Cushman & Wakefield, Nuvama Hit $200M First Close of India Office Fund

A joint venture of Cushman & Wakefield and Mumbai-based Nuvama Asset Management has reached a INR 17 billion ($200 million) first closing for a private fund investing in prime office properties across India’s high-growth markets.

NCW, which the two companies introduced as their joint investment platform last January, aims to achieve the fund’s target size of INR 30 billion within the next two quarters, according to a release on Thursday. The vehicle focuses on top-quality “offices of the future” in India’s six premier cities: Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Nuvama Asset Management president Anshu Kapoor hailed the “overwhelming response” to the JV and the Prime Offices Fund, which aims to give investors access to an Indian commercial real estate market historically dominated by global players.

“The Indian commercial real estate sector continues to demonstrate remarkable resilience, emerging as one of the brightest spots for investors,” Kapoor said. “At Nuvama, we are committed to delivering high-quality alternative investment solutions, and this marks a significant step towards the journey. We are now on the threshold of making our first investment.”

Investor Confidence

The Prime Offices Fund targets investments across a portfolio of new developments, as well as completed and leased assets, and has already built a deal pipeline for deployment, NCW said. No limited partners were disclosed, but the fund’s investors are understood to include domestic family offices and high-net-worth individuals.

NCW is a 50:50 JV of property consultancy Cushman & Wakefield and Nuvama Asset Management, the alternatives arm of Nuvama Wealth Management (formerly Edelweiss Securities). Nuvama Group, whose backers include Asia-focused private equity firm PAG, oversees the equivalent of $51 billion in client assets, catering to India’s richest families.

The successful first closing of the Prime Offices Fund reflects growing confidence in India’s commercial real estate market, said Anshul Jain, CEO for India and Southeast Asia at Cushman & Wakefield. The $350 million vehicle seeks to combine the fund management capabilities of Nuvama with Cushman’s commercial real estate expertise.

“This is just the beginning — we look forward to strategically deploying these funds to shape world-class office spaces that redefine the future of work in India, while striving to deliver strong returns,” Jain said.

Market Momentum

The fundraising milestone comes in the wake of a record-breaking 12 months for India’s office leasing market, with the nation’s top eight cities recording an all-time high of 89 million square feet (8.3 million square metres) of gross leasing volume in 2024, according to a Cushman & Wakefield report.

The annual figure topped 2023 levels by 19 percent and marked three straight years of growth in office market activity. Leading the charge were global capability centres — offshore units set up by multinationals to provide support services like IT, HR and finance to the parent company — which accounted for 29 percent of overall demand for office space last year, the report said.

The second half of 2024 saw 58 percent of the year’s total gross leasing volume, with 24 million square feet of fresh leases signed in the fourth quarter alone.

“As we move into 2025, the demand for Grade A spaces is expected to remain robust, further solidifying India’s dominance in the global office market,” Jain said.