| | February 20208n 2019, policy reforms across var-ious sectors acted as a business sentiment booster leading to tre-mendous improvement in India's ease of doing Business Ranking. According to the World Bank, India ranks 63rd among 190 countries on the index; the ranking is anticipated to improve further in the coming years, backed by progressive government policies. Economic growth achieved in the quarter ending September was largely attributed to sectors such as public administration, defense and other services (11.6%), and trade, hotels, transport, communication and services related to broadcasting (4.8%). When compared with other sectors, real estate services (along with financial and professional ser-vices) fared well. Office real estate market remained buoyant in 2019, driven by demand from global multinationals, domestic firms and a healthy supply infusion in cities such as Hyderabad and Bangalore. By the end of 2019, gross leasing activity crossed 60 million to touch a historic high of 61.6 million sq. ft., growing by more than 25% y-o-y. Bangalore, followed by Hyderabad, NCR and Mumbai dominated office leasing on an annual basis, together accounting for almost 75% of the overall space take-up. Meanwhile, annual space take-up increased across all cities except Kochi. SEZ spaces accounted for almost one-third of the leasing activity, mainly led by Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai. In 2019, the share of the tech sector in overall space take-up rose from about a third in 2018 to almost 40%; with overall space take-up by such firms rising by more than 45% on an annual basis. This growth was primarily driven by global multinationals, which accounted for more than 70% of the overall space take-up by tech firms this year. Several of the corporates continued to show interest in SEZ spaces despite the upcoming sunset clause deadline; as a result, SEZs accounted for about one-third of the leasing activity in 2019. Meanwhile, occupiers are likely to continue to asses agility in their real estate portfolios with the `core + flexi' strategy finding more takers. Occupiers continued to opt for flexible spaces, with the share of the segment rising from 12% in 2018 to about 14% in 2019. Several occupiers are likely to adopt newer workplace strategies to realign their portfolios A GLIMPSE OF INDIA'S OFFICE REAL ESTATEBy Ram Chandnani, Managing Director, Advisory & Transaction Services, India, CBRE South Asia Pvt. Ltd.VANTAGE POINT I
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