MUMBAI: The trade agreements being concluded with many large nations will fuel demand for more office spaces in the country, primarily through global capability centres (GCCs) in the coming years which along would drive up half of the office space demand.
Recent tariff rationalization and sector-specific trade facilitation measures under the anvil of ongoing bilateral engagements with the US, EU and England are expected to expand the market for global firms. In addition to enhancing the position of the country as a competitive manufacturing destination in the Apac region, elimination of barriers in the service industry can potentially further attract GCCs into the country.
Capability centers here are increasingly likely to become integral centers of research, product development, engineering, advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cloud computing.
“Recent trade agreements with the US, EU and England can potentially boost foreign investments inflows into the country and amplify real estate demand across economic sectors, including GCCs. This is likely to complement the regulatory push and ongoing policy tailwinds, boosting the annual demand for grade A office space here.
“We anticipate 35-40 million sqff of annual GCC leasing, accounting for 40-50% of the overall office space demand over the course of next few years,” realty consultant Colliers India said in a report Thursday without assigning a specific timeline.
Despite Trump’s insular economic policies, American companies continue to account for close to 70% of GCC leasing activity since 2020 in the country, followed by EU and England companies at an 8-10% share each, Colliers said, adding annual grade A office space uptake by GCCs can potentially reach 35-40 msf over the course of next few years and “overall GCCs can drive up to 50% of the contry’s office space demand across the top seven markets.”
Currently GCCs account for almost 40% of the grade A office demand across the top seven cities—Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Pune.
While technology based GCC demand from American firms can stabilize, we anticipate increasing traction from European and English companies, especially within the engineering & manufacturing, BFSI and consulting domains, Arpit Mehrotra, managing director--office services at Colliers India, said.
The office market has scaled up significantly in recent years with consecutive demand peaks in the post-pandemic era. This scaling up has been powered by GCCs, which have moved beyond cost-arbitrage centers and transitioned into innovation-driven globally integrated knowledge & research hubs.
Of the 310 msqft of cumulative office space demand since 2020, GCCs have accounted for around 117 msqft of office space, representing 38% of the overall leasing activity, he said, adding in fact, the steady growth in GCC demand is evident from the increase in space uptake from around 16 msqft in 2020 to close to 30 msqft in 2025.
Accordingly their share in the country’s overall leasing activity has increased from sub 30% levels few years ago to over 40% in 2025, further adding credentials to the ongoing transformation of GCCs.
Notably, GCCs headquartered in the US, EU and England continue to drive this transformation - contributing nearly one-third of the overall office space demand in India since 2020.
Demand from US-based GCCs continue to be dominated by technology firms (47% share), alongside a notable presence of BFSI companies (21% share). EU-origin companies are predominantly anchored in engineering & manufacturing sector, which accounts for 60% of their GCC demand here, while British companies GCC demand patterns show a diversified occupier profile led by BFSI firms (29%) and consulting players (23%).
While US companies have driven space uptake, accounting for nearly 70% of the total GCC demand since 2020, their share is expected to moderate over the next few years. Simultaneously, driven by the trade agreements, EU & England based GCCs are expected to gain traction in the near-mid-term.
GCCs will continue to anchor the domestic office space demand, supporting the ongoing scale-up and diversification of occupier base. With global trade frictions relatively moderating, supported by recent developments pertaining to bilateral agreements, we envisage positive sentiments to translate into traction across key demand drivers of the office market, says Vimal Nadar, a national director at Colliers.