Bangalore, November 23, 2006 : Aggressive growth is forecast for the Bangalore commercial and retail real estate by real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL). New supply will prevent the market from overheating.

The retail market in Bangalore has been equally active. The city witnessed the launch of hyper marts by retailers such as Pantaloon, Food World and Spencer�s. Upcoming malls are expected to witness pre-leasing activity on account of increased occupier demand. Recent transactions indicate that high-street shops will continue to command high occupier-interest in the medium term.

Acoording to JLL, the Bangalore commercial real estate market is increasingly seeing land acquisitions by the IT/ITES industry. Corporations such as Hewlett Packard, Siemens, Tata Consultancy Services, Synergy Systems and Bharti Televentures are setting up owned facilities rather than opting for leased spaces in Bangalore. This indicates their long-term interest in Bangalore as the preferred location.

The pre-leasing activity has been quite buoyant in Bangalore since 1Q06, evidenced by Grade A stock in SBD registering vacancy levels of 0% for the first time in 3Q06.