<p data-path-to-node="4"><b data-path-to-node="4" data-index-in-node="0">NEW DELHI / MUMBAI</b> — Demonstrating structural resilience and continued expansion across primary consumption and production hubs, India’s industrial and logistics real estate sector recorded gross leasing absorption of 24.3 million square feet (MSF) during the third quarter of 2026 (Q3 2026). The performance marks a robust 14.1% year-on-year increase compared to the corresponding period last year, driven by sustained manufacturing investments, aggressive inventory consolidation by third-party logistics (3PL) aggregators, and early seasonal inventory build-ups ahead of the fourth-quarter festive peak.</p><p data-path-to-node="5">According to institutional property market data tracking India’s top tier-1 and primary industrial clusters, manufacturing occupiers outpaced 3PL providers for the first time in several quarters, capturing 31% of overall net space take-up. This surge in manufacturing absorption has been propelled by automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), electric vehicle (EV) supply chain ecosystems, consumer electronics assemblers, and engineering goods producers capitalizing on the central government's Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes and broader "China+1" supply chain diversification strategies.</p><p data-path-to-node="6">Third-party logistics (3PL) operators remained a fundamental demand anchor, accounting for 29% of gross absorption as supply chain players expanded regional distribution footprints to manage high-throughput, multi-client operations. Retail and quick-commerce platforms captured approximately 17% of total leased volume, prioritizing large-format regional consolidation centers and urban edge dark-store networks situated within perimeter logistics belts.</p><p data-path-to-node="7">Geographically, regional demand was spearheaded by Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru, which collectively accounted for nearly 42% of total national space absorption during the quarter. In Delhi-NCR, transaction activity concentrated heavily along the Western Peripheral Expressway (WPE), Bilaspur-Tauran, and Farukhnagar corridors, supported by heavy multimodal rail loops connecting to western deepwater seaports. Bengaluru recorded sustained occupier demand across its eastern and western submarket corridors—particularly around Hoskote and Dobballapur—anchored by high-tech hardware assembly and consumer appliance distribution.</p><p data-path-to-node="8">Western industrial blocks across Mumbai (Bhiwandi, Taloja, and Panvel) and Pune (Chakan-Talegaon) accounted for 26% of overall absorption. In Mumbai, prime warehousing vacancies compressed to historic single-digit lows amid tight land supply along prime expressway arteries, giving institutional park developers pricing power and driving rental appreciation. Meanwhile, emerging secondary manufacturing and consumption markets—including Ahmedabad, Chennai, Coimbatore, and Lucknow—expanded their aggregate share of national leasing to 18%, underlining the deepening geographical decentralization of India's warehousing landscape.</p><p data-path-to-node="9">New Grade-A supply additions reached 21.8 million sq ft in Q3 2026, lagging net absorption and pushing overall national industrial vacancy rates down to 12.8%. Commercial real estate analysts noted that corporate occupiers are aggressively executing a decisive "flight to quality," eschewing decentralized, unorganized godowns in favor of institutional Grade-A campuses. Modern facilities featuring clear ceiling heights of 12 to 14 metres, FM2-compliant heavy-duty flooring matrices, high-density automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS), and IGBC Platinum sustainability ratings with solar rooftop integration have become baseline requirements for multinational enterprise tenants.</p><p data-path-to-node="10">With major multimodal transport arteries—including the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) and expressways under the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan—maturing into integrated transport loops, real estate asset managers project that gross industrial and logistics leasing across India will surpass 85 million sq ft for the full calendar year 2026, solidifying the subcontinental warehousing market as one of the fastest-growing industrial asset classes in the Asia-Pacific region.</p>