‘INVEST NOW’: The Mantra To Reap Rich Gains In Realty In 2026
By Darshan Govindaraju, Executive Director, Vaishnavi Group
“Invest now” will be the mantra of most experts for anyone looking to invest in the Indian real estate sector as 2026 is expected to ease supply of assets after several years of incremental growth in residential units addition. From commercial to residential and retail to warehousing, developers are expecting record supplies in 2026 which will release stress on the heightened rentals due to constrained additions over the last few years.
According to Cushman Wakefield’s India Outlook 2026 report, fresh demand has grown at an average of 25% over the past four years as against supply which has recorded a marginal growth of 5%, pushing up the property values and rentals. However, new completions for 2026 are projected at 59-61 million square feet across the top eight cities easing the pressure on rentals. Similarly, India’s residential market is expected to maintain its momentum in 2026, with over 3 lakh new units to be launched, even surpassing its previous records and bringing some relief to soaring property prices..
Interestingly, the story this time will be far beyond central and business districts as micro markets such as Sarjapur, Whitefield and Electronic City among others are gaining prominence on the back of continued urbanization and infrastructure development. This is attracting developers to perform accelerated project launches in order to have an early mover advantage as the commercial, residential and retail ecosystem is fast taking shape in these micro markets and property values and rentals are growing steadily, making it a win-win for developers, investors – institutional and retail.
This trend is a continuation of movements seen in 2025 where micro markets performed at par or even better than central and secondary business districts such as MG Road and Indiranagar with Global Capability Centres driving office space absorption across these locations.
GCCs, Semi-Conductors Expand Office Space Deal Sizes
According to reports by multiple property consultants, the Indian office market is expected to post a Gross Leasing Volume (GLV) of more than 80 million square feet in 2026 driven from a diversified pool of occupier sectors such as IT-BPM, BFSI and Engineering and manufacturing with GCCs and shared space operators to collectively contribute to growth of office leasing volume. Here, cities of Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai continue to dominate leasing by GCCs, roughly accounting for nearly 67% of GCC demand since 2021, followed by Pune and Delhi-NCR. The year 2026 is expected to witness the wider shift from GCCs of US headquartered firms to the EMEA region, adding new dimensions to the GCC ecosystem.
These shifts are expected to bring down vacancy levels below 14%, lowest since pandemic, in an indication of the market’s capacity to absorb fresh supply of Grade A office spaces.
Stability Is The Buzz Word For Housing in 2026
The luxury and high-end housing segment will continue its upward trajectory in 2026 with positive growth in property values and rentals posted in the last few years. Driven on the back of growing millionnaire count in Karnataka which touched 31,600 in 2025 as per Mercedes-Benz Hurun India Wealth Report 2025 and heightened NRI interest, this segment has single handedly pushed up the average transaction value over the last few years. Although high-end properties were the most talked about segment in 2025 and 2024, mid-segment launches continued to comprise about 52% of overall supply in the recent years and the same is expected to hold positions in 2026 as well.
These high-end societies will be characterised by limited units on a floor, premium concierge services along with greater inclination towards projects which are sustainably sound and technologically advanced.This, coupled with an expected reduction in the Reserve Bank of India’s repo rate is further likely to reduce the interest burden on investors and accelerate investments in the commercial and residential real estate segments.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are those of the author, and not necessarily of Realty&More.
