Polycab India buys office space in Mumbai’s Dadar for Rs 202 crore
Wire and cable manufacturer Polycab India has acquired a two-storey sea-facing office space in The Ruby commercial tower in Dadar, central Mumbai, for more than Rs 202 crore in one of the few major recent direct transactions involving memory desktop space.
The company Polycab India's newly acquired office space occupies an area of 55,400 square meters and is close to the existing Polycab House headquarters in the central Mahim district of Mumbai.
The deal, which brought in a stamp duty worth Rs 10 crore, also gives the company exclusive access to 40 parking spaces.
The pure and simple office real estate agreement prevails in a context where most of these transactions have increasingly been concluded on a rental basis in recent years. Institutional investors are now involved in most major direct purchases of office buildings, the operation of the buildings and their letting to occupiers.
Although few developers offer such properties for sale, users also prefer to rent offices in a large commercial complex managed by the institutions.
The transaction was executed on March 31 and registered on April 4, according to documents accessed by real estate research firm Propstack.
It could not be determined whether the company intended to move from its current location on Mogul Lane in Mahim, which is close to the new office.
Harresh Mehta, CMD of Rohan Lifescapes, the developer of the commercial tower, confirmed the deal without giving any details. ET's email and text inquiries to Polycab India CEO Inder T. Jaisinghani went unanswered at the time of going to press.
The 1.2 million square meter project, of which EY India, ARCIL and Axis Bank are the main users, is a joint venture between Ruby Mills and Rohan Lifescapes. The project is the tallest commercial tower in the country.
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One of the oldest and most established locations in Mumbai, Dadar is in a unique class due to its extremely favorable geographic location and connectivity, said Bappaditya Basu, CBO - ANAROCK Commercial.
Because of this - and in every way - Dadar is the heart of Mumbai. The location of the workplace is the most important factor for professionals in Mumbai. This piece gives Dadar a perfect 10 in terms of legendary accessibility. Dadar Station has the unique distinction of being the only one in the city shared by the Central Line and Western Line, with nearby Wadala Station serving as a convenient access point from the Port Line, he added.
Dadar, a major public transport hub, is also easily accessible by road. In practice, this means that professionals living and working in Dadar can get to and from their place of work in a single trip with the same ease almost anywhere in Mumbai (and indeed even Pune). The hassle of transferring between buses and trains - the scourge of most Mumbai workers - is effectively eliminated. Importantly, Dadar is also only 5 miles from Santa Cruz Domestic Airport.
The combined net take-up of office space is indicative of higher momentum in office space leasing, reaching its highest level in the past two years, impacted by the outbreak of the Covid19 pandemic.
In India's seven largest cities, net office space occupancy rose 113% year-on-year to 11.55 million square feet in the first quarter of 2022, according to data from JLL India. However, due to ongoing uncertainties surrounding the pandemic, performance was comparable to last quarter.
The technology sector remains the largest occupancy segment in terms of market activity and is well supported by demand from flexible office space providers.
The Flex segment rented 2.2 million square feet of space in the quarter, the highest since the start of the pandemic. This also represents more than 50% of the total annual lettable area of this segment in 2020 and 2021.
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