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Bengaluru office projects face 15-month approval lags
The Hindu BusinessLine··30 Aug
Bengaluru commercial developers report long gaps between paying sanction fees and starting work. One project was delayed nearly 15 months from March 2024 to August 2025. Featherlite's Aditya Chellaram linked delays to the BBMP-to-GBA shift. ANAROCK said Grade A office absorption rose 2 percent to 27.44 million sq ft in H1 2026 as completions fell to 22.15 million sq ft.
Prism
What It Means For You
- Office tenants in tight corridors such as Outer Ring Road may see new supply respond slowly while approvals lag.
- Developers face financing costs cited between 14 and 19 percent a year while capital sits idle pre-construction.
- Mumbai leasing rose 33 percent to 7.3 million sq ft in H1 2026 even as completions there fell 30 percent.
What's Happening
- Chellaram said capital for land, fees and design earns nothing while GBA approvals move slowly.
- ANAROCK's Santhosh Kumar said bottlenecks include land-use changes, building plans and multi-agency NOCs.
- Top-seven-city vacancy fell to 15 percent from 16.3 percent, with Bengaluru vacancy at 10.8 percent from 12.4 percent.
Why Approvals Became The Bottleneck
- Bengaluru's shift from BBMP to the Greater Bengaluru Authority rerouted many clearances through a new structure.
- Arkade's Amit Jain said Mumbai's issue is less broad delay than unpredictability when permissions are sequential.
- Chellaram expects ease as GBA systems mature but said that has not fully happened yet.
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