The startup and IT capital of India Bengaluru (2nd) and millennial city Gurgaon (5th) are among CBRE’s top five tech cities in the Asia Pacific, alongside Beijing (1st), Shanghai(3rd) and Singapore (4th).
According to a CBRE report titled “Programming Asia Pacific’s Tech Cities as Global Tech Hubs”, Bengaluru houses over 30 per cent of the country’s start-ups and contributes significantly to India’s tech sector. At 155 million square feet, the city has the largest office stock in the country with another more than 30 million square feet of office space due for completion before 2021. Rental growth in the city is expected to remain buoyant, with the tech space slated to expand steadily.
Similarly, Gurgaon has evolved to be the regional pivot of North India’s technology industry with an office stock of more than 60 million square feet, says the report. Gurgaon houses some of the biggest global and domestic corporations and many more are looking to set up their back-office/front-office operations here.
The report also notes that despite the absence of any principal city or cluster of the same status as Silicon Valley, technology companies continue to fuel office demand in the APAC region. The burgeoning growth of the region’s technology sector accounted for 23 per cent of total leasing activity in 2018. Anshuman Magazine, Chairman and CEO, India, South East Asia, Middle East and Africa, CBRE, said “India is home to an increasing number of tech unicorns and the Asia Pacific is increasingly defined as the region leading in the rapid adoption of disruptive technology. However, there is still room for growth in terms of identifying locations where business conditions, innovation and talent come together to form a globally competitive digital hub”.
Additionally, Indian cities enjoy a cost advantage over other major markets, with labour costs that are the lowest in the region. CBRE identifies Asia Pacific’s leading technology cities by assessing 15 markets according to their business conditions, innovation environment, and cost and availability.
Complementing the five leading markets, cities including Seoul, Tokyo, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Hyderabad represent the emerging tier of Asia Pacific region’s technology hubs, the report pointed out. Further down the list are cities like Hong Kong, Sydney, Hsinchu, Taipei and Auckland, all of which rate favorably on certain important parameters.