NEW DELHI: Software services exporter Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is close to leasing 780,000 sq ft of office space in IG3 Infra’s Chennai One IT SEZ for 10 years, said two people in the know of the development.
TCS will pay a rental of Rs 50 per sq ft per month, taking the total annual payout to around Rs 47 crore, said the first person, asking not to be named. An email query to TCS did not elicit any response till press time Sunday. Rukmini Thiagarajan, director at IG3 Infra, said the company does not have any comment as discussions are on-going.
Property consultancy Knight Frank India, which was the transaction advisor for the deal, declined comment.
TCS had recently leased 375,000 sq ft office space in Brigade Icon project in Bengaluru and 400,000 sq ft in Okaya Tower at Sector 62 in Noida.
It had also signed up 1.9 million sq ft of built-to-suit space at Hiranandani Estate in Thane, marking one of the largest office space leasing deals by area in the country.
In recent months, many other IT outsourcing firms have leased significant spaces. While Infosys has taken 130,000 sq ft of office space in Focus IT Park at Electronics City in Bengaluru, ValueLabs leased around 220,000 sq ft of office space in Lanco Hills at Manikonda, Hyderabad, in the June quarter. IBM also leased around 300,000 sq ft of office space in Avances Business Hub at HITEC City, Hyderabad.
Raja Seetharaman, co-founder of Propstack, a commercial data information and analytics firm, said IT outsourcing companies are taking up office spaces for long-term contracts or for specialized functions on the cost advantage that the Indian market offers in terms of human resources, real estate and various tax benefits.
“We are also seeing many top-level executives coming back to India from abroad to take up such projects and run them here itself,” he said.
While the residential real estate sector is grappling with slow sales and rising inventory, the commercial sector has picked up pace.
Office space absorption registered a 46% quarter-on-quarter rise to 10.2 million sq ft during April-June quarter across key cities of the country, according to a report.
The National Capital Region and Bengaluru led the rise in absorption, accounting for about 50% of the total space take-up.
Source: ET Reality
