Mastercard Technology has leased over 400,000 square feet of space in a commercial building in Pune for 20 years with rent starting at Rs 4.12 crore per month, documents accessed by Propstack showed.
The 423,070 sq. ft of space at Nephronia Ecopaces is owned by Witwicky One and Farokh Framji Wadia in the Yerwada area of Pune, the lease agreement showed. The space is being developed and is likely to be delivered in three phases between October 2022 and October 2024.
The lock-in period is 10 years and the security deposit is for 12 months. Rent escalation is at the rate of 4.75 percent per annum from the commencement of lease and includes car parking and signage. The commercial space comes with parking for 683 cars and 1,174 two-wheelers.
Mastercard Technology, a unit of Mastercard in India, did not respond to queries from Moneycontrol seeking comment on the deal.
“This transaction is significant due to multiple reasons – it’s a pre-committed, built-to-suit transaction and a long-term lease by a blue chip corporate and involves an active institutional investor. While there are macroeconomic indicators of a slowdown, this deal indicates that the India growth story is intact in the long term,” said Raja Seetharaman, cofounder of Propstack, a real estate data, analytics and workflow solutions platform.
The Reserve Bank of India lifted business restrictions imposed on Mastercard on June 16, almost a year after imposing the curbs.
Yerwada is a prime residential locality and sought-after commercial office destination in Pune. It is known as an IT-ITeS hub due to the presence of companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, NVIDIA Graphics, IBM and HCL Technologies. Top management and tax consultants such as KPMG, EY, PWC are also located here.
“With such high-profile occupiers and the presence of good residential developments, commercial office developments are always in demand in Yerwada,” said Bappaditya Basu, chief business officer at ANAROCK Commercial.
Yerwada has excellent physical infrastructure and connectivity to various parts of Pune. Creaticity Mall, Phoenix Marketcity, and Central Mall are located 5-6 km away, as is the airport.
With good quality grade-A office spaces, excellent residential options and well-developed physical and social infrastructure, demand for offices remains high in Yerwada.
Considering how IT-ITeS companies benefitted from the pandemic and how e-commerce spurred the use of online payments, such companies are in expansion mode.
Locking-in offices at current rates is beneficial considering that rentals are on the rise in Pune, a city with single-digit vacancies, Basu said.
With monthly rentals in the range of Rs 60 to Rs 80 per sq. ft, office spaces in Yerwada offer the best for employers and employees, he added.
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