HYDERABAD: After a dull start with almost zero deals, Hyderabad’s realty market made a phenomenal comeback in last three months of 2020, with office space transactions soaring by 640% during the quarter. In fact, October to December supply numbers put 2020 as second-best year of the decade – with 8.7 million square feet (mn sft) of fresh office area added to Hyderabad’s kitty — show Knight Frank’s India Real Estate Report.
“Though in comparison to 2019, transactions fell by about 53% last year, we still managed to clock 6 mn sft, which is not bad for a year hit by a pandemic,” said Samson Arthur, branch director, Knight Frank. He added: “2020 figures were on par with three years preceding 2019, where the average was between 5.9 mn sft and 7 mn sft.” This turnaround was thanks to consistent growth along the west, primarily Hi-Tec City and Gachibowli. They added 3.3 mn sft to the kitty.
“Larger firms started to, albeit slowly and in a more planned manner, embrace work-from-office mode in the last three months. Even developers offered incentives,” said Arthur. None of the prominent business pockets of Hyderabad saw any change in rent.
Another success story of 2020 was the growth of the banking, financial services, and insurance industry. From 4% share in the city’s office market in July to December 2019, it grew to 30% at the same time last year. “Entry of biggies such as Goldman Sachs into Hyderabad may further propel this rise,” Arthur said.