Luxury retail to witness modest rise by 2015

Global real estate consultants, Cushman & Wakefield has

estimated in a report that the share of luxury retail space in India will witness a rise of 1.44 percent by 2015 as against the current 1 percent even as total retail malls stock is set to increase by 27 percent by 2015.

The report highlights the changing luxury retail scenario in India. It said that the total current operational mall space in organized retail sector across the top seven cities of India is estimated at 66 million square foot of which luxury retail space is only 7,70,000 square foot. The relative reach of luxury brands present in the malls of top seven cities in India is the highest in NCR at 38 percent, followed by 21 percent in Mumbai and 17 percent in Bengaluru.

As per the report, NCR and Mumbai are the favourite destinations for luxury retailers as they have marked the evolution of mall culture in the country. However, lately luxury retailers have started focusing on Bengaluru as the upcoming destination with its IT hub and higher disposable income.

Meanwhile, cities like Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad are yet to gain traction from luxury retailers in malls as they have relatively low luxury brand reach and are yet to catch up with the mall culture to the extent witnessed in NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru. A similar trend was observed while analyzing penetration of luxury retailers in each of these cities. On the other hand, the reach of luxury brands in the prominent main streets of the top seven cities in the country was led by Mumbai and NCR each having 30 percent reach, followed by Hyderabad with 16 percent reach.