MUMBAI: Closure of a five malls across India and change of usage of another 10 to office, educational institutes, shopping clusters, hospitals and banquet halls combined to reduce total mall space in India by about 30,000 square feet in 2016. This is the first time on an annual basis that net supply of mall space in India was negative, a report by JLL, a real estate consultancy firm said. Limited new supply of malls also added to this, it said."These malls were operational in Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Pune. It is not the first time that a withdrawal of mall space was done but the quantum this time around was far higher than all previous withdrawals put together," the report by Pankaj Renjhen, MD - retail services, JLL India noted. The report also said that a few more malls were expected to meet a similar fate in the next few years."While a handful of good malls continue to perform extremely well across the country, there are many average and poor-quality malls that have been seen floundering over the years, more so in the recent years as both mall designs and shopper expectations evolve," the report noted. "Shopping in a mall is much more of an experience now. With India positioning itself higher on the global retail ladder, neither retailers nor shoppers want to visit an average or poor mall," the report added.It pointed out that some of the major malls which are nearing completion are Vega City and GT Mall in Bangalore, The Pavillion in Pune, DLF Emporio (Chankyapuri) in Delhi and Grand Central Seawoods, Mumbai.

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