Over 5 lakh sqft of office space leased by Chinese companies in Delhi-NCR in 2015 -17

Delhi-NCR in India has emerged as the favourite office space destination for Chinese multi-national firms. The estimated leasing of office by Chinese origin companies has been approximately 516,667 sq ft from 2015-17 in Delhi-NCR. Mumbai has seen approximately 85,537 sq ft of office space leases by Chinese origin companies in the same period, says a report.

China’s biggest corporates are growing rapidly and are creating a strong global economic – system that is influencing global markets. Chinese businesses are expanding their global footprint by targeting emerging markets, acquiring overseas firms and making strategic investments in new technologies, says the report titled China 12: China’s Cities Go Global by JLL

Amongst the global network of cities, Asian markets such as Singapore, Tokyo, Jakarta, Bangkok, Seoul and Delhi are featured prominently. Leading the pack is Singapore as the top destination for mainland firms expanding overseas.

Two of the world’s most globalised cities – Tokyo and Seoul – come in at close second and fifth places respectively, demonstrating China’s appetite for the world’s leading gateways and financial centres. Jakarta (6^th) and Bangkok (10^th) are major beneficiaries of Chinese companies’ expansions into Southeast Asia, and Delhi (13^th) is a key target as Chinese corporates seek to tap into India’s vast population of over a billion.

“Chinese companies have been making their presence felt in Asia and have set up offices in major markets including India. Even though leasing is still largely driven by US and EU based companies in India, Chinese companies are fast setting up a base to take advantage of the market size and the accelerated growth of the economy. India is a diverse market that provides global corporations both a centre of excellence as well as a promising audience for their products,” says Ramesh Nair, CEO and Country Head, JLL India.

“Several Chinese companies have expanded their footprint in India in recent times including Vivo, OPPO, Alibaba, ZTE, Huawei and Xiaomi. Telecom major - Vivo has taken up space of more than 600,000 sq ft while OPPO has occupied about 100,000 sq ft, both during 2014-17 in NCR. Players like ZTE, Alibaba and Bank of China together have absorbed office space of about 100,000 sq ft in Mumbai during 2015-17. As the two largest economies in Asia, China and India’s economic influence over the rest of countries is expected to be significant,” he says.

“Entry into these growth markets allows Chinese companies to tap into Asia’s large, young and rapidly growing consumer populations. We’ve seen some of China’s most prominent firms show major interest in start-ups in India, Indonesia and Singapore as they seek to gain a foothold in these booming economies. E-commerce and consumer electronics firms, in particular, are starting to gain strong market shares in some of these markets,” Jeremy Kelly, Director Global Research, JLL says.