Ghost Shopping Centres Became More Prevalent In 2023, With NCR As The Hub: Report

The report titled, ‘Think India Think Retail 2024’, released by Knight Frank, highlighted that these ghost shopping centres have increased in the country, in turn, resulting in a larger value loss

Ghost shopping centres expanded in 2023 to 13.3 million square feet (msf), registering a growth of 59 per cent against a year earlier, a report by Knight Frank revealed on Tuesday. 

These centres are called so as over 40 per cent of their retail space is left vacant. The report titled, ‘Think India Think Retail 2024’, was released by the real estate consultant and highlighted that these ghost shopping centres have increased in the country, in turn, resulting in a larger value loss.

The study covered 340 shopping centres and 58 high streets in 29 Indian cities. In comparison to 57 ghost shopping centres in 2022, it found the number up at 64 in 2023, reported Business Standard. This expansion resulted in a value loss of Rs 6,700 crore. 

Amongst the Tier-I cities, the largest stock of these centres was found in the National Capital Region (NCR) at 5.3 million square feet, up by 58 per cent against 3.4 million square feet in 2022. 

“As nearly $798 million (Rs 6,700 crore) is trapped in the gross leasable space of these non-performing shopping centres, consolidation of retail asset portfolios by institutional investors…proactive steps by mall developers to either repurpose or demolish these structures will provide new opportunities for interested players for land monetisation,” the study noted.

Following Delhi-NCR, Mumbai clocked the second largest presence of the ghost shopping centres at 2.1 msf. Bengaluru registered 2 msf of the centres, while Hyderabad was the only exception in the Tier-I cities to report a decline in the ghost shopping centres inventory of 19 per cent to 0.9 msf in 2023.

The sharpest growth rate was witnessed in Kolkata at 1.1 msf, marking a jump of a whopping 237 per cent from 0.3 msf in 2022. 

Overall, the report pointed out that the shopping centre vacancy in the eight major cities in India got better to 15.7 per cent in 2023, from 16.6 per cent in 2022. This showed that retail segment saw a surge in demand.

Notably, the shopping centres across the cities in India have the potential to generate revenue worth $14 billion in the current fiscal year.