Century Real Estate to invest Rs 3,500 crore to build office spaces in Bengaluru over the next 5 years

Century Real Estate plans to invest over Rs 3,500 crore to build office spaces in Bengaluru over the next five years, managing director (MD) Ravindra Pai told Moneycontrol in an interview.

In financial year 2025 (FY25), the company will be investing over Rs 500 crore.

The Bengaluru-based real estate developer forayed into the commercial segment in 2020. Century did a project with Godrej Fund called Downtown Hebbal. Now, plans are afoot to develop the second tower in the project. The realty firm will develop a total of 4.5 million square feet (msf) of office spaces in north Bengaluru.

“We believe that the growth is more towards north Bangalore due to rising infrastructure and Metro construction,” Pai added.

However, he noted that while the commercial segment in Bengaluru has shown resilience, it is not as robust as the bull run in the last few years. To be sure, he hastened to add that there is optimism for growth in the coming months.

“This can be attributed to a variety of reasons. Many organisations have adopted hybrid work policies, allowing employees to split their time between remote work and in-office attendance, reducing office occupancy rates. This shift has led to a lesser need for larger office spaces, as fewer employees are present on-site at any given time. The move has prompted businesses to downsize or seek more flexible office space arrangements,” he added.

There is a growing preference for shared and co-working spaces that can accommodate varying attendance patterns, leading to a dip in demand for traditional office layouts. Companies are favouring smaller, well-located offices that offer modern amenities and foster collaboration. The trend has contributed to a significant transformation in Bengaluru’s commercial real estate landscape.

The office transactions in Bengaluru in 2023 dipped by 14 per cent year-on-year (YoY).  The rentals increased by 7 per cent, according to a report by Knight Frank India for July. In contrast, the flexible office space leasing volume in the country’s infrastructure technology (IT) capital dropped to 1.7 million sq ft from the peak of 2.9 msf in the first half of the calendar year 2023, owing to the base effect that relates to the inflation in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Planning for a township in north Bengaluru

Century has reached an advanced stage of planning for a township, sprawling more than 50 acres towards Airport Road consisting of commercial, retail and residential spaces.  Currently, four residential apartment and villa projects are under construction with a saleable area of over 2 msf.

In FY24, the company clocked sales of Rs 1,000 crore. Over the next three years, the company plans to invest over Rs 2,800 crore in the residential segment.

“We don’t have residential apartments in the affordable category of up to Rs 80 lakh.  We will be developing an aspirational segment project on Doddaballapura Road with the ticket size ranging from Rs 1-1.6 crore,” Pai said.

The company  has launched an ultra-luxury project called the Codename Built Rare in Indiranagar, with an investment of about Rs 750 crore. Spread across 1 lakh sq ft, the project will have ticket sizes of Rs 5.5-25 crore.

“We have an upcoming residential and commercial development in Whitefield, scheduled to be launched later this financial year. A couple of more luxury segment projects in south and central Bengaluru are also under discussion,” he added.