Is it true that satellite towns like Gurgaon provide a cost effective solution to a business’s commercial office space needs compared to main land Delhi areas? Is Delhi really that expensive as projected in various annual reports where CP area always shows up in top 10 most expensive office space location in world? Well, questions like these are hurled at realtors like us every now and then, by people that are looking at relocating current business premises either due to cost cutting or expansion. Personally, I feel, this is a myth and lots of people that are considering shifting, just aren’t aware of the many options that Delhi can throw up for each individual business need and yet be cost effective. So, let’s dive into the facts and find out what commercial rentals in Delhi and Gurgaon look like on ground.
Retail space: Even though Gurgaon is yet to develop and realize its potential in terms of development and infrastructure, its retail real estate prices are already as high as Delhi and in some cases even beating. For the sake of argument, since Gurgaon is very small in terms of the number of destinations that Delhi can offer shoppers, I am going to pick the best of both sides (open markets and Malls) and see what the rentals are like in each of the areas.
Delhi Retail
- Delhi High street/Open Markets – Connaught Place, south Ext, GK and Khan Market Rs 200 – Rs 900/sq ft
- Delhi Malls like Dlf place, citywalk in Saket, Dlf Promenade in Vasnat Kunj and Pacific Mall in Rajouri – Rs 150 – Rs 500/sq ft
Gurgaon Retail
- Gurgaon Open Market – DLF galleria – Anywhere between Rs 300 – Rs 800/ sq ft
- Gurgaon Malls like Ambience, Metropolian DLF, Metropolis, DT center etc – Anywhere between Rs 150 – 500/ sq ft
Commercial office space: Again while Delhi has many business centers in all different directions, Gurgaon is limited to the MG road, NH 8, Golf course extension road and to certain extent the Sohna road area for a fully commercial office space requirement needs. And here are the numbers on rental on each of these areas.
Gurgaon business centers:
- MG road – (Rs 100 – Rs 160/sqft)
- NH 8 – (Rs 100 – Rs 150/ sq ft)
- GC road – (Rs 80 – 120/sq ft)
- Sohna Road – (Rs 75 – Rs 100/ sq ft)
Delhi Main Business Centers:
- Connaught Place CBD area – (Rs 100 – Rs 200/ sq ft)
- Bhika Ji Cama Place – (Rs 85 – Rs 135/ sq ft)
- Nehru Place – (Rs 85 – 150/ Sq Ft)
- Netaji Subhash Place – (Rs 70 – Rs 100 /sq ft)
- Laxmi Nagar District Center – (Rs 75/ sq ft – 110/ sq ft)
Industrial: Finally, let’s take a look at what both Delhi and Gurgaon has to offer for Industrial/IT and warehousing requirements. Gurgaon initially was touted as the IT city and the answer of north to Bangalore in south in terms of being the true IT hub of the country. And for obvious reasons, the industrial/IT space is definitely costlier in Gurgaon when compared to Delhi. While there is a lot of scope for infrastructure improvement by both sides’ state governments, the average rentals are clearly higher in Gurgaon.
Gurgaon Industrial/IT hubs
- DLF cyber city area – (Rs 75 – 120/ sq ft)
- Udyog vihar phase 1,2,3,4,5 – (Rs 60 – Rs 90/ sq ft)
- Infocity, Sec 32 and 44 – (Rs 65 – Rs 85/ sq ft)
Delhi Industrial areas
- Okhla Industrial area phase 3 – (Rs 90 – Rs 110/ sq ft)
- Okhla Industrial area phase 2 and 1 – (Rs 40 – Rs 70/ sq ft)
- Kirti Nagar Industrial area – (Rs 50/ sq ft – Rs 70/sq ft)
- Nariana Industrial Area – (Rs 50 – Rs 80/ sq ft)
Further far out areas toward Mundka, Piragarhi, Lawrence Road are even more cost effective in Delhi.
- All the numbers above are for a furnished space
- All values are excluding maintenance charge which usually higher in newer constructions of Gurgaon.
This is definitely not to play down importance of Gurgaon as a commercial space destination but I really think the notion that Gurgaon somehow offers cheaper options compared to Delhi is now obsolete and needs to be told. Having said that, Gurgaon has its own advantages over Delhi in terms of area like, modern Architecture that brings out the best space utilization in buildings, parking space etc.
I may have not been fair to Delhi in my comparison above because I could have easily shown cheaper options in each category (commercial, retail and industrial) at Delhi over Gurgaon because of the sheer size and destinations Delhi has to offer however, again that would not have been a fair comparison keeping in mind that Gurgaon is only about a decade old city, so I am hoping, I did not by any chance compare apples with oranges here.
