Only 13 malls out of 95 in Delhi-NCR successful, says a report

The Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) region has emerged as the country's mall capital with 95 operational malls but only 13 of them are doing good business while the rest are faltering.

Those doing poor or merely average business constitute as much as 86 per cent of the total.

According to a Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL) India report, "No other city comes close to the number of operational malls that are found in Delhi-NCR. There are around 255 operational malls in the top seven cities of India and Mumbai comes at the second spot with 46 malls out of which 10-15 are successful while the others are not attracting enough shoppers.

"Bangalore, Pune, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad are the other cities included in the report.

The success rate of these malls varies, usually depending on factors like design and layout, the mall's brand positioning, location and how well they cater for the needs of their target segments.

Besides, whether or not they have been able to evolve into family destinations rather than just remaining shopping centres plays a big role, the report points out.

The report also states that among these seven cities, Delhi-NCR is currently best placed for hosting successful, large-sized malls.

The report lists Select City Walk in Saket, Ambience Mall in NH-8 and Vasant Kunj, the DLF malls in Saket and Vasant Kunj, Pacific Mall in West Delhi and MGF Metropolitan Mall on MG Road, Gurgaon, among the most successful ones.

The report grades malls according to their average vacancy levels and rentals. The best-performing malls in the Delhi-NCR region enjoy a low average vacancy of around 10 per cent.

The rentals are in indirect proportion to the vacancy levels. So, while rentals are high in malls with vacancy levels of 10 per cent or less and low in those with 20-30 per cent vacancy levels, they are poor in malls with average vacancy levels of 30 per cent or more.

Leading malls enjoy the privilege of deciding on which brands to house, and continuously monitor all stores in case they follow a revenue share model. Global and leading Indian brands either prefer to lease spaces in premium malls or go in for highstreet retail locations.

They are even willing to wait for vacancy in premium malls. Location is an important differentiating variable between most of the successful malls in NCR and their less spectacularly performing counterparts.