Office space leasing picks up among IT companies
With work from office (WFO) gaining traction, many of IT companies are buying out properties or taking office spaces on lease to accommodate employees
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Bengaluru: Indian IT companies are leading from the front in calling back their employees to offices as the post pandemic environment gets normalised in recent months. In order to accommodate employees in major centres, many of these companies are buying out properties or taking office spaces on lease as Indian IT industry has turned in the last one and half year.
"IT companies are asking their employees to come back to their base centres. Though work model continues to be hybrid, they want employees to be at the centres than operating in work from home (WFH) mode. Given the aggressive hiring and resumption of work from offices, many of the top firms are taking additional space in lease," an HR consultant said who wished not to be quoted.
Recently, reports suggested that Infosys has picked up 5 lakh sq ft of office space in Bengaluru in order to expand its operations in the city.
Last month, mid-tier IT firm Happiest Minds Technologies has purchased a fully built-up ready-to-use commercial property spread over 2.4 lakh square feet in Bengaluru for Rs 101 crore. The facility with a seating capacity of 1,600 seats is in the technology hub of Electronics city. In the last financial year, Indian IT industry has created more than 5 lakh new jobs amid robust demand for technology-led services from enterprises across the globe. The top four IT firms Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro and HCL Technologies have added 243,000 people on net basis during this period.
With rise in employee headcount, these companies require office space to accommodate new hires once work from offices resume in full force. Though most companies are adopting hybrid work model with WFH as an additional option, majority of the staffers are likely to be called back to offices in next six to eight months. Moreover, getting clients' approval plays a key role in continuing with WFH option in the post pandemic era.
According to real estate consultancy firm JLL India, the gross leasing of office space rose 36 per cent to 14.29 million square feet in April-June period of 2022 from 10.48 million square feet in the previous quarter. Such uptick indicates that work from offices is picking up across industries with companies taking up new leases for business expansion purposes.
