Commercial Leasing Hits 54.4M Sq Ft Across Top 7 Indian Cities

NEW DELHI — India’s commercial property segment continues to exhibit a strong growth trajectory, buoyed by consistent growth in enterprises and increasing corporate demand for flexible workspaces. As per the latest study carried out by real estate consulting firm Colliers India, the total gross office leasing in India, on the whole, increased by 7% year-over-year to touch 54.4 million square feet in the first nine months of 2026.

As far as the third quarter is concerned, the space absorption was quite robust in nature, with the total commercial transaction volume at 18.7 million square feet. There was a 9% year-on-year growth and 7% sequential expansion in terms of total commercial transaction volume in this particular quarter.

Some of the key urban centers of India have continued to drive demand within the commercial leasing in the top 7 cities. Amongst all other cities, Bengaluru has been the leader in terms of commercial space absorption during the first nine months of 2026 with 15.7 million square feet. The city has contributed around 29% of the total national leasing volume.

Hyderabad turned out to be the quickest-growing market by far in terms of the leasing of offices over the nine-month period, posting 9.4 million square feet of office leasing space—a staggering increase of 47% from the same period last year. On the other hand, other major cities like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune, and Chennai saw transaction volumes in the range of 6 million to 8 million square feet each.

In particular, in the third quarter, Delhi-NCR witnessed high activity, with the number of square feet of leasing standing at 3.3 million—an increase of more than double in comparison to last year's third quarter.

A factor that has helped to drive India's office space leasing in 2026 is the swift expansion of flexible space companies. In the first nine months of 2022, co-working and flex workspace players have signed leases for a whopping 12.6 million square feet—a 37% increase from last year.

Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR occupied the top positions in the flex space market segment, absorbing 2.8 million square feet each. In addition, both Delhi-NCR and Hyderabad experienced a growth rate more than double the amount recorded in the last year for the flex workspaces. According to industry professionals, flex spaces are likely to make up 20% to 25% of occupiers' real estate portfolio in the coming years, while the current figure stands at 15% to 20%.

The traditional office leasing market was quite steady year-on-year at 41.8 million square feet. Technology occupiers continued to dominate the traditional market by occupying around 16 million square feet, or about 38% of the total leasing. BFSI occupiers and engineering/manufacturing occupiers contributed to the rest of the leasing, which made up around three-fourths of the total conventional leasing.

Geographically, Bengaluru and Hyderabad together made up 55% of conventional technology occupiers' space absorption, while Mumbai alone made up 30% of BFSI space absorption.

In terms of supply, new completions in the top seven cities totaled 41.7 million square feet during January-September 2026. There was a significant rise in supply in the third quarter of 2026, wherein over 19 million square feet of office space were added—a rise of 79% over the previous quarter.

Given the strength in office leasing expected throughout the fourth quarter, industry experts forecast that overall office leasing in India could amount to 75-80 million square feet by year-end 2026.

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