Analysing the role of US firms in India’s office and investment markets

As India’s RE markets have surged in recent times, with both office and investment sectors recording their best-ever performance benchmarks in 2024, the role of US firms has continued to remain a bright spot.

Firms with their origins in the US have remained a leading light in India’s office market, accounting for an average 34.2% of gross leasing activity since 2022. In fact, 2024 was the year when US headquartered firms leased the most space across the top seven cities. The momentum continues to remain intact even in Q1 2025.

GCCs have been the mainstay of USD firms’ activity in India with a consistently 2/3rds share of leasing by US firms over the past 6-7 years. What has changed however, is the sectoral share within US GCCs; while Tech continued to lead, it has lost ground to both BFSI and Manufacturing, grabbing a larger share of US GCCs’ demand pie. This ties in with India’s long-term play at being a manufacturing powerhouse.

In the RE investment landscape, US investors have led the way with a 26.3% share of all private equity investments received in real estate since 2006. It is worth noting that US funds into Indian real estate have increased by 79% from 2006-2014 to the 2015-1Q 2025 period. During these periods, US based funds have doubled down on their investments into office, while taking strategic positions in warehousing and retail asset classes. Within residential, they have chosen to go the debt route mostly. Emerging segments like data centres have found traction from US funds in more recent years, while hotel acquisitions/investments have remained a key part of their India strategy. As India’s RE segments continue to flourish and grab bigger eyeballs in the global landscape, we analyse trends across corporate occupiers and RE investors who originate from the US and their role in shaping the India RE landscape.

Record leasing by US firms over 2022-Q1 2025 with 2024 being the highest annually; US GCCs rule the roost
 

We analysed the leasing volumes from 2017 to 1Q25 and split the period to pre-COVID (2017-2019) and last three years (2022-1Q25). The COVID affected period has been not considered to remove event-specific trend anomalies.

US occupiers continue to hold sway in the India office market, accounting for a 34.2% share in the 2022-Q1 2025 period. This period also coincided with the best-ever leasing numbers in absolute terms in 2024 with Q1 2025 maintaining the same quarterly average from the previous year.

While the share of US firms has declined between the 2017-2019 and the 2022-Q1 2025 periods, the absolute numbers are higher during the latter period by ~16%. This is indicative of India’s office market getting diversified in its occupier origins with this period also coinciding with Indian occupiers ramping up their activity levels and accounting for a higher share of overall leasing volumes.

What is more interesting is the sectoral trend around leasing activity by GCCs. US-origin GCCs have consistently maintained an over two-thirds share in the overall leasing activity by firms from the country, across the two periods under consideration, marking them out to be the biggest drivers of RE activity originating from US firms. With GCCs being stickier in their RE needs with a long-term growth vision, this share within leasing by US firms outlines the strategic place that India holds in the overall business plans for these large corporates.

With GCCs ruling the roost in office space activity across all time periods, it is not surprising that tech-driven Indian cities have garnered the lion’s share of space demand from US occupiers. Bengaluru is the absolute favourite and has strengthened its hold with a 35% share of leasing activity between 2022-Q1 2025. Hyderabad and Delhi NCR have emerged as the next preferred office markets by US occupiers, followed Chennai and Pune.

Tech remains the major contributor, BFSI and manufacturing-oriented GCCs recorded the biggest gain in gross leasing share
 

US-based GCCs account for c.70% of all leasing by GCCs in India since 2017 till Q1 2025.

Within the US GCC ecosystem, Tech remains a dominant force like its role in the overall US firms’ leasing footprint in the country. What is a noticeable trend is the rising share of BFSI and manufacturing sectors in the leasing activity attributable to US GCCs in more recent times. Both sectors have seen higher space take-up in absolute terms in the recent period, even as Tech-based GCCs were slightly lower in their activity levels.

Manufacturing GCCs saw the biggest jump in their contribution to leasing by US GCCs between the two time periods under analysis and were a direct impact of India’s policy push towards ‘Make in India’ which brought in more R&D roles in the same sector. BFSI firms are now making India their global innovation and development hub while supporting core business activity much like other sectors where cutting-edge R&D is being undertaken by the India GCC entity.

The split of US GCCs leasing activity by sector and then cross-analysed at a city level presents compelling evidence of Tech being evenly spread across cities. It is the dominant GCC sector across Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Pune and Kolkata.

Bengaluru is now a well-diversified GCC cluster, with a healthy share of GCCs across Manufacturing, BFSI and e-commerce.

Chennai is one of most well-balanced markets when looked at from the lens of US GCCs, with a near similar share of 21-22% across BFSI, E-commerce and Tech with Manufacturing just behind with a 17% share. It is reflected of a rounded ecosystem of industrial, tech and financial services which support the growth of different type of GCC operations.

Delhi NCR is largely Tech GCC dominated but has a good mix of BFSI and Consulting GCCs but has a more multi-sectoral GCC mix including telecom. 

Hyderabad has a similar mix to Bengaluru but shows a greater share of BFSI GCCs from the US while also being a big healthcare-pharma GCC hub for US firms.

Mumbai and Pune present unique characteristics with BFSI GCCs from US leading the charge in Mumbai and accounting for a sizeable ~1/3rd share in Pune as well. Mumbai is the only city among all where GCC operations by US-based BFSI firms trumped all other sectors.

US based occupiers continue to command a lion’s share of current office demand in the country. In the current active space requirements/RFP analysis, US firms hold a 45% share in the overall demand pie. This share rises to 55% when considering only demand originating from non-domestic occupiers in the India office market.

GCC led requirements make up 70% of all space demand from US occupiers, indicating the stickiness and long-term investment in their business strategy pivoting around India as a key R&D and innovation hub. India’s talent base offering skills at scale, overall ecosystem, inherent cost advantages and a growth-oriented policy push are all providing the impetus to achieve a progressive trajectory while also making India a globally competitive country.

US based investors pump in ~USD 22.5 bn in institutional investments since 2006, making them the biggest investor group among global geos
 

US based funds have consistently been the most dominant contributor to private equity investments in the real estate market in India. Institutional investments made by US investors total to approximately USD 22.5 billion since 2006, which equates to a 26.3% share of the total institutional investments since 2006 (USD 85+ bn).

What is interesting to note is that in near similar time periods being analysed, while the share of US funds as a % of total PE investments has declined over the two timeframes, the flow of institutional funds from the US in absolute terms has jumped 79% from 2006-2014 to 2015-Q1 2025. This period also coincides with proactive policy and regulatory reforms which supported a more seamless inflow of PE investments into the RE sector in India.

Between 2015-Q1 2025, US based funds have doubled down on office sector investments but diversified to warehousing, retail and even data centres

While US funds took a significant interest in residential sector between 2006-2014, a significant chunk was on account of legacy investments in the pre-GFC era. Office asset class was the other big bet with everything else witnessing marginal interest from US-based fund providers.

The story has undergone a big shift in the 2015 onwards period, with regulatory reforms not only increasing the pace of fund inflows from the US but fund managers becoming strategic in their investment decisions. They have doubled down on office with a significant share now invested in the warehousing/industrial sector and retail. While office remains a bright spot globally with India’s positioning as ‘office to the world’ resulting in historic performance benchmarks, the domestic consumption story has supported the growth in the warehousing and the brick-and-mortar retail segments. All of these are thus key to US funds’ investment flows. In the residential sector most investment bets by US based funds have been through strategic debt positions. Hotel investments have been more strategic. Even new-age segments like data centres have found interest from US based investors. All these trends indicate a long runway from investors with a wider asset class interest as overall economic growth forecasts for India are providing the right fillip for both core and growth investment strategies.

US fund providers continue to remain strategically aligned to investing in India RE ecosystem. While some of them have made successful exits through REIT listings, they continue to take long positions across the key asset classes of office, warehousing/industrial, retail as well as residential. They are showing keen interest in growing segments like data centres, co-living/student housing platforms and strategic acquisitions in hospitality, healthcare etc. With enough dry powder to deploy through new fund raises and competing with fund providers across multiple geos, US funds remain key players in the RE investment landscape. There remains intense competition for core assets/portfolios as well as platform deals with key development partners as the chase for the next big successful investment story continues across the India RE landscape.