MUMBAI: Sustained robust demand for office spaces has pushed leasing activity across the country in 2019 to a new record high. Gross office leasing volumes pan-India touched a 69.4 million sq ft in 2019, compared to 49.5 million sq ft a year ago, showed data from Cushman & Wakefield.While registering 40% on-year growth in leasing, preleasing activity also rose to a record level. Vacancy levels stayed low despite robust supply, rentals too increased, and co-working space take-up rose 1.43 times compared to 2018.The year witnessed record-high preleasing activity at 17.2 million sq ft, a 7.2% on-year growth. Of key markets, Hyderabad saw pre-commitments of 5.8 million sq ft, garnering 34% share of the total followed by Bengaluru ay 4.7 million sq ft at 27% share. Healthy pre-leasing demand was also witnessed in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Chennai.“Interestingly, the absorption figure for 2019 exceeds cumulative absorption of 2018 and 2017. Occupiers from the IT space expanded their real estate portfolio aggressively and contributed to the maximum share of leasing activity across sectors,” said Anshul Jain, Country Head & Managing Director, Cushman & Wakefield India. “On many notes, the office leasing performance in India surpassed industry expectations and paves the way for an optimistic year ahead.”According to him, among major metros, Hyderabad & Delhi-NCR noted unprecedented net absorption activity, Mumbai markets saw pre-commitment activity increase over twenty-fold compared to 2018, and Bengaluru led the market in gross leasing.Net absorption across India rose to an all-time high of around 45 million sq ft, a massive increase of 1.56 times from 29 million sq ft in 2018.During the year, flexible workspaces leased more than 7 million sq ft, a new record in the Indian commercial leasing landscape. Indian corporate entities have leased more than 100,000 seats with large operators in the country over the last two years. Delhi-NCR has the largest share of flexible working space demand at 2.4 million sq ft, a 94% on-year rise followed by Bengaluru at 1.7 million sq ft. Flex-space demand in Pune touched 1 million sq ft, a 3-fold rise on an annual basis.Information technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) sector continued to be the largest demand driver in 2019 with a share of 32.6% in leasing activity followed by Captive and Global Capability Centers at 19.8% share of total leasing.Bengaluru topped the charts with 16.47 million sq ft demand followed by Delhi-NCR at 13.95 million sq ft, Mumbai 13.9 million sq ft and Hyderabad 10.7 million sq ft. At 3.6%, office vacancy in Pune dropped to the lowest in the country followed by Bengaluru at 5.2%, Hyderabad at 5.5% and Chennai 9.7%.New supply of office spaces rose 47% from a year ago to 50.6 million sq ft during the year, with Delhi-NCR accounting for the largest share at 27%, where new completions have grown by a massive 140% during the year. Office stock in Hyderabad grew by 21% with new supply of 10 million sq ft during the year.