Delhi, along with the national capital region (NCR), has emerged as the number one destination for office space leasing to Chinese companies outside of China, said a report by JLL, a global property consultant firm.
As per a report ‘China12: China’s Cities Go Global’ released on Monday, Delhi has topped the list among 70 global cities in terms of office space intake by Chinese companies, particularly by smartphone manufacturers.
Delhi is a key target as Chinese corporates seek to gain access to India’s 1.3 billion population, said the report. Other major beneficiaries of Chinese companies’ expansions into Southeast Asia include Jakarta and Bangkok.
According to Livemint, the report said Delhi is at the top of the global ranking in part due to BBK Electronics – parent company of lower-cost smartphone manufacturers Oppo and Vivo—which has made large moves into the metro areas.
According to the report, around 516,667 sq.ft has been leased by Chinese origin companies in Delhi-NCR from 2015 -17 while Mumbai has seen approximately 85,537 sq.ft. of office space leases in the same period.
The report also pointed out that Delhi, Bangkok, Jakarta and Manila, as well as Kuala Lumpur are mega hubs for China’s next generation firms as they head for its next phase of globalisation. Singapore and Silicon Valley are the top destinations for China’s technology companies, it added.
Ramesh Nair, chief executive officer (CEO) and country head, JLL India in a statement said that Chinese companies have been making their presence felt in Asia and have set up offices in major markets including India. Even though, leasing is still largely driven by US and EU based companies in India, Chinese companies are fast setting up base to take advantage of the market size and the accelerated growth of the economy.
According to him several Chinese telecom companies Vivo, Oppo, Alibaba, ZTE, Huawei and Xiaomi have expanded their footprint in India in recent times.
While Vivo has taken up space of over 600,000 sq ft, Oppo has occupied about 100,000 sq.ft during 2014-17 in NCR. Other Chinese firms like ZTE, Alibaba and Bank of China together have absorbed office space of about 100,000 sq.ft in Mumbai during 2015-17, Nair said.
