flex market.
Occupier demand for customized enterprise and turnkey solutions would grow to mitigate rising fit-out costs and capex constraints. Flexible office space operators would use asset-light strategies by forming partnerships with landlords.