A well-planned city off the west coast of Maharashtra-Navi Mumbai is emerging as a major commercial hotspot in recent times due to its developed infrastructure and superb connectivity to Mumbai and Pune. The region is situated across two popular districts namely Thane and Raigad.
Because of the ample availability of land parcels here, rentals for offices are relatively affordable currently. Due to this, newly incorporated companies & startups love to establish their base in Mumbai. According to a recent data, around 500 new startups companies are registered here till date and the number is increasing every month at a fast pace.
So let’s understand the thriving factors which are attracting investors and top companies towards Navi Mumbai:
Connectivity
Navi Mumbai enjoys a good public transportation system which connects this planned city to other parts of the Mumbai and Pune. Major railway junctions of Navi Mumbai are Vashi, Nerul, Belapur, and Panvel. BEST and Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT) buses are also operational in the region. The Mumbai-Pune Expressway starts at Kalamboli in Navi Mumbai and connects this city to Pune and Mumbai.
Apart from this, proposed infrastructure like Navi Mumbai International Airport and Navi Mumbai Metro will also boost the connectivity of the area in near future.
Infrastructure
Navi Mumbai boasts good social infrastructure with numerous flyovers, broad roads, and parking lots. There are ample utility services, banks, restaurants, malls, multiplexes, famous schools, and hospitals located in Navi Mumbai. Areas like Vashi host several shopping malls such as Center One, Palm Beach Galleria, Citi Center, Raghuleela Mall and Inorbit Mall along with Seawoods Grand Central Mall in Seawoods and Little World Mall and Glomax in Kharghar.
Commercial Hotspot
The Navi Mumbai SEZ located in the nodes of Dronagiri and Kalamboli are planned to provide commercial growth and employment to the city up to a major extent. This megaproject has attracted investments of close to 40,000 crores till date.
CIDCO is already running two fully occupied IT parks at Belapur and Vashi which cumulatively offer 1.6 million sq. ft. in office space.
Apart from this, according to a recent report, approximately 8 million sq. ft. of office space is expected to be developed in Navi Mumbai in the coming 4-5 years which includes several non-IT and IT parks. Kharghar Business Park, a major project of CIDCO is also in the final stages of its designing and planning.
Experts say that due to the upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport and improvements in road and railway connectivity, the increase in demand for office space in this area has increased up to a large extent. Hence, Navi Mumbai is emerging as one of the most desired destinations for real estate developers and corporates after Gurgaon, Pune, and Bangalore.
Rates and trends
At present, there are 70 reputed IT and financial companies functioning in three major IT parks developed by K Raheja Corp under Gigaplex and Mindspace brands. However, in the last 2-3 years, rental prices have already shot up to Rs. 50-52 per sq. ft. from Rs. 27-28 per sq. ft. around 6-7 years earlier.
As per the experts, land prices in Navi Mumbai are still on the reasonable side as compared to other major IT corridors in India. This makes it a highly attractive market for large corporate companies.
Other major developers like Panchshil Realty from Pune and Embassy Group from Bangalore are already eyeing for commercial space in the region. IKEA and Foxconn, among other global biggies, are also coming to the region in the near future with high investments.