According to CBRE, one of the world’s largest real estate firms, the second half of 2015 witnessed a massive addition of about 3.6 million square feet of the brand new spaces for shopping centres across the seven major cities in India. The latest reports of CBRE says that, the organized retail market saw approximately about 75% rise in the supply of shopping spaces in 2015 over that of 2014.

The second half of 2015 also witnessed the launch of a few much-awaited shopping centres in India, and it includes Garden’s Galleria at Noida, DLF Mall of India at Noida, Acropolis Mall in Kolkata and ETA Namma Mall and VR Mall in Bengaluru. The demand for store spaces from retailers also remained high with number of major global players like Aeropostale, Juicy Couture and Carl’s Jr making their way into the country. Along with these, other prominent players like Johnny Rockets, TM Lewin and Nando’s continued to expand their operations in India.

[b]2016 to be a great year for retail real estate in India[/b]

Looking at the findings of the report, Anshuman Magazine, the chairman and managing director of CBRE said that, while number of global brands making their plans to enter India and other domestic players continuing to expand across the country, retail real estate market in India will be very much dependent on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy regime.

While the challenges for FDI in multi brand retail still exist, the on-going year is anticipated to be amazing for the retail real estate market. Also, the timely delivery of high quality shopping space by developers will be very crucial for the industry to reach its full potential of being a leading retail market across the globe.

[b]India – An important destination for international retailers[/b]

Popular global brands like GAP and H&M have already secured their retail spaces in the upcoming and existing malls in the major cities of India, bearing evidence to the fact that India is emerging as an important destination for international retailers.

Out of seven major cities, Delhi NCR remained as the most preferred point for many global brands that are making their way to India. As a response to this sustained demand of retailers launching their outlets in India, majority of the new shopping space concentrated on Delhi during the second half of 2015.

With the rising popularity of online shopping, the growing retailers are following the Omni-channel strategy by establishing the online portals along with the retail stores. Meanwhile the developers are effectively bringing in the global brands to offer a vibrant entertainment to shoppers.