India's largest realty firm DLFNSE 2.37 % has sold nearly 50,000 sq ft of prime office space in Gurugram for about Rs 150 crore on account of rising demand for commercial properties from corporates and institutional investors.
DLF, which generally provides office space on lease to corporates, has adopted both lease/sale model for its 12 lakh sq ft office building 'Two Horizon Center' on Golf Course road, Gurugram in Haryana.
According to sources, the company has sold about 48,000 sq ft of office space in this project at a basic selling price of more than Rs 25,000 per sq ft to a big corporate house.
Now, the company is left with only a little over 1 lakh sq ft in this project, they added.
The company spokesperson declined to comment on this transaction.
The project 'Two Horizon Center' houses Samsung, Harvard Business Review, KIA Motors and Hero Cycles among others.
In 2016, DLF had leased about 3.5 lakh sq ft of office space to Samsung India Electronics in this project.
Two Horizon Center is part of the 12-acre Horizon Center complex that also houses the fully-leased One Horizon Center project, which was developed jointly by DLF and US-based Hines. Horizon Center commands a monthly rental of about Rs 150 per sq ft.
Unlike sluggish housing sector, office segment has been performing extremely well and witnessed several big ticket deals in the last few years.
DLF promoters recently sold 40 per cent of their stake in rental arm DLF Cyber City Developers Ltd (DCCDL) for about Rs 12,000 crore. The deal included sale of 33.34 per cent stake to Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC for Rs 9,000 crore.
The promoters monetised stake in DCCDL to infuse funds in DLF for reduction of debt.
While declaring its annual result last week, DLF said that the commercial segment of the business continued to exhibit good growth. Gross leasing achieved during the year stood at 6.76 million sq ft, out of which 5.96 million sq ft was attributable to DCCDL.
Apart from DLF, other players are also monetising their commercial assets.
In April, Essar group sold prime commercial property Equinox Business Parks at Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai to global investment firm Brookfield for Rs 2,400 crore.
Godrej PropertiesNSE 0.46 % had in September 2015 sold 4.35 lakh sq ft office space to Abbott for Rs 1,480 core.
Shriram Properties last year sold its IT-SEZ to Xander in Bengaluru. Prestige group is also in talks with GIC to sell stake in its office portfolio.
The co-working operators are also taking large office space on lease from real estate developers as demand for shared office space is gaining momentum.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com