Bengaluru leads India's GCC boom with 875 centres, over 33% of office leasing: Report

Bengaluru houses more than 875 Global Capability Centres (GCCs) out of over 1,700 GCCs in India as of 2024 end, that is 29% of the total centres, said a recent report by FICCI-ANAROCK. The report predicts India's GCC centres will exceed over 2,400 by 2030.

Currently the Indian GCC's employ more than 1.9 million professionals with a market share of approximately USD 64 billion as of 2024, that is double from USD 30 billion in 2019. The report indicating future trends said that the GCC's is set to employee 2.8 million professionals with report projections indicating growth to USD 105 to 110 billion by 2030 at a compound annual growth rate of 10%.

On the finding of the report, Karnataka Minister for Electronics, IT/BT, Priyank Kharge on Thursday in a post on X said, "What truly sets Bengaluru apart is not just scale, but our ecosystem maturity. A strong network of startups, globally competitive talent, strong innovation ecosystem, global connectivity and the ability to deliver large, green infrastructure quickly continue to make the city the natural home for the world's most advanced global capability centres."

The findings are part of the broader trend shaping India's commercial real estate landscape.

Trend Driven By Real Estate Sector

The report, titled Workplaces 2025: India Commercial Real Estate Reimagined, stated that this trend is driven by the country's commercial real estate sector delivering its strongest performance even amid global economic headwinds.

In 2025, companies leased about 80.5 million square feet of office space across India's top seven cities. Out of this, GCCs alone accounted for 32.5 million square feet, which is over 40% of total office leasing, indicating their dominance in the country's property market.

The total available Grade A (premium) office space in these cities has reached nearly 800 million square feet. Bengaluru and the National Capital Region together account for almost half of this overall supply.

When it comes specifically to GCC leasing, Bengaluru leads with more than one-third (over 33%) of total GCC office space demand in India. Pune follows with 15%, while Delhi-NCR and Hyderabad each account for 14% of GCC leasing. This indicates that Bengaluru has slightly fewer GCC centres proportionally (29%) but captures a larger share of office space leasing (over 33%), suggesting the GCCs in India's silicon valley tends to lease larger office spaces on average compared to GCCs in other cities. Meaning GCCs are driving a large chunk of India's office demand, and Bengaluru remains the biggest hub for them.

The report further noted that GCC operations are no longer confined to major metro cities and are increasingly expanding into Tier 2 locations such as Jaipur, Kochi, Indore, Surat, and Coimbatore, indicating a broader geographic spread of India's knowledge economy. However, the list of emerging Tier 2 destinations did not include any city from Karnataka, even though Bengaluru continues to dominate the GCC landscape nationally.

The report said that the expansion is being driven by sustained demand from IT-ITeS, banking and financial services, healthcare and life sciences, and engineering research and development sectors, alongside India's cost efficiency and deep talent pools.

Raj Menda, Chairman of the FICCI Committee on Urban Development and Real Estate and Chairman of the Supervisory Board at RMZ Corporation, said India's commercial real estate sector is going through a major turning point.

"India's commercial real estate sector is at a pivotal inflection point. Record office demand underscores a decisive shift toward high-quality, flexible, and technology-led assets. Global Capability Centres have emerged as a structural anchor of this growth, fundamentally reshaping office demand and accelerating the development of premium, future-ready workplaces across both established and emerging cities."

Beyond office leasing dynamics, the commercial real estate sector is also witnessing a fundamental shift in how institutional capital is being deployed.

REIT Market's Structural Transformation

The report indicated that India's Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) market is going through a structural transformation. REITs are investment vehicles that allow individuals and institutions to invest in income-generating commercial properties, such as office buildings, without directly owning them.

India currently has five listed REITs with a combined market capitalisation of nearly USD 18 billion. This has helped democratise property investment by allowing retail investors to participate in large commercial assets. However, REITs still make up only about 20% of institutional-grade real estate, which is lower compared to mature markets like the United States, Singapore, and Japan, where REIT penetration is much higher.

Of the approximately 520 million square feet of REIT-worthy office stock (meaning high-quality, stabilised commercial assets suitable for listing), only 165 million square feet is currently listed under REITs.

This indicates significant headroom for further institutionalisation of India's commercial real estate market. The report projects REIT penetration could increase to 25% to 30% by 2030, supported by diversification into new asset classes such as data centres, logistics parks, and retail assets, beyond traditional office spaces.

According to Raj Menda, sustaining this growth would require continued policy support, steady inflow of long-term institutional capital, and strong collaboration between industry and government.

Citing broader macroeconomic trends, the report highlighted that foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows rose to a provisional USD 81.04 billion in FY 2024–25, reflecting a 14% year-on-year increase and indicating continued investor interest in India.

With enabling government policies, state-level Global Capability Centre (GCC) frameworks, and office demand expanding across sectors such as co-working, BFSI (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance), consulting, and manufacturing, the outlook for India's commercial real estate sector remains positive.