Mall Management: A Challenge for Indian Retail Industry

Mall mania that has gripped the Indian real estate has some challenges for the malls owners that need to be taken care of. A study done by ICICI Property Services-Technopak, on Indian retail sector, said that mall management is going to be a major challenge for the retail industry. So far, the trend is that some property developer develops a mall and then, he sells it to some investor, who then leases it out to retailers and this whole process creates ownership issue, which creates problems in maintaining the malls. The report said such malls are owned neither by developers nor by the retailers but are slowly owned by individual financial investors, which create unplanned and haphazard developments for the malls and eventually it depreciates the rental value of the malls. The report suggested that mall owners and developers need to keep in mind the importance of controlling and managing their malls in order to capitalize on their investments. Lack of differentiated offerings was termed as one the major shortages in the Indian retail industry. As of now the trend is that most of the mall developers offer the same kind of malls which have spaces for shopping, food and films, but as the number of malls will increase people will look for malls location and what new it’s offering that will become a major factor in raising or lowering its asset value. According to the report, mix retail planning and tenant selection will be one of the key factors for the success of malls and the real estate developers in India. It will be required to renegotiate the lease that comes up for renewal on specific transparent performance measures. Last but not the least, the study said, before going for malls development, issues such as facilities management, utilities management, market and promotions, event management, and hospitality should be taken into account. Source:indianrealtynews