NOIDA: A growth spurt in e-commerce has resulted in high demand for warehouse leasing across India, and particularly in the NCR This inference can be drawn from a report by India’s leading real estate consulting firm, which says 10 million square feet of warehouse space has been consumed in the first six months of 2018 across seven cities, indicating a 45% increase over last year nationally. And NCR came a close second to Bengaluru as a major warehousing destination.Of the warehouse leasing pie across India, Bengaluru had a maximum share with 25% followed by NCR at 21%. Additionally, Mumbai shared 20%, Chennai 12% and Hyderabad 10% of the total leasing, according to the report, titled India Industrial and Logistics Market View, by CBRE South Asia. The leasing activity, CBRE says, was driven by consolidation and expansion initiatives of firms belonging to sectors such as e-commerce, 3PL (third party leasing), retail, and engineering and manufacturing, which together accounted for more than 75% of the leasing reported during the review period.Specifically for NCR region, the report states that leasing activity grew by about 80% in comparison with the second half of 2017 and that it was largely driven by occupants from the e-commerce at 36% and 3PL at 21%, followed by retail at 13%, and engineering and manufacturing at 7%. “The demand has increased primarily because more and more corporates in this sector consolidate their operations and locate closer to consumption hubs, thereby driving demand for larger warehouses,” the report states. According to the report, the demand for large-sized spaces exceeding 200,000 sqft continues to gain traction.The average size of space take-up increased from approximately 75,000 sqft during the first half of 2017 to close to 90,000 sq ft during the same period this year.“Going forward, the entry of various private equity firms and foreign players in the Indian logistics market would boost quality supply, hence propelling demand. Mumbai, Pune and Chennai would remain major investment destinations, with Delhi-NCR and Bangalore also increasingly being on the investors’ radar,” Anshuman Magazine, chairman, India and South East Asia, CBRE, told TOI. “We foresee leasing activity to remain upbeat over the next six months driven by 3PL and e-commerce sectors,” added Jasmine Singh, senior executive director, CBRE.

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