New Delhi, Feb 6 (IANS): Industrial and Logistics (I&L) sector leasing grew by 8 per cent YoY to touch 31.6 million sq. ft. in 2022 despite global headwinds, and a slowdown in e-commerce demand and dissipation of the post-pandemic need to hold additional inventories, a report said on Monday.

"This is the second-highest leasing activity recorded in the I&L sector after the 2019 peak of 32 million sq. ft.," the report released by CBRE South Asia said.

As per the report, Delhi-NCR led the absorption with 7.3 million sq. ft., followed by Mumbai and Bengaluru with 6.1 million sq. ft. and 5.2 million sq. ft. in 2022, respectively.

Also, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru accounted for almost 60 per cent of the leasing activity during the year.

All cities recorded stable or increased annual space take-up except Bengaluru and Pune.

"Mumbai, followed by Delhi-NCR dominated large-sized deal closures in 2022, together accounting for about 44 per cent of large-sized deals."

Chairman and CEO-India, South-East Asia, Middle East & Africa, CBRE, Anshuman Magazine, said: "The intent to strengthen the supply chain among global and domestic companies drove the leasing activity in 2022. The activity in 2023 is expected to remain range-bound, driven by sustained demand. On the supply front, we foresee project completions to exceed the 2022 levels and be in line with space take-up during 2023."

During the July-December 2022 period, supply addition improved by 11 per cent on a half-yearly basis to 11 million sq. ft.

These development completions were led by Delhi-NCR, Chennai, Bengaluru and Mumbai, all of which together accounted for about 73 per cent of the total supply, the report said.