Revival and repurposing: New futures await for India's ghost malls, says Knight Frank report

Knight Frank identified 74 shopping malls in India under the ghost malls category

A number of ghost malls in India across multiple cities can be revived with relatively low investments and a range of global partners, and such properties can also be repurposed into being office spaces, as well as other end uses, says a report on underperforming and defunct/dormant malls by Knight Frank India.

Of the 365 shopping centres surveyed by Knight Frank in the Think India Think Retail 2025 report, 74 were classified in the ghost category, representing around 15.5 million square feet in shopping mall space, constituting around 20 percent of the total shopping mall inventory. Much of the ghost malls are in the Grade-B and Grade-C categories, with markedly lower spending to develop than Grade-A malls.

Such malls are marked by declining infrastructure, high vacancies, low footfalls, and weak tenant curation. In some cases, revival remains a tough prospect, as some of these malls are strata-sold to a number of landlords, and are often caught up in disputes, or recovery proceedings by banks and financial institutions.

The report stated that of the pool of 74 ghost malls, 15 properties with a total leasable area of 4.8 million square feet can be revived, and can generate rental income of Rs 357 crore, mostly in Tier-I cities, if revived effectively.

Ankita Sood, national director and head of research at Knight Frank India, noted that some dormant or ghost malls have already been revived with the help of small investments. This includes the Nitesh Hub mall in Koregaon Park, Pune, which was revived by the ADIA-backed Lake Shore Mall platform, and is now a significant retail destination in the city, also hosting the city's first Apple-owned showroom.

Malls have also seen revival after they were repurposed towards offices and educational institutions, among other uses. K Raheja Corp's Inorbit Malls permanently closed its Pune mall in Viman Nagar, which had low footfall due to local oversupply, and converted the property into an office space. Since then, it has housed clients such as Amazon Web Services and Fiserv.

While revival of ghost malls represents a significant value proposition for the retail industry in India, Knight Frank warned that external help in terms of investments and expertise may be needed for effective reinvigoration of these properties.

"Reinvigoration costs differ significantly by asset - location, design upgrades, and tenant repositioning all influence the required investment. A standard cost benchmark isn’t practical, as each centre’s needs differ. Some owners or landlords may manage incremental upgrades, but deeper repositioning will typically require external investors who can bring both capital and expertise," according to a statement from Knight Frank India.