GCC expansion to drive next wave of office demand beyond tier-I cities: Report
India’s state-level push to expand Global Capability Centres (GCCs) could drive demand for office space beyond established commercial hubs, with policies targeting nearly 1,380 new centres and 1.18 million jobs by 2029-31.GCCs have already leased more than 123 million sq ft across India’s top nine cities between 2022 and the first half of 2026, highlighting their growing role in the country’s office market, as per the CBRE report, cited by ANI.Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi-NCR and Pune continue to account for a large share of GCC activity. However, CBRE said the next phase of expansion is likely to extend into tier-II and tier-III cities, where lower costs, engineering talent and policy incentives are supporting hub-and-spoke models.Around 94% of India’s 2.36 million GCC professionals are currently concentrated across six tier-I cities, leaving significant scope for emerging locations to attract new centres.The shift could also increase demand for larger office footprints. CBRE said transactions exceeding 100,000 sq ft are increasingly underpinning GCC leasing activity, while average deal sizes have grown 18-20% since 2023.Technology, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), and engineering and manufacturing accounted for 23%, 22% and 16%, respectively, of GCC leasing between 2022 and H1 2026.GCCs are also moving beyond traditional back-office functions, with greater focus on research and development, artificial intelligence, data, cybersecurity and product development. More than half of India’s GCCs have evolved into portfolio and transformation hubs, while around 90% operate as multi-functional units.CBRE said the next phase of growth would depend not only on policy incentives but also on faster execution, better infrastructure, availability of large-format office assets and stronger talent pipelines in emerging cities.
