Quality real estate space is a key concern of the retail industry in India. With recent changes in the regulatory environment, the opening up of the market to foreign investors, the growth of private equity and rising demand for posh residential and commercial premises, are factors that are gradually transforming the traditional real estate sector into a more transparent and accessible market. The same holds true for the real estate scenario down South.

Images F&R Research, with Cushman & Wakefield as knowledge partners, conducted the South India Retail & Realty Report study. Given below are a few key points from the report:

South India retail market size
The retail market in South India is valued at Rs 262,930 crore (at 2006 current prices). Out of this, the size of the organised retailing market in 2006 stood at Rs 12,825 crore, comprising 4.9 per cent of the total. Only 4.6 of the all-India retail market was organised in 2006.

In nine out of 13 retail categories, the South market is better organised than the country average.

Of the major southern states, the organised retail constituent is highest in Karnataka (5.3%), followed by Kerala (4.8%), Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu (4.7% each). Pondicherry is 5.3 percent organised.

F&G is the largest retail category (South India : Rs 162,313 crore; all-India Rs 743,900 crore), and here, in the South 1.2 per cent is organised, as against 0.8 per cent for the whole of India.

Fashion is the largest category in the organised retail segment, valued at Rs 4,665 crore and comprising 19 per cent of the organised market share in South India.

Employment in retail
With organised retail growing at an annual average of 45 per cent, the industry is gaining higher weightage in the overall sectoral employment outlook ranking. The retail, media and FMCG sectors together score highest with 8 points in the 2006 Retail Labour Index, followed by the infrastructure sector (7 points).

There are about 15 million retail units in the country, including the paan stalls and neighbourhood kirana stores, and about 50 million people are dependent for their livelihood on these.

Retail and wholesale absorbs 8.7 per cent of the country's total workforce.

South India employs nearly 21.5 per cent of the 50 million people engaged in retail and wholesale, which is roughly 11 million.

In Karnataka, 9.4 per cent of the employed/self-employed people are engaged in retail and wholesale activities. Among the South states, Andhra Pradesh has the highest absolute numbers engaged in this sector, which is 3.6 million.

Future projections show that retail will generate nearly 11 million additional jobs across the country by year 2010, when the share of retail in total employed will go up to 9.9 per cent (equivalent to 60.6 million).

The percentage share for Karnataka will be 10.8 per cent (3.55 million) in 2010, for Andhra Pradesh it will be 9.8 per cent (4.3 million), followed by Tamil Nadu (3.12 million) and Kerala (1.8 million).

South India real estate market
By year 2007-08, an estimated 100 million square feet of quality shopping centre space is expected to generate retail sales of over Rs 50,000 crore (US$11 billion). Concurrent with the growth in organised retail, the present two square foot-per-capita retailing space will rise by 15-20 per cent by 2010. By year 2011, roughly 300 million square feet of additional retail space is likely to be generated.

Currently, there are about 200 operational malls, and this number is expected to rise to almost 600 by the year 2010-11. Of the new malls coming up, 40 per cent are concentrated in the country's smaller towns and cities.

The total supply of shopping centre space in South India is 14.1 million square feet (2006-07), accounting for an increase of about five million square feet over the space available in 2004.

On the basis of announced projects, by end-2007 the North zone will account for 41 per cent share of the total shopping centre space in India, followed by the West zone accounting for 35 per cent share, and the South with 16.8 per cent share. The remaining 7 per cent developments will take shape in the East.