India registers 93.5 mn sq ft of total leasable area under listed Reits assets

According to corporate filings of listed Reits, Bengaluru continued to dominate the market with 27.8 million sq ft of total leased area under Reits as of 30 September 2022. Noida witnessed an exponential growth in total leasable area under Reits from 7.4 million sq ft as of 30 September 2021 to 11.9 million sq ft as of 30 September 2022, registering 60.81% growth.

In the report, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Smallcase Technologies Pvt Ltd said, as per the listed Reits’ expansion plans, current leasable area is expected to grow by more than 10% in the coming quarters.

Further, Mumbai is expected to witness the highest addition of 7.7 million sq ft of Reit leasable area in the city followed by Chennai 5 million sq ft, as per the Windmill Capital study.

Vasanth Kamath, founder and chied executive officer, Smallcase said, “India’s REITs market is poised for accelerated growth as both investors and sponsors are drawing confidence from evolving regulatory framework, transparency, institutionalised ownership and ability to deliver robust returns. Regulations have also encouraged retail investors with the reduction in minimum subscription (from ₹50,000 to ₹15,000). This increases the liquidity for the entire REITs market and allows greater participation from young retail investors.”

With regard to stock performance of listed Reits, Mindspace delivered the highest absolute returns of 8.11% year to date till 31 October. For the same period, Brookfield India REIT was the second best performing listed REIT with 7.30% absolute returns followed by Embassy REIT with 1.40% during the same period.

Blackstone Group is planning to list the next REIT in the country and India’s first retail REIT ‘Nexus Select Trust’ along with Select Citywalk and other shareholders according to media reports.