New Delhi, Sep 13 (Bureau) With retail sales in shopping malls picking up pace after being hit hard by Covid pandemic, property consultant Knight Frank India expects the sales in shopping malls to touch $39 billion by financial year 2027-28. In a report titled ‘Think India, Think Retail 2022 – Reinventing Indian Shopping Malls’ the firm said that organised retail sales volume in the top 8 Indian cities is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 17%, from $52 billion in FY 2022 to $136 billion by FY 2028. “In the same period, potential retail sales in Indian malls are estimated to grow at a CAGR of 29% in the FY 2022-28 period reaching USD 39 bn by FY 2028,” Knight Frank India said on Tuesday.
As per the report, retail sales in Indian malls across the top 8 cities grew at a CAGR of approximately 3% to reach $8 billion in FY 2022 while in FY 2023, the potential consumption is estimated to surpass the pre-Covid levels to reach $11 billion. “The organised retail sales volume will grow at an expected CAGR of 24% between FY 2017 and FY 2022 maintaining a healthy rate of growth despite the pandemic induced slowdown,” it said. Shishir Baijal, Chairman and Managing Director at Knight Frank India noted that the retail real estate sector has reached a new level of maturity where smaller sized and lower grade developments are giving way to Grade A malls. “The existing Grade A malls have over 95% occupancy which is indicative of the demand for quality real estate in this segment. Given that retail malls are experiential, more of the future developments will want to create destinations,” said Baijal. The Indian arm of London-based property consultancy said that eastern and northern regions of India witnessed a strong recovery in consumption reaching new heights by crossing pre-pandemic levels in March 2022.
It further said that eastern region registered a significant increase in index value from 100 (as a base index as of March 2019) to an index value of 123 at the end of March 2022. “The consumption index in the northern region increased to 118 during the same period. The southern region registered a steady improvement in recovery crossing pre-pandemic levels registering an index value of 108 whereas the western region took the worst hit due to tighter restrictions and consumption was marginally less than pre-pandemic levels (index value of 99) at the end of March 2022,” said Knight Frank India.