Mall Culture in Gurgaon

The market for retail space may be going through a rough patch but the demand for quality space is persistent and there cannot be better options than a well-managed mall, say retail space developers.

The market for quality mall space is beginning to look up and mall developers too, who have learnt from the mistakes, are going the extra mile to keep their occupants happy. While projects in the initial development stage have been put on the back-burner, projects under development are seeing increasing demand for quality space. Leasing activity and rates are looking up, they say.

Location is the primary factor, and the first step to success. Other factors are also equally important, basic among them -- allow the retailers to make money. Keep occupancy costs at viable levels and follow that up with proper mall management to keep footfalls high, say experts.

Momentum picking up

Mr Susil Dungarwal, Chief Mall Mechanic, Beyond Square Feet Advisory Pvt Ltd, a end-to-end solution provider for mall business, says the momentum is picking up across cities.

Retailers are in an expansion mode and the mood is certainly on the upswing, particularly with the proposed entry of FDI in retail. But the expansion is happening cautiously as retailers are still wary of overreaching themselves after the recent downturn.

Beyond Square Feet is handling five mall projects, including the million sq.ft Neptune Magnet Mall in Mumbai and the high-end Bergamo Mall for premium brands in Chennai, apart from malls in Lonavla and Qatar. Leasing activity has perked up and retailers in good mall spaces have achieved a level of comfort as footfalls are on the increase, he says.

Of course, developers are sharing more with their tenants as the lease is based on minimum guarantees and revenue sharing.

Source: thehindubusinessline.com By R. Balaji Quality retail space will sell

Big realty firms are converting their proposed projects from malls to either residential apartments or commercial office space

High rental rates and scarcity of retail space in good locations are discouraging retailers from going ahead with their expansion plans. Existing unaffordable prices and sheer misbehaviour of real-estate developers are forming a roadblock to the growth of the organised retail industry in India.

According to retail industry experts, in the past couple of years, organised retail has only grown to 4% of the total retail market and the industry is still struggling to take it to higher levels. Despite huge investments by retailers, organised retail will not grow to 15% of the total retail market over the next five years. At best, it can reach 10% of the total market. On top of that, real-estate prices are hurting the bottom-line of retailers.

A few big realty firms like DLF Ltd and Indiabulls Group were supposed to develop new malls in Lower Parel (central Mumbai). But both of them have converted their projects from malls either into residential or commercial office space.

"There are many planned malls which have been converted either into residential or commercial office projects because retailers do not want to shell out such high rentals. Just 4-5 million sq ft of ready retail space is currently available for retailers. It has become difficult for retailers to get space in the right catchment," said Govind Shrikhande, president and chief executive officer, Shoppers Stop Ltd.

You can find new retailers occupying retail space in various malls every two months; many spaces in malls also remain vacant due to high property prices in Mumbai. Retailers are looking for a minimum guarantee and revenue-share deals because during the first year when retailers are struggling to establish themselves in a certain location, they do not want to shell out heavy rentals.  

Source: moneylife.in By Pallabika Ganguly Unaffordable real-estate prices force retailers to shelve expansion plans

Two months back when many luxury brands decided to move out of DLF's retail malls, they had a common complaint -- unrealistically high retail rentals. In fact, retailers have said rentals have been high during the past two years -- a period of sluggish growth in retail rentals.

" The retail rentals are too high and take a large pie of the profitability of the retailer," Thomas Varghese, chief executive officer ( CEO), Aditya Birla Retail Ltd ( ABRL), the retail arm of the Aditya Birla Group told M AIL T ODAY . " The mall owners and developers must keep in mind the business model before quoting a price. The margins are very thin and there may be some revaluation done so that the whole business becomes viable both for the developer and the retailer," Varghese said.

In fact, ABRL closed about 40 of its supermarket stores at various locations because of high rentals. Besides, the company relocated many of their stores after re- negotiating the rentals.

As per industry estimates, in many cases rentals form more than 20 per cent of the company's total revenues. Little wonder then that many retailers have preferred to exit malls or have entered into the revenuesharing model.

" There is no thought on the part of developers when they fix their rentals. How can we make any profits if 15- 17 per cent of the total revenue is spent just on rentals? And that is the reason the vacancy level has gone up so much. It is not the slowdown but the high rentals that is responsible for the failure of the mall business," said a senior official of the Shoppers Stop, a multi- brand retail chain.

But developers deny the charge that they have been inconsiderate.

Source: Mail Today By Anuradha Shukla High Rentals Hit Retailers

The retail end of the real estate business is showing some signs of a pickup in Mumbai, the National Capital Region (NCR) and Bangalore, with more than half the upcoming supply of shop and mall space proposed in these locations.

There are concerns over a looming glut, however. Comprising the worst-hit part of the industry, retail has been lagging behind residential and commercial property.

Much of the supply is a spillover from 2008 and 2009, and is expected to lead to an oversupply of 21 million sq. ft in two years, thanks to the faster pace of development in 2010-12, said India Organized Retail Market, a report based on a seven-city study by property advisory Knight Frank India Pvt. Ltd. The cities covered are Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and Kolkata.

"Though the outlook looks positive, developers should treat the supply indicators as a word of caution because most locations such as NCR and Pune will face over-supply and already have high vacancy rates," said Samantak Das, national head (research) at Knight Frank India.
In the last two years, NCR (comprising Delhi and its suburbs such as Gurgaon, Noida and Faridabad) and Bangalore have seen the maximum rental corrections to the tune of 25% whereas Mumbai saw an average drop of 15-20%. During this period, zero-rental schemes and revenue-sharing models with a minimum guarantee emerged as options for trimming costs and maintaining mall occupancy.

More such convenient models will emerge to facilitate both retailers and developers, said Das.

Source: Live Mint By Madhurima Nandy Retail realty shows signs of revival amid concern over glut

According to Pranay Sinha, managing director of Star Centres, malls are community places and there is a need to get the consumers to develop a sense of ownership. "However, today in India, it has just become a place where one goes to buy things. Things are however, slowly changing with mall owners designing projects to attract consumers with non-retail initiatives like arts & crafts, music and gaming.

We are also developing an indoor roller coaster, which would come up soon in Greater Noida," he said.

Similar projects are been designed at malls at Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and three other locations, Sinha said. "There would be a concept like a playschool for small children inside the mall while their parents can shop for necessities and other things instead of going back home. This would increase the footfalls," he explained.

B.S. Nagesh, vice chairman, Shoppers Stop, said such initiatives would have a huge impact on footfalls and rentals in the long run.

"In India, there are hardly any avenues for spending time with the family. A person takes his family to a mall, which has a food court and a movie theatre. If such service utilities are added to the mail it would definitely increase the footfalls. At present, even mall owners have few options and are dependent of the regular 30 to 40 retailers," he said.

According to Nagesh, currently their malls have facilities like laundry, Anytime Money counters and spas. " We are encouraging other mall owners too, to start service utility sections," he said.

Arif I. Sheikh, president- retail, Advance India Projects Limited, which owns retail outlets like celebration malls pointed out that a mall in Khanna in Punjab has a passport office inside it.

Source: Mail Today By Amit Shanbaug Malls to house utility services to up footfalls

Shoppers Stop, Reliance Retail, Madura Garments, Arvind Brands, United Colors of Benetton and others plan greater presence in high streets and co-location with multiplexes to keep their expansion intact between October 2011 and March 2013 when real estate analysts foresee a void in mall expansions.

"Although high street properties will be limited, we may see a lot of end use changes in commercial infrastructure, where possibly the first and second floors could be converted for retail," says Bijou Kurien, president & CEO -- lifestyle division at Reliance Retail.

Developers may be prompted to demolish old buildings or theatres to develop retail stores to meet the demand in high streets at that time, says Mr Kurien, who heads brands such as Reliance Time Out, Vision Express, Reliance Jewels and Marks & Spencer.

While Reliance Retail, Arvind Brands and Madura Garments bet on high streets, Shoppers Stop intends to co-locate its large-format properties with multiplexes and United Colors of Benetton (UCB) plans to focus on smaller cities.

Retailers and real estate analysts foresee a temporary void in mall expansions beginning October 2011 up to March 2013 because developers shelved hundreds of projects when retailers withdrew lease contracts and rentals crashed due to the economic slowdown in the last two years. Out of 800 malls originally slated open in 2010, only 100 will turn operational, says a report jointly released by Shopping Centres Association of India and retail consultancies Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj (JLLM) and Cushman & Wakefield.

Source: Economic Times By Sarah Jacob & Sobia Khan Retailers plan greater presence in high streets

Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj (JLLM), a global property consultant, says that out of 17.3 million sq ft supply of retail space across the country in 2010, only 9.3 million sq ft is expected to be absorbed. According to Real Estate Intelligence Service (REIS), a division of JLLM, there are 123 malls under construction in seven Indian cities Mumbai, NCR, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune encompassing 53.9 million sq ft of retail space. Another 42 malls having 32.8 million sq ft of retail space are under planning stages and have been announced for completion by 2013.

Says Shubhranshu Pani, managing director (retail services), JLLM, "It is true that the vacancy in shopping centres increased during the period of 2008-09. This was primarily on account of higher real estate costs and lower consumption, because of which many retailers started shifting from rapid expansion to consolidation mode. In fact, a significant number of these centres failed to kick off and create customers for the retailers. In many cases, retailers were disadvantageously placed, causing them to exit after the initial lock-in periods."

AREA-SPECIFIC UPSHOT

Experts believe that vacancy continues to be the highest in the country's north region, primarily because of unrealistic clustering of centres in single locations. In the rest of the country, where supply is not as high as in northern region, vacancy levels rose because retailers and developers failed to reach an amenable consensus on rentals. Some centres failed to attract tenants to a degree leading to complete vacancy of these malls across the country, primarily in the northern region. However, since retail is a highly location-specific business, these do not represent the overall scenario.

Market watchers say that because of faulty business models, a number of big brands are suffering. Models that worked on very high price points or had extremely low margins also suffered. Subhiksha is an example of low margins leading to bankruptcy. On the other hand, brands like Hidesign are still struggling despite having good products.

praveen.singh@expressindia.com

• PLUMMETING RENTALS
  
• DISSUADING TRENDS
  
• MARKET CONSOLIDATION

It has also withdrawn its two- year old directive to shut shops once a week.

Till now, all outlets, except those selling essential com- modities, chemists, health care clinics, restaurants and cine- plexes and those who had sought special permission, had to remain close on Tuesdays in malls and market complexes across Gurgaon.

The 24x7 privilege will require some formalities.

"All those who wish to enjoy this facility simply need to get themselves registered online with the labour department on its website www.hrlabour.org giving basic details, and with no extra cost," additional Labour Commissioner M.R. Anand told Hindustan Times.

"These shops and establish- ment would no more have to apply for special exemption under the Punjab Shops & Commercial Establishments Act to open round-the-clock for seven days a week anymore," Anand said.

Anand said shops availing the option would have to give at least one leave in a week to its employees in rotation.

Pubs and bars will continue to be governed by excise laws and have to follow the ongoing time schedule of closing at 12.00 midnight and at 2.00 a.m. in spe- cial cases.

 sanjeev.ahuja@hindustantimes.com

All the top retailers such as Future Group's Pantaloon, Shopper's Stop, Aditya Birla Group's More Retail and Reliance Industries' Reliance Retail are expanding their operations, according to real estate consultancy firm Knight Frank India. It is estimated that by December 2010, approximately 2.5 crore sqft new retail space will be developed countrywide, mainly in big cities and lucrative tier II cities, which is 50% more than what was developed last year.

The last couple of quarters have seen some increase in rentals, but they are still 25-30% lower than the peak rates during the boom period of 2007-08. Also, companies are bullish with improved salaries and job opportunities in sectors such as IT, pharmaceutical, finance and manufacturing in big cities fuelling fresh demand in retail space in metros, say industry veterans and analysts.

"We have revived plans but we are not very aggressive," says Rajeev Talwar, group executive director at DLF, the country's largest real estate developer. "Places like Jalandhar and Ludhiana, which have a propensity to spend, will be on radar rather than other tier II and III cities."

He, however, said it will take another 12-18 months for the retail sector to regain its old glory. No wonder, this time retailers are more cautious in their scaling up exercise.

According to Knight Frank India, K Raheja Group, Oberoi and Runwal Group in Mumbai, Prestige and Sobha Developers in Bangalore and DLF, Ansal and Emaar MGF in the National Capital Region (NCR) in Delhi are some of the companies involved in developing retail space. "The fact is that retail is all about location which makes it necessary to find the best location. Hence metros continue to provide an edge over Tier II and Tier III locations," says Vikas Oberoi, MD of Oberoi Constructions.

Source: Economic Times By Maulik Vyas & Supriya Verma Mishra Retailers scale up ops in metros

"Till now, imported liquor could be sold in any outlet with an area of more than 500 square feet. But we feel that sales will go up if we allow them to be sold in shopping malls as buyers of imported liquor do not go to local vendors," a senior excise department official said.

The official said for the licence, departmental store owners will have to shell out a fee of Rs 1 lakh per annum. ``The department will also generate more revenue by issuing licenses to stores in malls as there are about 20 shopping centres in the city," the official said. The government had allowed sale of liquor in stores in shopping malls in 2007.

"In order to promote liquor with low alcoholic content, a new licence in the form of L-10B will be given to departmental stores having an annual turnover of more than Rs 50 lakh per annum on an yearly fee of Rs 25,000 for retail sale of wines on an experimental basis," read the notification.

According to the new excise policy, licence for selling foreign liquor will be issued to only stores which have bought the foreign liquor vend, unlike the previous policy which allowed any one to buy the licence by paying a fee of Rs 25 lakh. The fee has also been increased to Rs 35 lakh.

Announcing the excise policy 2010-2011 recently, the state government said vends of both country liquor and Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) will be renewed at a "reasonable" rate increase of 5% to 10%.

The vends in NCR districts of Haryana including Gurgaon and Faridabad would be renewed at a rate increase of 8%. The government expects the policy to bring in stability in retail trade.

Around 9 million sq. ft of expected mall supply for the year was deferred to the future, due to poor demand from retailers, says the report. Of the proposed 44 malls at the beginning of the first quarter (January-March), about 18 were delivered by the year-end. The overall vacancy rates for the major cities as of December was 17% compared with a 16.7% vacancy rate in December last year.

Mumbai had the largest share of this year s mall supply at 1.8 million sq. ft, followed by Hyderabad (1.1 million sq. ft) and the National Capital Region (NCR) (0.9 million sq. ft).
Bangalore saw the highest mall supply deferment with 80% less mall supply than what was expected.

This slowdown in mall construction need not be viewed as a negative growth indicator for the retail real estate segment, said Jaideep Wahi, director, retail agency, Cushman and Wakefield India Pvt. Ltd.

The current pace is in fact expected to help in maintaining a healthier supply to demand equation, especially for oversupplied micro-markets.

In the fourth quarter (October-December), the highest vacancy was seen in NCR at 27% and Pune at 16%, while the lowest vacancy levels were seen in Chennai at 1% and Bangalore at 3%.

Source: Live Mint By Shabana Hussain 60% SHORTAGE - Fewer malls this year on poor retail demand

Named Neel, the robot was seen helping shoppers at Ambience Mall on an exprimental basis for the past four days. So stupendous was the response that there are plans to hold another such demonstration as a new year's gift to shoppers. The robot, which can walk and talk, was developed by Hitech Robotic Systemz Ltd. From December 23-27, it interacted with shoppers through a touch screen monitor placed on its belly. Shoppers could hear Neel speak using a headphone.

"Whenever shoppers walked up to Neel, it made a note of their names and preferences in categories such as electronics, apparels, jewelry and footwear and informed them in impeccable English about the discounts and deals at different stores," Jai Khatana, a store owner in the mall, said.

Hitech Robotic Systemz said the robot will help make shoppers intelligent choices as it will have information about almost every product available in malls. "Neel was first introduced in Auto Expo 2007, where it demonstrated fully- autonomous navigational capabilities. It can draw a map of an unknown place and travel indoors avoiding obstacles," a company spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said, "To make it more socially capable, we have created its own social networking site where it makes friends with humans and gives them shopping suggestions. Through a real-time web interface, Neel gives a personalized shopping experience to consumers, suggesting the best buys. Neel even remembers previous encounters and greets them accordingly."

The company is planning to commercially launch the robot. "Starting with Gurgaon, we will introduce the shopping guru robot in malls and hotels across Delhi and NCR in another two to three months," the spokesperson said.

Mall developers in India seem to have regained some of the bravura that was punctured by the economic slump that took its toll on the country's retail sector last year. Some developers are reviving projects as the economy gathers growth momentum and rentals start looking up with shoppers returning.

An industry estimate says 15 new malls have been opened in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune in the past three months, and at least 48 more will be opened next year.

Till the end of 2008, these seven cities had 163 malls with 338.6 million sq. ft of space.

The new malls are all projects that ground to a halt a year or so ago. Some 80-85% of some 640 malls in various stages of development were put on hold after the global meltdown hit the Indian economy in 2008. Retail and real estate were the worst hit, and mall rentals dropped drastically, forcing the developers to go slow on projects.

They also reviewed the revenue model and many opted to lease space to professional mall management consultants or work on revenue-sharing arrangements with the retailers, as opposed to merely renting out square feet.

"Mall developers are no longer looking at just a one-time profit," said Nipun Jain, senior manager, consultancy and valuation, at Colliers International (India) Pvt. Ltd, a service provider to property investors and retailers. "Earlier, they sold retail space in a mall in a piecemeal manner and were not concerned with mall management and the success of the retailers. Things are changing."

Source: Live Mint Shoppers drift back, spur mall developers to revive projects

While retailers are now looking to prepare themselves for the next wave of growth that is expected in the next couple of months, the mood is still cautious.

Even as foreign players have slowed expansion plans, domestic players are making haste slowly on the expansion front.

The total store area added by the retail sector in metros and major cities nearly halved over the last 12 months, falling to 3.6 million from 6.8 million sq ft in 2008.

Cash has been a big problem.

Banks have sharply slowed their lending to retail players, driven by fears of asset quality. The collapse of Subhiksha, which was operating 1,600 stores nationwide when it ran out of cash to keep its operations going, was a huge shock.

While the market is abuzz with talk of some more players looking to exit, market leaders in different formats like Shoppers Stop and Pantaloons are hoping to raise funds from the market to fund their expansion plans.

Source: Mail Today Retailers get cautious on growth plans

During our mock drill, CCTV cameras, door frames, and metal detectors failed to spot the firearms that our teams were hiding. As seen from some of the CCTV footage, even frisking was not done in any of the malls, added the police chief. Joint CP Alok Mittal has written to all mall owners in which he has asked them to appoint separate women security guards to frisk women. He has also instructed that the CCTVs installed should have proper recoding facilities and that the security staff should manning door metal detectors and hand-held metal detectors must have mandatory training.

Citing industry experts, the report said the model comprises retailers sharing a percentage of their sales with real estate developers as a way of sharing risks. The move to adopt such a model is seen to be triggered by low footfalls that has been the bane of retailers since some time as well as lower rentals which has been troubling real estate developers during the slowdown, the report added.

As far as the revenue sharing ratio is concerned, industry players say, factors like format, market scenario, clients and type of properties, among other things come into play. "We have been opting for revenue sharing model with retailers in some of our properties. However, the ratio is dependent on several factors including rentals, kind of market, economic scenario, type of client, and type of properties, among other things. For us, the rentals for retailers vary from anywhere between Rs 10 per sq ft per day and Rs 800 per sq ft per day," quoted YK Tyagi, executive director, DLF in the report.

Seconding Tyagi's views is Jaideep Wahi, director, agency, retail services, Cushman & Wakefield (C&W), a real estate consulting firm, who was quoted as saying: "In the last six months the trend of rental revenue sharing model has picked up immensely. Out of every 10 new malls, we can see this trend in about six to seven. The extent of revenue sharing for the developer, which varies from category to category, ranges from 3 to 18 per cent. While it is lower in case of electronic stores, for categories like sportswear and lifestyle stores, the sharing is more due to higher footfall."

According to latest quarterly report by C&W, average mall vacancy level across major Indian cities showed a marginal increase from 17.3 per cent in the second quarter to 17.5 in the third (July–Sept) 2009. Retail rents in major markets also showed a move towards stabalisation in major locations in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Pune indicating no rental changes over the previous quarter. NCR however, continued to witness correction in retail rentals, the report continued.

Source: Realty Plus Low rentals make mall developers, retailers opt for revenue sharing

DLF Mall of India Project (above) has been postponed, as existing malls (right) fight for footfall

Dubbed the Millennium City for its malls and highrises, Gurgaon is undergoing a slow changeover. Construction, going through a boom phase in the first few years of this millennium, have taken a different turn.

The reason, according to market analysts and experts in the real estate sector, is multifold: the saturation point for malls as many as 32 mall projects were taken up in Gurgaon in 2005-06 opening up of space for builders by Delhi, liquidity crunch, and topped by the slowdown effect.

The result: DLF, a major player in the real estate business, has indefinitely postponed its Mall of India, touted to be Asia's biggest mall-cum-commercial complex. Instead, the company is building "affordable" housing in the new sectors, under Gurgaon's Masterplan 2021.

This is not an isolated case, and experts say the focus would remain on budget housing in the next few years.

Market analysts say developers would rather consolidate present infrastructure than expand. They give at least three years to budget constructions before the focus shifts back to malls.

According to realtors, simple demand-supply economics saw as many as 32 mall projects getting the green signal in 2005-06 alone these are besides commercial complexes and office spaces. By 2012, Gurgaon is expected to have 20 malls operating.

What also put a check on the construction spree, so far as malls are concerned, is that Delhi auctioned prime land to builders for malls. Result: the already limited number of retailers and shoppers opted for the Capital.

• Market Projection: Not So Good
  
• Govt Offering: Good For Low-Cost
  
• Public Demand: More In Low-Income Category

Today, almost two decades later, India's love with shopping malls has resulted in mushrooming of malls. Every city, even small ones like Sangli, Moradabad, Patiala or Madurai have them. In this age of liberalization and consumerism, these malls are the "temples of new India". A place to hangout with friends or even take a visiting relatives too. One thing, which I have noticed is, in most Indian shopping malls, its only 1% who buy something while the rest 99% only go there to hangout. It is all about being seen at the right place. You may buy good stuff at bargain prices at Linking road or Lajpat Nagar market but you would want show off it was bought at a hip exclusive mall.

This Indian love for Mall and mushrooming of mall cities has an ugly side to it too. As malls bloom across Ahmadabad, Pune or Gurgaon, what goes under them are farmlands, protected forests or heritage buildings. I have personally witnessed this "great Indian land grab" in Pune where miles and miles of lush urban forest were deserved. And what stands in it's place? Shopping malls of course! I was aghast when one of my friends in Pune remarked that it was a good thing that forest was not there, as land was being "wasted" and now had been put to good use as a shopping mall!

Gurgaon is a prime example. It has many shopping malls; in fact it is the mall capital of India. But how many museums does it have? How many theatres (drama not movie!) does it have? How many public parks does it have? It is an enclave of "haves" in the heart of "have not's" in rural Haryana leading to social tensions.

Contrast this with desert city of Jaisalmer. It may not have any shopping malls it as anyone will agree, far more living, cultured than Gurgaon. They are far more rooted in soil where people don't live in gated communities named after their American counterparts like "Bel Air" or "Santa Ana".

Jaisalmer has a soul but does Gurgaon have it? I don't think so. Gurgaon is far more a cultural desert than Jaisalmer.

Source: desicritics.org Indian Cities Today: Cultural Desert of Tomorrow?

The Delhi Cabinet on Wednesday cleared the Excise Policy for 2009-10, which will allow liquor vends to open shop in shopping malls.

These outlets would be allowed to display and sell both Indian Made Foreign Liquor and Imported Foreign Liquor.

At present, liquor in shopping malls is found only in the NCR towns of Faridabad and Gurgaon, both in Haryana.

Mall owners in the city have welcomed the decision.

Arjun Sharma, director of Select Citywalk, a mall in Saket, south Delhi, said: "Buying liquor is not a taboo or a sin and should find space in a shopper's bag,"he said, adding that a mall provides a secure environment, especially to women, to buy such items.

The Cabinet also cleared the proposal to hike prices of country-made liquor in the Capital.

Source: Hindustan Times Licensed To Serve: Malls Will Sell Liquor, New Exice Policy- Country-Made Liquor To Cost More

According to global real estate consultant CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), rentals in the NCR have corrected by about 10 per cent in the first six months over the second half of 2008.

It said the decline was similar to an overall drop of 20-40 per cent from the levels witnessed in the beginning of 2008.

"Prime high-streets and mall spaces continue to be the focus for expansion for retailers as the rentals in these spaces have corrected due to the reduced demand and high rental values," CBRE said in the report.

The consultant further said that in Mumbai rentals are showing correction by 10-15 per cent amidst limited supply of "quality" space on some prime high-streets through the first half of 2009.

The slowdown has forced many retailers to re-negotiate rentals with developers and landlords of several malls and high-street properties, it added.

Source: Realty Plus Rental prices of retail spaces fall by up to 15%: CBRE