Mumbai, Nov 16 (IANS): Severely impacted by Covid-19 outbreak, Indian cities in 2020 saw the addition of just five new malls as against 54 expected before the coronavirus hit the nation, said an Anarock report on Monday.

Among the cities that added the new mall supply are Gurugram, Delhi, Lucknow and Bengaluru. The supply is far less than the previously predicted numbers, it noted.

"Before the COVID-19-catalysed lockdown in March, our research indicated that Indian cities were to see new supply of around 54 new malls in 2020 spread over nearly 22.2 million square feet area," Anuj Kejriwal, CEO & MD of Anarock Retail said.

Of this, the top 7 cities were to see new supply of nearly 35 malls spread over around 14.6 million square feet while tier 2 and 3 cities were to see new supply of 19 new malls over 7.6 million square feet, he said.

"COVID-19 added enormous pressure to the already delicately-poised Indian retail sector. The anticipated new mall supply was severely hit this year and most of it will spill over to 2021 and beyond. New completions have been deferred and leasing activity has been delayed," Kejriwal said.

As per the report, latest data indicates that 14 new malls spread over 5.9 million square feet area will get operational by 2021-end across Indian cities, and fit-outs are underway in at least 10 of them.

Among the cities that will see the maximum new supply in 2021 are Mumbai, with likely supply of at least six new malls, followed by Bengaluru, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram and Rourkela (Odisha).