Ghost shopping centres in India rise 59% in 2023: Knight Frank

The survey of 340 shopping centres and 58 high streets in 29 Indian cities revealed 64 ghost shopping centres in 2023, up from 57 in 2022.

"As nearly $798 million (₹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 report, titled ‘Think India Think Retail 2024’, said.

In tier-I cities, the largest inventory of ghost shopping centres was in the National Capital Region (NCR) at 5.3 msf—58 per cent higher than 3.4 msf in 2022. Mumbai followed with 2.1 msf and Bengaluru ranked third with 2 msf of ghost shopping centres.

Hyderabad was the only tier-1 city to see a decline in ghost shopping centre inventory, dropping by 19 per cent to 0.9 msf last year. The sharpest rise was in Kolkata, which recorded a 237 per cent increase to 1.1 msf, but from a low base of 0.3 msf in 2022.

The overall shopping centre vacancy in eight major Indian cities, however, improved to 15.7 per cent in 2023 from 16.6 per cent in 2022, indicating rising demand in the retail segment, the report noted.

Excluding ghost shopping centres, the vacancy rate in the segment improved to 7.4 per cent.

Shopping centres in 29 Indian cities have the potential to generate $14 billion in revenue in fiscal 2024-25, it added.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)