US-based real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefiled, found the industrial property rentals nearly doubled in Mumbai in 2007 from the previous year levels, marking a bigger rise than in places like San Fransisco and Singapore.
Mumbai is followed by Istanbul with a rise of 60 per cent, while IMT Manesar area near New Delhi is in fifth position across the world with nearly 30 per cent rise in the rentals, the study found. San Fransisco Peninsula and Singapore came at seventh and eighth position respectively.
The study gives a good snapshot of current commercial rentals around the globe. In the overall most expensive location list, three London locations – Heathrow, Hammersmith and Gatwick – were the three most expensive places, followed by Dublin and Tokyo.
One of the key trends in the industrial market remains the movement of manufacturing operations to cheaper locations such as India, China, South America and Central and Eastern Europe.
'Asia Pacific has shown the most buoyant growth over the past year. The continuing strong economic expansion of India and China, coupled with the ongoing positive performance of markets such as Vietnam, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, drove up the rents by just under 15 per cent annually,' the report says.
'The credit crunch acting to slow the markets in North America and Europe has not had much impact on the region at the end of 2007.'
Overall average annual rental uplift in Asia-Pacific was 14.2 per cent. This was the highest rental growth of all the regions and well above the global average,' the report adds, stating that rental growth was driven mainly by Indian locations, accounting for four of the top five markets in terms of regional rental growth. India has seen demand outstrip supply as the result of continued economic expansion, it noted.