Hyderabad: The city, which has been nursing ambitions of beating India’s Silicon Valley, is all set to overtake Bengaluru when it comes to office space absorption this year if not in terms of IT exports, former IT minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) working president K Taraka Rama Rao said here on Wednesday.

Pointing out that the youngest state of Telangana had started out in 2014 with an `audacious’ target of beating Bengaluru, KTR said 2019 might just be the year when Hyderabad, which accounts for 27% of office space absorption in the country, might notch up a victory of sorts.

“We started out with IT exports of Rs 52,258 crore in 2013-14…we said what can we do to beat Bengaluru. It seemed a bit audacious... but I am delighted to share that this just might be the year, because a strong indicator of growth is obviously office space absorption, where we will be beating Bengaluru by possibly, if not a mile, by an inch,” KTR said at the unveiling of realty consultancy firm JLL ’s new Hyderabad office.

Echoing the sentiment, JLL India CEO & country head Ramesh Nair said Hyderabad is poised to overtake Bengaluru to become the largest office space absorption market in the country this year at an estimated 11.4 million sq ft from 7.1 million sq ft in 2017-18.

“Compared to this, the net absorption in other cities remained relatively slower as the markets continued to witness consolidation, primarily in IT/ITeS domain players, and relocation of corporates in a bid to lower costs and enhance efficiencies,” Nair said, adding that Hyderabad has the lowest vacancy for any market at 4%, down from earlier 18-19%.

He said going ahead, Hyderabad is likely to be the front runner in the office segment with 13.2 million sq ft, constituting 28% of the overall new completions in India in 2019, of which almost 50-60% space is already pre-committed.

“The formation of Telangana has added to the growth potential of the city. There is a growing preference among global as well as domestic occupier companies toward quality assets. Expansion led by co-working operators, BFSI and select IT/ITeS companies have resulted in the strong surge in Hyderabad,” he said.

Nair said, realty investment inflow in the city shot up from Rs 1,800 crore in the 2008-2014 period to Rs 10,100 crore in the 2015-H12019 period.

The JLL India head also said the consultancy firm’s Hyderabad operations have grown to around 1200 people, which is around 10% of the total JLL India headcount of 11,000.

