By Tasheen Issani, Chief Business Development Officer, Team One Architects
India’s office debate is still trapped in an outdated metric. Cost per square foot remains useful, but is no longer enough for a market where Global Capability Centres, flex operators, institutional capital and premium occupiers are reshaping what office space is expected to do. The real question for India’s commercial real estate sector is what each square foot returns in productivity, utilisation, resilience and long-term enterprise value.
India’s market data already supports a performance-first view
The strongest argument for rethinking office value is not theoretical. It is visible in the market. JLL reported that India recorded 21.5 million sq ft of gross office leasing in the first quarter of 2026, the strongest first quarter on record, while pan-India vacancy fell to 14.7%, the lowest level in five years. Net absorption in the same quarter reached 13.7 million sq ft.
The 2025 data points in the same direction. The CREDAI-Anarock annual update showed net office absorption across the top seven cities at approximately 58.2 million sq ft in 2025, up 17% over 2024, with new completions rising to 52 million sq ft. Vacancy improved to 16.1% from 16.5% in 2024, while average office rents increased to INR 92 per sq ft per monthfrom INR 87.
Those numbers matter because they show that occupiers are still taking space, but they are becoming more discriminating about the kind of space they want. The premium paid is for quality, flexibility, location efficiency, occupier readiness and Grade A execution, and not office space alone.
GCC expansion has changed what an Indian office is for
The biggest structural change is the rise of GCCs. This is no longer a back-office story, but a business model that has direct implications for how India must design and commercialise workplaces.
JLL said nearly 200 new GCCs were established in India between 2024 and 2025. In the first quarter of 2026, GCCs accounted for 45.5% of total leasing activity and leased about 9.8 million sq ft, up 43% year on year. The CREDAI-Anarock update found that GCC leasing across the top seven cities reached 32.6 million sq ft in 2025 and represented 41% of total gross leasing, up from 36% in 2024.
GCCs leased 112 million sq ft in India between 2020 and 2024, with a 12% CAGR, and nearly 70% of that activity was concentrated in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune. It is also projected that cumulative GCC leasing will be 120 to 246 million sq ft between 2025 and 2030, depending on global conditions.
As cities attract higher-value functions such as engineering, analytics, AI, product development and risk functions, the workplace needs to support concentration, team-based problem-solving, secure collaboration, managed flexibility and rapid scaling.
Why return per square foot is now the more relevant metric
If the office is a business asset, then it should be judged by the output. Return per square foot is a more relevant metric than cost per square foot because it captures whether the workplace is actually earning its place on the balance sheet
This can be assessed by looking at a few practical factors: including efficient teamwork, optimal use of premium spaces, floorplate adaptability to growth and change, workplace comfort and appeal driving office usage, and building design’s impact on long-term operational efficiency.
Developers and architects now have a different commercial mandate
India’s next generation of office projects cannot rely on area, glass, lobby aesthetics and brochure language alone but will be judged by how convincingly they support occupier performance.
The Anarock Workplaces 2025 India Commercial Real Estate Reimagined report captures this shift well. It argues that premium office demand is increasingly tied to a digital-first workforce and to ESG-related priorities, not merely to image.
For architects, this means moving from formulaic layouts to evidence-based planning. For developers and landlords, the priority is clear: assets that reduce friction for occupiers are the ones most likely to sustain demand.
The India story is becoming more regional and more competitive
The market is also becoming more spatially nuanced, which makes simplistic cost comparisons even less useful. Bengaluru remains the dominant GCC market. According to the CREDAI-Anarock update, it accounted for 12.3 million sq ft of GCC leasing in 2025, or 38% of national GCC activity. JLL said GCCs represented 70% of quarterly gross leasing in Bengaluru in the first quarter of 2026. The city is winning because it combines talent depth, ecosystem maturity and office infrastructure.
Pune is rising as a scale alternative. In 2025, its GCC share increased to 15% of national GCC leasing. That is a different value proposition: cost efficiency combined with growing institutional credibility.
NCR is expanding through flexibility and infrastructure-led confidence. In 2025, GCC leasing reportedly rose 73% year on year to 4.5 million sq ft. Chennai and Hyderabad remain important nodes as well, each reflecting different balances of supply, vacancy, rental growth and sectoral demand.
Commercialisation must move from transaction thinking to asset strategy
The measurement of office performance is also becoming increasingly evidence-based. Companies today are no longer left to guess whether their office is performing or not. Frameworks like the Leesman Index, office utilisation reporting, employee experience surveys, IEQ (Indoor Environmental Quality) benchmarking, measurement of collaboration, and space utilisation are quantifiable and provide an indication of whether you have optimised your workplace for your employees and business needs.
India’s office future will reward intelligence, not excess
India needs smarter offices rather than bigger ones where everysquare foot delivers greater business value and outcome. For architects, it is a design mandate. For developers and landlords, it is an investment discipline. For brokers and occupiers, it is a commercial reset. India’s office market is no longer asking whether workplaces matter. The market has already answered that. The question now is whether the industry is ready to measure them properly.
