Hyderabad stands tall, second only to Mumbai, in skyscrapers: CBRE India report

HYDERABAD: Hyderabad stood second in India after Mumbai in high-rise buildings, according to a report of CBRE India. According to the report, titled ‘Sky is the Limit: Rise of Tall Buildings in India,’ by the real estate consultancy, Mumbai continues to lead the country with almost 77 percent in the construction of tall buildings (of 150 metres high and above). After Mumbai, Hyderabad takes the second place with Kolkata (third) and Noida (fourth) following them. Next in the list are Gurugram, Bengaluru and Chennai, with a 1 percent share each.

The report highlights Hyderabad’s remarkable progress in moving closer to the city centres through the construction of tall buildings, accounting for eight per cent of India’s tall buildings. Interestingly, Hyderabad has also left behind other metropolitan cities, including Delhi, in the construction of skyscrapers. In south India, Hyderabad at the top, as no other city boasts of as many high-rise buildings as the Telangana capital.

According to the CBRE India report, the number of skyscrapers has increased tremendously in Hyderabad in the last nine years. Apart from Mumbai, Hyderabad is another city where developers and other stakeholders are keen to grow vertically in a bid to move closer to the city centres by utilising the generous Floor Space Index (FSI) norms in Telangana. The report also delves into the composition of tall buildings in India. It highlights that tall buildings in Hyderabad predominantly serve as residential spaces, with nearly 89 per cent of completed tall buildings dedicated to housing purposes.

However, the city also embraces its growing commercial sector, with approximately 10 percent of these soaring structures designated as office buildings. Currently, a high-rise building under construction in Kokapet is touted to be the tallest in Hyderabad once it is completed. SAS Company is constructing this building upto a height of 236 metres consisting of 58 floors. The company is also planning to built a few more skyscrapers – 57-storeyed building (200 metres), 55-floor structure (204 metres) and another one with 54 floors (214 metres) in the future.

If the details of the constructed buildings are taken into consideration, Hyderabad has three 45-storey buildings at a height of 153 metres and above.

Hong Kong has one of the highest numbers of tall buildings in the world. Shenzhen, New York City, Dubai, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Tokyo rank high on the Global Financial Centres Index, according to the CBRE India report.

What is a tall building?

There is no standard benchmark worldwide that is used to classify tall buildings. Therefore, for this report, CBRE Research adopted the definition of tall buildings issued by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), one of the key authorities on the subject. Any building with a height of more than 150 metres meets the tall building classification. Within tall buildings, there are two subtypes – supertall buildings and mega-tall buildings – defined as those that exceed a height of 300 metres and 600 metres respectively.