This is How Much You Pay For a Tiny Space in Delhi's Iconic Khan Market

Bengaluru’s MG Road has been ranked first in the list of top 30 high streets across eight major cities, followed by Somajiguda in Hyderabad and Linking Road in Mumbai, according to Knight Frank. Interestingly, Delhi’s Khan market, which is most expensive high street location with Rs 1,000-1,500 per square feet monthly rental, has been ranked at 27th position.

Real estate consultant Knight Frank India said that the ranking is based on parameters that determine the quality of experience high streets provide to customers.

The ranking is based on five parameters — parking, public transport, store visibility, spending quotient and average trading density.

As per the ranking, South Extension (Part 1 and Part 2) in Delhi is at fourth position.

Kolkata’s Park Street and Camac Street are at the fifth position, followed by Chennai’s Anna Nagar, Bengaluru’s Commercial Street, Noida’s Sector 18 Market, Bengaluru’s Brigade Road and Bengaluru’s Church Street.

The top ten high streets are those that are convenient in terms of access, parking facilities and with a varied assortment of retailers. The layout and master planning of the high street define the visibility.

”Bengaluru has the best of high streets that provide a significantly better shopping experience with 4 of its markets making it to the top 10 list,” real estate consultant Knight Frank India said in its report ‘Think India Think Retail 2023 – High Street Real Estate Outlook’ released on Wednesday.

The consultant has conducted a primary survey of 30 high street locations in eight major markets of India.

Inward looking markets like Khan Market (Delhi) and DLF Galleria (Gurugram) scored very low, whereas markets aligned along the access road like MG Road (Bengaluru), Somajiguda (Hyderabad), Linking Road (Mumbai), Anna Nagar, Park Street and Camac Street (Kolkata) scored high on the list, the consultant said.

Total high street retail stock is 13.2 million square feet spread across 4,875 retail stores in the top eight markets.

Out of this, 5.7 million square feet is modern retail and 7.5 million square feet is non-modern retail.

After careful assessment of the average trading densities in top 10 retailer categories across 30 high street locations, Knight Frank said the potential consumption in the high streets is derived at nearly USD 2 billion for FY 2023-24.

This represents 19 per cent of the potential consumption of USD 11 billion projected for operational shopping mall stock in FY 2023-24.

Knight Frank India CMD Shishir Baijal said, ”Retail is a highly competitive business and, more recently with the advent of malls, is also closely related to the overall customer experience.” Globally, he said, cities are identified by their high streets, often one of the main attractions of the city, and the brands on these streets – a barometer of the city’s worth on a global platform.

”But as we evolve, customer experience is the key and due to their traditional nature, high streets often fail to provide amenities like those of shopping centres.

”However, as cities in India are modernising, we see many high streets in the country reviving as facilities like access, parking, store visibility etc. have improved.” He estimated that the average per square metre revenues of high streets will be significantly higher than those of malls in FY 2023–24.

”Going forward, we expect that high streets provide a good retailing experience to customers to see a revival even as other formats of retail continue to thrive,” Baijal said. Commenting on the report, Omaxe Ltd Director Jatin Goel said, ”Over the last couple of years, overall shopping preferences have tilted majorly in favour of organised retail. Both malls and high-street retail are witnessing a surge in footfalls and occupancy levels. The demand has been particularly high from the lifestyle and F&B segments. Rentals have also inched up across high-street over the last two years.”