Three in four occupiers plan to expand their office portfolios in India over next two years

New Delhi, Aug 20 (IANS) Three in four corporate occupiers in India intend to expand their office portfolios over the next two years, as they are entering a phase of conviction-led growth, a report said on Thursday.

Nearly 30 per cent of office occupiers plan ‘significant’ portfolio expansion in India, up from 18 per cent last year, the report from CBRE South Asia Pvt. Ltd. said.

The report, drawn from a survey conducted between April and June 2026, showed a marked rise in conviction‑led expansion as nearly half of the surveyed occupiers plan to expand their real estate footprint by coupling business growth with expansion and consolidation strategies.

Concurrently, approximately a quarter of occupiers intend to renew their existing leases over the next two years.

The respondents planning expansion said that they intend to grow their office portfolio in India by more than 30 per cent over two years.

“When nearly a third of occupiers are planning to grow their footprint by more than a third, that reflects a structural rather than cyclical shift in how corporates are approaching their India real estate strategy,” said Anshuman Magazine, Chairman & CEO – India, South-East Asia, Middle East & Africa, CBRE.

As the office sector’s stock has already crossed the 1-billion-square-feet milestone, the occupier enthusiasm signals sustained confidence in India as a long-term destination for corporate growth, he added.

Ram Chandnani, Managing Director, Leasing Services, India, CBRE stressed the breadth of this expansion, which is not confined to any single sector or region of origin with an appetite grounded in operational need.

“About 63 per cent of the large-sized occupiers plan to expand and consolidate in the next two years and we are likely to see this translate into active requirements across both established and emerging micro-markets,” he said.

The Indian office market has shown a strong performance in the last few years with the gross leasing hitting a record 24.6 million sq. ft. in Q2 2026 – up 18 per cent sequentially and 14 per cent year-on-year.

This pushed the gross H1 2026 absorption to 45.5 million sq. ft., the best half-year on record and roughly 10 per cent ahead of H1 2025. GCCs remain the single biggest engine of this growth, accounting for 42 per cent of the quarterly take-up at a record 10.3 million sq. ft., while flex operators accounted for a 27 per cent share.

—IANS

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