India 5th emerging retail economy: Knight Frank
Press Trust Of India

The global real-estate consulting group Knight Frank has ranked India fifth in the list of 30 emerging retail markets and predicted an impressive 20 per cent growth rate for the organized retail segment by 2010.

The organized segment is expected to grow from a mere two per cent to 20 per cent by the end of the decade, it said, adding “this is not surprising, considering that the organized retail sector is growing at 8.5 per cent per annum”.

The size of the organized retail industry has been put at Rs 19,500 crore in the last fiscal. Investment in retail real estate segment yields 13-16 per cent return which is quite high when compared with the returns from residential and office segment. Hdfc, the investor in Shoppers’ Stop in Pune, recorded a 15.43 per cent net return per annum on its initial investment. The space leased by Addidas in Ansal Plaza, Delhi, yielded a net return of 15.84 per cent to the investor.

The future retail growth would also be substantiated by a high level consumer spending which rose at an average 11.5 per cent annual rate during the last decade. The study predicted that about 25 million square feet of organized retail space will come up in India by 2005.

Initially, the retail sector growth took place in tier I cities while now the retailers are focusing on tier ii cities like Nagpur, Indore, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Lucknow and Kochi.

Source: Indian Express, August 16, 2003