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Grade-A offices, hybrid-ready layouts and ESG-first campuses have emerged as top priorities for India’s Global Capability Centres (GCCs). The CBRE India Office Occupier Survey 2025 reveals that workplace choices are now strategic levers, shaping how GCCs attract talent, drive innovation and deliver global impact. This shift is redefining India’s commercial real estate playbook.

The survey highlights that 70% of occupiers prefer Grade-A office spaces, with GCCs among the strongest drivers of this trend. For organisations managing global operations, high-quality infrastructure is not just a matter of prestige but a necessity. Grade-A offices offer resilience, security and scalability—critical factors for firms running high-value functions such as AI-led analytics, product engineering and regulatory technology.

Moreover, 52% of respondents cited workplace quality as a decisive factor in talent attraction and retention, an area where GCCs are competing fiercely. For young professionals seeking global careers, the quality of the physical workplace is often as important as salary packages or learning opportunities.

As hybrid working cements itself, the survey shows that 64% of occupiers are reconfiguring office layouts to suit a blend of in-office and remote work. GCCs, managing large global teams across time zones, have been early adopters of this model. From video-first conference rooms to digital collaboration pods, the emphasis is on making hybrid seamless, not secondary.

Interestingly, 49% of occupiers plan to increase flexible space adoption, particularly near residential hubs. For GCCs, this reflects a strategy to balance employee convenience with productivity, ensuring that teams can collaborate without long commutes—a consideration that has grown sharper in India’s Tier I cities.

A striking finding from the survey is the growing emphasis on sustainability. Over 60% of occupiers now integrate ESG goals into workplace strategy, focusing on energy efficiency, green certifications and wellness-centric designs. For GCCs, ESG-first workplaces are more than compliance—they serve as signals to global headquarters that India operations are future-ready, responsible and aligned with corporate purpose.

Workplace sustainability is also shaping brand perception in the talent market. Employees increasingly value eco-conscious employers and GCCs are leveraging this by investing in carbon-neutral campuses, renewable energy adoption and indoor air quality systems that improve well-being.

The numbers tell a compelling story: India’s GCCs contributed over US$64.6 billion in revenue in FY2024, employing 1.9 million professionals. As the scale of their operations expands, so too does the complexity of their workplace needs. Real estate is no longer a backdrop—it is part of the strategic toolkit to drive innovation, collaboration and resilience.

The transition from transactional leasing to strategic workplace planning signals a new chapter for India’s commercial real estate market. Developers, landlords and policymakers must align with this shift by prioritising Grade-A supply, hybrid-ready design and ESG-compliance to fully capture the GCC opportunity.

As GCCs continue to expand into high-value domains such as AI, platform engineering and digital finance, their workplace choices will set the benchmark for India’s office market. In this sense, the rise of GCCs is not just transforming India’s role in the global economy—it is rewriting the very blueprint of the Indian workplace.