India's Office Market Set Records Across the Board in 2025. Here's What the FICCI-Anarock Report Actually Found.

‍A commentary analysis of the FICCI-Anarock report "Workplaces 2025: India Commercial Real Estate Reimagined," covering its full picture of the economy, the office market, GCCs, REITs, and the year ahead.

Key Takeaways

• India remained the fastest-growing major economy, with GDP up 7.8% in the April to June quarter of 2025 and FDI of about USD 81 billion, the backdrop the report uses to explain office demand.
• Office leasing across the top seven cities hit a record 80.5 million sq ft with net absorption of 58.2 million sq ft, up 17%, against a total Grade A stock of roughly 800 million sq ft.
• The occupier mix broadened: IT-ITeS fell to a 27% share from 41% in 2021, co-working rose to 23%, and GCCs were the largest single group at close to 40%.
• Vacancy eased to 16.1% and rents rose 6%, but city outcomes diverged sharply, from Chennai at 8.8% to Hyderabad at 26.3%.
• REITs hold only about 20% of institutional real estate, with 165 million of an estimated 520 million sq ft of REIT-worthy stock listed, and the report sees around 155 million sq ft of new supply over the next two years.

What the FICCI-Anarock Workplaces 2025 Report Covers

FICCI, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, is India's largest business body, and Anarock is an independent real estate services firm. Their joint report, "Workplaces 2025: India Commercial Real Estate Reimagined," is deliberately wide-angle. It moves through six areas: the macroeconomy, the commercial office market, REITs, the GCC landscape, a detailed profile of Bengaluru, and a forward look. This analysis follows that same structure so the report's own balance is preserved rather than reweighted.

The Economic Backdrop the Report Builds On

The report opens with the economy, because it treats office demand as an outcome of national growth. India is presented as the fastest-growing major economy, with GDP rising 7.8% in the April to June quarter of 2025 and the Reserve Bank of India lifting its FY2026 forecast to 6.8%. Now the world's fifth-largest economy at over USD 4 trillion, India is projected to reach third place by 2030. Per capita income is around USD 2,820, foreign direct investment rose 14% to about USD 81 billion in FY2024-25, and government capital expenditure grew 66% over four years. The report ties office demand most closely to IT-ITeS, whose export revenues have grown at an 8% annual rate, with roughly 85% going to the United States and Europe.

A Record Year for Office Demand and Supply

On the office market itself, 2025 was a benchmark year. Gross leasing across the top seven cities crossed 80.5 million sq ft, net absorption reached 58.2 million sq ft, up 17%, and new completions came in near 52 million sq ft, an 8% rise. Total Grade A stock stood at roughly 800 million sq ft by December 2025, with Bengaluru holding about 27% and Delhi NCR about 19%.

India office market snapshot, 2025 (top seven cities, Grade A)

Source: Anarock Research, Workplaces 2025

Geographically, the southern markets led both supply and demand. Bengaluru contributed 26% of new completions and Pune 20%, the latter after a sharp 103% jump, with the south accounting for about half of all additions. On absorption, Bengaluru alone took nearly a quarter of the national total, Mumbai and Pune together added about 30%, and Kolkata remained a modest 3%.

A Broader, Quality-Led Occupier Market

One of the report's clearer themes is diversification of demand. IT-ITeS remained the largest occupier but its share slipped to 27%, down from 41% in 2021. Co-working operators held 23%, BFSI 18%, and manufacturing and industrial occupiers 14%, with consultancy and e-commerce filling out the rest. A market once driven mainly by technology now draws on several sectors at once.

The report also documents a widening gap between strong and weak markets. Pan-India vacancy eased to 16.1% from 16.5%, but the range was large: Chennai was the most stable at 8.8%, while Hyderabad ran at 26.3% as new supply outpaced absorption, and Delhi NCR sat at 21.7%. Rents rose 6% to an average of INR 92 per sq ft a month, up about 22% over five years, with Mumbai the costliest market at INR 148 and Chennai and Bengaluru posting the strongest five-year rental growth. The report reads this as a flight to quality, with demand and rents concentrating in the best-located, best-specified buildings.

GCCs Remain the Structural Demand Driver

The report gives global capability centres, the in-house offices multinationals run in India for their own core work, significant weight, and the numbers explain why. GCCs were the largest occupier group in 2025 at close to 40% of leasing, a little over 32 million sq ft, led by Bengaluru, Pune, and Chennai.

India's GCC trajectory

Source: Industry estimates compiled by Anarock Research

The report notes these centres have moved beyond outsourcing into design, engineering, AI, and product work, and that their footprint is spreading into Tier-2 cities such as Jaipur, Indore, Surat, Kochi, and Coimbatore.

REITs and the Institutionalisation Opportunity

A full section covers real estate investment trusts, or REITs, which let ordinary investors own a share of large income-producing assets. India listed its first REIT only in 2019 and has since reached a market capitalisation of about USD 18 billion, yet REITs still make up only around 20% of institutional-grade real estate, well below the United States, Singapore, or Japan. Of an estimated 520 million sq ft of REIT-worthy office stock, only about 165 million sq ft is currently listed under the active trusts, which the report identifies as Embassy Office Parks, Mindspace Business Parks, Brookfield India, and Nexus Select Trust. Indian REITs remain heavily office-focused, and the report projects penetration could rise to 25 to 30% by 2030 as more assets move into listed vehicles.

Bengaluru as the Market's Bellwether

The report devotes a full chapter to Bengaluru, positioning it as the country's leading office and GCC market. The city holds about 215 million sq ft of Grade A stock, recorded 14.9 million sq ft of net absorption in 2025, and commands rents of INR 102 per sq ft at a low 12% vacancy, with roughly 33 million sq ft of upcoming supply. It hosts around 875 GCC centres, accounts for 29% of India's total GCCs, and captures more than a third of national GCC leasing. The report traces the city's arc from the first Indian GCC, set up by Texas Instruments in 1985, to the recent Karnataka GCC Policy 2024-2029, which offers incentives and targets emerging cities beyond Bengaluru.

The Road Ahead, and Its Risks

The report closes with an outlook rather than a verdict. It projects demand for Grade A space of around 80 million sq ft against roughly 155 million sq ft of new supply over the next two years, and expects vacancy to compress and rents to appreciate in new assets as pre-leasing becomes more common. New developments, it says, will be well-amenitised, technology-enabled, and sustainable, citing smart energy systems, recycled materials, and biophilic design, while REIT participation and state-level GCC policies keep drawing institutional interest. The one caveat it is candid about is external: a shifting global climate of inflation and slower growth in advanced economies could dampen demand, though it judges India's own corporate momentum strong enough to keep growth going. Taken together, the report is less a single argument than a broad status check on a market that is growing, diversifying, and slowly institutionalising at once.

This commentary draws on the FICCI-Anarock report "Workplaces 2025: India Commercial Real Estate Reimagined," with data compiled by Anarock Research. The figures and framework are FICCI and Anarock's; the reading of them here is ours. The full report is available through FICCI and Anarock.