India’s industrial and logistics demand down 30% in Q1 2020

India’s Industrial and logistics real estate quarterly demand dropped by 30% in the first quarter of 2020, according to JLL’s latest report “COVID-19: Industrial & Logistics Sector in India. Impact and Opportunities,” This has been lower than the previous first quarter of last three years (2017 – 2019) demonstrating a contraction of approx due to nationwide lockdown. India’s warehousing sector, driven by new supply in eight major metros including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi NCR and Pune, saw an approximately 15% contraction (in mn sq. ft.) during January-March, the first quarter of 2020. Net absorptions stood at 5.9 mn sq. ft. in the midst of the lockdown across the country starting March 2020. As the impact of the national lockdown becomes clearer, the leases and active RFPs that were in various stages of closure are likely to be completed in the third and fourth quarters of 2020. The lockdown has frozen supply chains across multiple sectors, both in production and stockpiling. The report highlights that the medium-term will experience an uptake in demand of urban logistics and in-city warehousing. The logistics sector is expected to see long-term growth as e-commerce expands and with enhanced infrastructure support