New Delhi, Jan 16 (IANS): Leasing of office space increased 22 per cent across six major cities of the country in 2019, taking to gross absorption to 57.72 million square feet, a Savills India report said on Thursday.

The property consultancy firm predicted that the demand for Grade-A commercial space is likely to stay strong in 2020, driven by several factors like expansions, consolidations and upgrades to employee-centric workspaces.

Hyderabad recorded the highest year-on-year increase in terms of absorption compared to the other cities, the report said.

"At 9.5 million square feet in 2019, Hyderabad witnessed a growth of 53.2 per cent from 6.2 million square feet space absorption in the previous year. It was also the city which added maximum stock at 9.9 million square feet," it said.

Anurag Mathur, CEO, Savills India said: "The commercial segment, especially, the office space market is going from strength to strength, beating its own record of 47.3 million square feet in 2018, to set a new one at 57.7 mn square feet in 2019."

He added that this growth symbolises that office space across key markets is on a strong footing, based largely on India's increasing capabilities in technology sector, rise in flexible spaces, formalisation of the Indian economy and the growing offshoring by western corporations.

Mathur said that despite headwinds in the domestic economy, the growth trend may continue in 2020 as well.

The report observed that NCR is a notable highlight of the year and was the only one apart from Bengaluru to go past 10 million square fee absorption, a year on year growth of 13.7 per cent.

The survey was carried out in the National Capital Region (NCR), Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai.